The God of Patiencee

Transcription

1 EXODUS #7 S #7 Lifting the veil: the self-revelation of our amazing God. 5 July 2010 The God of Patiencee When we lived in Pakistan we stayed at the home of a Dr. friend who had planted a cactus. It grew to about 5 diameter and there was great excitement when it flowered after 14 years sending a stalk about high and producing beautiful pink flowers. There s another cactus, Amorphophallus Titanum, originally from Indonesia, that blooms for a short three to five days and even then, only once every 40 years. To attract the insects that will perform the important task of pollen exchange, this gorgeous flower gives off the scent of rotting meat, earning it the apt nickname The Flower of Death. Imagine waiting 40 years for this plant to flower this week my mother turned 80 that s twice in her lifetime! Last week Kit spoke about Moses encounter with God in the bush that wqs burning but which didn t burn up. God calls Moses and sends him to Go to Pharaoh and to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. 3:11 But Moses said to God, Who am I, that I should go and bring the Israelites out of Egypt. God answers him with the assurance that He, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of jacob, will be with him. 3:13 Moses says to God, Suppose I go who shall I say has sent me? to which God answers that He will rescuee them from the Egyptians: I will stretch out my mighty hand to perform wonders so that the king of Egypt will let you go. I will make the Egyptians favourable towards you so that you will plunder them of their wealth. We take up the story in Ch 4. READ Exodus 4:1-17 Moses defined himself with negatives: I m unworthy I m unable I m not big enough I m not effective I m not your man! God doesn t correct him [like we so often do: You are good enough, big enough, able enough ] God assures him of HIS help, HIS presence, HIS strength, HIS ability.

2 God says to Moses, I m not asking you to rely on who you are in yourself but to rely on who you are in me! You re weak? God agrees! You re afraid? God knows! You re insecure? God is fully aware of who you are! So don t look at yourself look at God! God patiently answers Moses objections with full and complete assurances that: Moses doesn t need to feel personally able He doesn t need to have a powerful personality He doesn t need to be a persuasive speaker But what he does need is a willing heart that will depend on God alone. Moses is right to know that he can be completely honest with God and tell him just what he feels, and God s responses are characterized by understanding, promise, provision & above all PATIENCE. Moses encounter with God reveals God to be The God of Patience. Think about your life Think about your growth in understanding God Think about your development in your character, your becoming like God o And thank God for His patience! been far from God? God patiently return. waits for your THE PATIENCE OF GOD been depending on yourself? God patiently waits for you to depend on Him. been growing in your faith and in your understanding of God? God patiently waits for you to grow in grace, and faith, and trust in Him. God is patient. Think of how the despots of this world avenge themselves and use their power to further their own ends, to take revenge, to obliterate opposition. Think of how God experiences rejection, rebellion, & insult without seeking to avenge or seek revenge. The Hebrew word for diving long-suffering is termed Slow to anger Ps 103:7-10 He made his ways known to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger for ever; He does not treat us as our sins deserve, or repay us according to our iniquities.

3 God is slow to anger because He is great in love and great in power. Moses pleads with God later in his life s experience:- Listen to how In the book of Numbers Ch.s 13 & 14 the 12 spies have returned from spying out the land and 10 of the 12 spies spread a bad report saying: It s impossible! We ll be slaughtered! It would be like England playing Germany in the World Cup! Then the Israelites complain and wish they were back in Egypt! [Nu. 14:4] and God is ready to give up on his rebellious people: I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation stronger and greater than they. BUT MOSES REASONS WITH GOD, and bases his argument of God s revelation of himself: Now may the Lord s strength be displayed, just as you have declared: The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion in accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now. [Numbers 14:17] The divine patience that Moses had personally experienced as he resisted God s call at the burning bush is the divine patience that he personally appeals for. The diving patience that Moses personally witnessed as he led his rebellious natured people through the wilderness is the divine patience that he personally appeals for. Romans 9:22 describes the power of God s patience: What if God, choosing to show His wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath what if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy. [Rom 9:22 & 23] Before the flood God waited >120 years while Noah, the preacher of righteousness, built the ark. Romans chapter 1 describes how mankind has behaved since God s promise given in the rainbow, never again to destroy the earth? Romans Ch. 1 lists the depths of depravity to which mankind has sunk, and yet none of us can pass judgment, because we ve all been in the same boat, we re all from the same sinful stock! We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Yet we are rescued because of the riches of God s kindness, tolerance and patience that lead us towards repentance [= turning around from going our own sinful way to follow God] (Romans 2:4). According to a traditional Hebrew story, Abraham was sitting outside his tent one evening when he saw an old man, weary from age and journey, coming toward him. Abraham rushed out, greeted him, and then invited him into his tent. There he washed the old man s feet and gave him food and drink. The old man immediately began eating without saying any prayer or blessing. So Abraham asked him, Don t you worship God? The old traveler replied, I worship fire only and reverence no other god.

