0860. Examples of Patience
Examples of Patience
"Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience" (Jam_5:10).
We want to obey this admonition and look into the experiences of a few of the prophets and of the saints of old.
1. Job. Let us begin with Job, for he is mentioned in the next verse to our key verse: "Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy."
Job stands forth, perhaps, pre-eminently as the patient man. He had enough to vex him. He lost his goods, and home; he lost his children; he lost his health, his body was covered with sores; he lost his friends. The ones who came to comfort him did no more than criticise and find fault. His very wife bade him to "curse God and die." To be sure, Job had times of despondency, times when he almost complained, times when he even bemoaned the day of his birth; and yet, amid all his trials, Job stood true to God and he said: "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him."
2. David. Few men ever had a harder time than David. As a youth he was carried before King Saul and, being the sweet Psalmist of Israel, he played before him. But it was not long before Saul became jealous of David. The closer David walked with God, and the more God blessed him, the more did he suffer. Saul cast his javelin at him time and again. Saul hounded his very life; drove him into the mountain fastnesses and even into other lands.
After the death of Saul, David still had his trials. To be sure, he went forth and delivered Israel from all her enemies, but even in his own home there arose those against him who sought his life. When David fled from Absalom, he cried: "Lord, how are they increased that trouble me! Many are they that rise up against me" (Psa_3:1). And yet, in all of his trials and in all his struggles, there is one passage of Scripture which gives the keynote of David's life. It is Psa_40:1 and Psa_40:2. "I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and He set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings."
3. Moses. Moses was a man who suffered. He had burdens of which he himself said, "I cannot bear them alone." Think of it! More than a million of souls led forth into a waste and howling wilderness; led forth into a place where there was no food, a land full of pits, a land infested with wild beasts. Not only that, but the people were a people given to murmurings and complainings and backbitings. The people continually cried out against Moses and against God. They tempted God and were turned back. They committed fornication. They were filled with evil. It took them years to go a few days' journey, all because they were fickle in their faith. Yet in all of this Moses "endured as seeing Him Who is invisible" (Heb_11:27).
4. John. We do not think of John as one who had his trials, but that is because we do not remember that John was an exile for the Gospel's sake, a "companion in tribulation and in suffering." It was for the Word of God that he was on Patmos. John, however, bore witness that he was not only a companion in the tribulation but also a companion in the patience which is in Jesus (see Rev_1:9).
5. Paul. No man ever suffered more than the Apostle Paul. The story of his suffering is given in II Corinthians with graphic force.
"Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness" (2Co_11:23-27).
And yet the Apostle Paul said: "Having obtained help of God, I endure unto this day."
6. The saints. The days of tribulation are coming on apace. Any day we anticipate the rapture, and after that there will be days of suffering for those who dare to name the Lord. A great multitude will be saved from every kindred, tongue, and tribe. They will be washed in the Blood of the Lamb. These can neither buy nor sell without the mark of the beast. The antichrist will be on the track of every man who dares to name the name of Christ.
After the description of the wrath of God is given, a wrath which is to be poured out without mixture upon the ungodly, who worship the beast, the Holy Spirit says, in Rev_14:12 : "Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Please God, there are many names yet to be added to the galaxy of the heroes who patiently endure.
7. Christ. Of course, our Lord Himself is the princely leader of the faithful and also the princely leader of those who suffer. It is when we look to Him and when we remember how He despised the shame; it is when we consider Him and remember how He endured such opposition of sinners, that we learn how to run with patience the race that is set before us.
Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR