God's Patience

“All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods and followed the practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before them, as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced.”

2 Kings 17:7-8, NIV

In 2 Kings 17 7-23, it showed that the reason why Israel was exiled to Assyria was because of all the evil they have done in the eyes of the Lord – they worshiped other gods, followed the practices of the nations the Lord has drove out, and the evil practices that their kings has introduced to them. They were already warned beforehand by the Lord to not do these evil things and observe the law that was given to them. The Israelites, however, did not listen. They had become disobedient and rejected what the Lord has said to them – and because of this, the Lord grew angry to them and gave them this punishment.

When I was observing all the events starting from the rule of King Jeroboam until King Hoshea’s reign, I could see that the Lord’s patience for the Israelites is very, very long. Though the Lord has given them punishments for their evil deeds, He still delivers them out of them. The Lord continues to show His power and saving grace to them to prove His faithfulness to the promise He has given to the Israelites, but still, the Israelites continued on their evil ways.

It actually made me think that the Israelites, because of their hard-headedness, are very annoying. If I was in God’s situation in that time, my patience on them would quickly run out. But here, it shows that even though many generations of kings has passed in Israel, God is still patient – waiting for the Israelites to turn back from their evil deeds. But also, it was revealed to me that even though God has a very long patience, that patience still has an end. In 2 Peter 3:15, it says that the Lord’s patience is our salvation. Putting this verse in another context, we could say that outside the Lord’s patience, or when the Lord’s patience ran out, it is our condemnation – like what happened to the Israelites when they were exiled to Assyria (but we must know that God still didn’t left the Israelites after they were exhiled).

This revelation could be translated directly into our lives – that when Jesus died on the cross for our salvation, God’s patience started working on us. God is waiting for all the people to accept Christ in their lives in order to receive God’s gift of salvation, and also for those who are already believers of Christ who continually lives on sin to repent and go back to Him. God is patiently waiting for all of us to fully commit our lives to Him, until the time He has set – the time of Christ’s second coming. Until that time comes, we are still under God’s patience, and we shouldn’t waste it like what the Israelites did for many generations.

With this revealed to us, we should now check what kind of live we are living in now – if we are living in obedience to His commands or not. If we are not, then we must know that it’s still not too late for us, as we are still within the timeframe of the Lord’s patience. We should not abuse God’s patience and let it run out on us – as it would mean our condemnation. We should go back to Him and start living according to His will and purpose for us.

Shalom!

Original link for the photo: http://www.oneyearbibleimages.com/patient.jpg