The Triumph of Patience

The Triumph of Patience

Patience looks forward to the end of a matter and does not allow itself to be shaken by what happens in the meantime. We have many examples of impatience but, unfortunately, not so many examples of patience. Enoch’s patience was greatly tested as he walked with God, because he could not walk with God without being mocked by an evil world. Furthermore, he could not have continued to walk with God without going through the school of life with all its details and diverse temptations. Through everything, he won victory; he prevailed after overcoming everything and continued to walk with God, and he was not, because God took him to Himself.

Noah was a righteous man and blameless among his contemporaries. Noah walked with God. Gen. 6:9. He built the ark at God’s command, and throughout all those years while he was building, he preached judgment over the ungodly, both in word and deed. However, it took time to complete this lengthy work, and the flood was delayed. The ungodly had plenty of opportunities to mock and spew out all their gall. Even those who provided him with lumber and who worked on the ark (there were probably hired workers) constantly showered him with mockery, particularly when they saw that the skies were clear and everything continued as usual. Through it all, Noah walked with God. He kept his covenant with the God of patience. Gen. 6:18. But in the end, he was the one who won a divine victory over the entire ancient world. Even a little impatience would have ruined the whole work.

Joseph’s brothers hated him when he told them about his dreams. In the first dream, “There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Then behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf.” His brothers said to him, “Shall you indeed reign over us? Or shall you indeed have dominion over us?” And they hated Joseph even more for both his dreams and his words. Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers: “Look . . . the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me . . . . And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind.”

These two dreams later became as living water for Joseph in all his tribulations. When he was thrown into the well, he understood from the dreams that this was the beginning of the sufferings that would lead him to the power God had promised. When he was sold by the Midianite merchant and suffered on the journey to Egypt, he remembered the dreams and was patient. When he was given rule over all Potiphar’s house, he received a foretaste of the glory that had been promised to him. But he knew God, and he understood that if he was going to be worthy of what had been promised to him in his dreams, he would only find it on the way of purity and godly fear. So when Potiphar’s wife tempted him, he ran away from the temporary glory, because Satan himself was in the midst of it. He was thrown into prison, but he waited patiently for God’s timing. The keeper of the prison put all the prisoners into Joseph’s care (certainly the keeper of the prison would not give that responsibility to just anyone) because the Lord was with Joseph, and God caused whatever Joseph did to succeed. All this success in the midst of misfortune was from the Lord, and it assured Joseph that the dreams he had had at home were still valid. He lived patiently through all this humiliation, until finally he was presented to Pharaoh as a man who could solve and interpret all of Pharaoh’s dreams, while all the soothsayers and wise men stood by powerless. With one single blow, he was made the most powerful man after Pharaoh in all of Egypt. Interestingly enough, Pharaoh’s dream was in harmony with and directly related to Joseph’s own dreams that he had had as a boy. During the time when Egypt became subject to him—when he bought all the grain, when the famine came, when he sold the grain and finally when the people sold themselves as slaves to Pharaoh—Joseph never forgot the dream he had as a boy. He waited patiently for that day when hunger would compel his brothers to come to him, when they would bow down before him. This was not a proud, selfish aspiration, but the fulfillment of a divine revelation for which he was waiting. And after he had waited patiently, the hour arrived when his brothers came to buy grain. He called them in, and they bowed and fell down before him. Gen. 43:26. But Joseph was not a brutal lord simply waiting for a chance to get revenge. The God of patience was guiding him, and he understood that he was being led in an amazing way in order to keep an entire nation alive. Joseph was a servant of the Lord. He did not reveal his identity until Judah, who represented the whole tribe, had given a thorough account of himself and the entire household. Judah offered himself as a hostage in Benjamin’s stead so that their old father might not go down into the grave in sorrow. Finally Joseph could endure it no longer. Sending away all the outsiders, he wept aloud and made himself known to his brothers.

Joseph walked with God, and because he was patient and endured, he became a savior for all his descendants.

Cain’s impatience caused him to murder his brother. Esau did not have time to wait; he became obsessed with the red lentils and sold his birthright. Joseph’s brothers grew impatient with Joseph, and they became his slaves.

The peoples’ impatience provoked Moses to strike the rock instead of speaking to it. Because of this, Moses was not able to enter the Promised Land. In most circumstances, David was a man according to God’s heart, but he became impatient in his temptation and sinned against Uriah’s wife. Most of Israel’s kings were impatient when serving the Lord, and they turned to fleshly lusts and idols. In doing so they destroyed the people and themselves.

Faith and patience go hand in hand. For the glory that awaited Him, Jesus suffered patiently. Patience leads us into rest in God and to a perfect work. Impatience is pride. A person invalidates God’s longsuffering because he has forgotten his own sins.

The angel of the church in Philadelphia received a good testimony because he had kept God’s Word of patience (Norw.). Because of this, he received a promise that he would be kept from the hour of trial that was to come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth. Rev. 3:10.

So let us train ourselves in patience, since we know that it pays to be patient, and that it will lead us to rule forever together with Christ.

Just think of the incomparable patience God displays; He makes His sun rise on the evil and good. He gives an abundance of good things to people who use every opportunity day and night to sin and live in total opposition to His law. God looks on patiently and bears with people who pursue ungodly amusements and who mock His wisdom through every conceivable kind of transgression. In the same way, He bears with false religions and the persecution of the saints. Day and night His arms are outstretched to a stubborn people. How thankful we can be that God has had patience with us in all our ignorance, unbelief and perversity. And even after we have come to faith, He still has to endure much folly and stupidity, even from those who are the most God-fearing.

Yes indeed, we have every reason to exercise ourselves in patience.