4 When he heard this, Abraham became incensed, grabbed the old man by the shoulders, and threw him out his tent into the cold night air. When the old man had departed, God called to his friend Abraham and asked where the stranger was. Abraham replied, I forced him out because he did not worship you. God answered, I have suffered him these eighty years although he dishonors me. Could you not endure him one night? OUR RESPONSE to the patience of God 1. Don t misunderstand God s patience 2 Peter 3:8-10 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the LORD a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The LORD is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the LORD will come like a thief. Don t interpret God s patience wrongly, & think that God isn t interested; that God doesn t care; that he s forgotten about you; that he is unfeeling and disassociated from your and others pain No God, who doesn t live within our earth bound timeframes, is patiently putting up with us while eagerly looking for us to turn towards him in repentance and faith and like the cactus that takes 40 years to flower don t think that nothing is happening or something is wrong, it will flower at the right time! 2. Don t abuse God s patience Moses tried God s patience! Ex 4:13&14 But Moses said, O Lord, please send someone else to do it. Then the Lord s anger burned against Moses The Lord, who is slow to anger, got angry because he was patiently assuring Moses of His help in all aspects of the work he was giving him to do and was looking for change in his attitude that was very slow in coming! Rom 2:4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of His kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God s kindness leads you towards repentance? God s patience is for a purpose to see you changed. Let His patience work out it s purpose in your life!

5 3. Cultivate the virtue of patience Ephesians 5:1 & 4:2 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children, and live the life of patience (love; love is patient 1 Cor. 13:4: Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Whatever your nature, cultivate patience with the help of God s Spirit (the fruit of the Spirit is patience Gal. 5:22). Hudson Taylor is quotes as saying: There are 3 indispensible requirements for a missionary: 1 Patience. 2. Patience. 3. Patience. An official of a Mission Board, who knew that it takes more than desire to make a missionary, was appointed to examine a candidate. He told the young man to come to his house at 6 in the morning. The young man went at 6 in the morning to be examined, and the examiner kept him sitting in the room until ten. Then he went down to him and said abruptly, Can you spell? Can you spell God? Yes, sir, came the answer calmly. Can you write your name? Do you know what your name is? Yes, sir, again he replied. He put him through a series of questions of that kind, and then went to the Missionary Board and said, He will do. I tried his patience for four hours, and he did not break down: I then insulted him, and he did not lose his temper. He will do. That is the way to prove Christianity. If a man answers all abuses with patience, a fortitude, a gentleness that cannot be violated, depend upon it, Christ s love has conquered his heart, and the Christianity that has made him what he is vindicated by the very quality of his character. Such a Christian causes men to say, Well, after all, you ve got to say something for a religion that produces a man like that. Be patient with yourself (as God is with you) C.S.Lewis wrote: We must never be either content with, or impatient with oneself. If God is patient with us, we should be patient with ourselves too! 4. Live lives of patient endurance [Rev. 3:10] Horatius Bonar said Faith takes up the cross, love binds it to the soul, patience bears it to the end. God, whose great patience was demonstrated to Moses, calls us to live a life of patient endurance. Let us do so for His glory. AMEN.