February 16, 2004
Knowing Patience
Last time I talked about Paul's preaching to the Athenians on an "Unknown God". My theme for this semester is Knowing an Unknown God, and I want to start by looking at one of the traits of God that we often forget.
Turn in your bibles to the book of Judges. Don't read it, I want to give you a little history first. See, Israel had been captives in Egypt for a long time, then God gave them Moses to deliver them to the promised land. Now through the guidance of Moses and his successor Joshua, the Isrealites have defeated the Canaanites and claimed the promised land. They had every reason to be grateful, and to show God even more devotion than before. Instead, see what they did.
Glance over the chapters in Judges. See what started happening? "Isreal did evil in the eyes of the LORD". They would worship other gods, do things against what God had commanded them, and generally forget him. Each time God would punish them by sending an enemy to conquer them, or a famine, or some sort of foe, and then the people would remember God and cry out to him in their desperation. And every time God would send them a Judge - someone to deliver them from the evil they were facing. Seventeen names are mentioned in the book of Judges. Seventeen. That's over 300 years worth of judges coming to Israel's rescue. Some of the stories are familiar to us - Deborah, Gideon, Sampson - and some are not as well known. Every time Israel messed up, the Lord would send them help, and then they'd turn around and mess up again.
And as if all that wasn't enough, after 300 years of God saving their behinds, they wanted him to give them a King! And they wouldn't listen when God's prophets tried to tell them that a King wasn't what God wanted for them. But God gave them what they wanted, he gave them Saul. And it wasn't long before the people realized that God was right. And finally, he gave them David, who was the greatest King Israel had.
So why on earth would God do all this for his people? Because he was patient. He knew that deep down, his people loved him, and so he waited for them to return to him every time they messed up. And he always showed them love and mercy. I know that I would probably have given up after the fourth or fifth time...but seventeen? And the great thing is - God would never give up on us, no matter how many times we screw up - seventeen, or seven hundred, or seven times seven hundred.
So we have a wonderful and amazing gift from God through his patience. If you compare that to the gods of ancient Greece and Rome, you realize just how important patience is. If you wronged them once...well...you were in trouble, my friend. More than once...heh, well, I would hate to be you. Patience is one of God's greatest qualities, and one that we should hold dear. Because we know that no matter how many times we mess up, he'll always be there for us.
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