Divine Forbearance
In the last couple of posts, we’ve seen from Genesis 6.1-8, that humanity is at once worse than we tend to think and better than many of us think. But there’s a last piece of this puzzle that I want us to explore today. God is also more patient than we think.
As we see in verse 7, God comes up with a plan to deal with the situation. He will wipe out humanity from the earth, and with them he’ll take the beasts, birds, and reptiles. Thus we see, our sin doesn’t just affect us. It affects those around us. It even affects the created order. There are no “victimless” crimes. To some, this idea of God wiping away the world is quite disagreeable. Why is God so angry? But note two things. First, he is being greatly provoked. Mankind’s every inclination is only evil all day long. It’s not that he’s wiping out the nice, unsuspecting good guys. He’s wiping out the bad guys. Second, he is incredibly patient. He’s giving them 120 years to repent. That’s longer than most (if not all) of us will live. He’s not a hothead going into a rage. He’s patient. He’s giving opportunities for salvation. He doesn’t want to destroy, but he also can’t let evil go unchecked.
Think of how patient God is to us. How patient he is to not strike down the porn-guy as he lusts in front of images of exploited women on the computer. How patient he is to not unleash his judgment on us when we live our lives as if he doesn’t matter. How patient he must be to hear us sending him prayers that he would give us our idols. The fact that we are not all at this very moment in hell is evidence of the incredible patience of God. So rather than complain about his justice, we should take advantage of his patience and be saved while we can. And we should let others know of the salvation they can have if they will turn to him while there’s still time. God’s patience won’t endure forever. If it would, he wouldn’t be just. He wouldn’t be God. He would be the devil.
God gives all of us space to repent as well. And we would do well to take him up on it. We don’t know that we’ll have 120 years. Probably we won’t. But now we have the chance to turn from our sin, and embrace Christ and be saved. We shouldn’t put this off. We aren’t guaranteed tomorrow. And even if we reach tomorrow, we don’t know that we’ll have a repentant heart then. The time to return to God is always now.
Posted by: Gene Schlesinger
