Mercy cannot exclusively be called the "reaction" of God to man's sin, for there were indeed punishments to follow. On the other hand, the pagan world grew very familiar with a belief that suggested any divine power would usually act in anger. Offended by a piece of legislation in the senate, Greeks might claim that they hear thunder in the distance and explain that it was the "anger of the gods." In the end, what they were creating was a sense that all supernatural authority has an instantaneous reaction to the things that were bothersome among men.
Our God chose to strike up a conversation with Adam before laying down the law. This hesitation to respond in anger and first ask a question shows a side of the King eternal that hasn't yet been identified.
"Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:" Romans 15:5
The Greek word,
hupomone, helps to illustrate this idea of patience as "not bending under trial" such as we might find in James 1:3. In other words, when we ask ourselves with urgency why God did not immediately burn Adam or why He waited through more than 1600 years of sin before sending the flood, what we're asking is why the King did not work faster. Often times, we set up our own measured timetable for how we believe God should have done this or might better have done that. Yet, it is the wisdom of God to endure through even the most difficult challenges.
"[What] if God, willing to show [his] wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:" Romans 9:22
Paul puts a question out there on the table. He asks, "What if the Almighty God, willing to demonstrate a greater picture of Himself, chose to endure the sin of the world?" And a reader must ask the ultimate follow-up. But why? Why would He endure sin when He can simply destroy it?
"And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory," Romans 9:23
That's powerful information. If God's intent is to "make known" His glory through vessels of mercy, He must first be patient enough to "endure" all the hardship that comes with such a decision. To clarify, God must not merely be patient enough, but He must Himself BE patience. And that He is.
What if, in five years, you knew that all of your children would be walking worthy of the cross, your business would skyrocket, your income would flourish, your profits would exceed enough to support others who were hurting, and you could give almost all of your time to the ministry of God's grace? Would you, in the meantime, be willing to endure a near-death battle with cancer or see a grandchild lose their life in a car accident? Perhaps you say, "Well, those aren't fair options, I'd gladly give my life for a grandchild." You're absolutely right. These are not "fair" options. As human beings, such overriding choices rarely exist because things usually hit us from around a corner without expectation. The point isn't whether or not they are fair, but whether you could stand outside of yourself for a moment and consider the idea of endurance. Not endurance for a short period of time without knowing what lies ahead, but the endurance that exists for one who knows the beginning from the end. What if you, willing to see all of your children walking in Christ, were also willing to lose others? Taking it to the next level, what if you were willing to lose your own life in order to see all of your children walking in Christ?
These are no fairer to ask of mankind than they are for us to ask of God. He is patient simply because He is patient. And where men deserve the worst, for reasons of His own glory, He is full of mercy. This mercy comes as a result of patient judgment where the convicted can either be sent to their death or given the hope of a future.
How many of us can look back and recall a time that we "flew off the handle" with regard to someone who offended us? How many of us can look back just in the past month or week to see such urgent anger bursting out of our otherwise God-fearing lives? Our tendency in life is to seek the immediate solution for whatever ails us. If the lawnmower doesn't start, we kick it. If the printer doesn't work, we yell at it. And if the service we're getting somewhere isn't up to par with what we want, we ask for a manager right away. Our responses to discomfort or displeasure are built on impatience. We want what we want when we want it. As a result, impatient reactions mean that we are quick to anger.
"The Lord [is] merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy."
Psalm 103:8
"The Lord [is] gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy." Psalm 145:8
We saw Psalm 145 earlier when noting the compassion of God, but there is an important contrast here to make. God can be angry, yes. God
has anger, yes. But He is "full" of compassion moreso than He is "full" of anger. In other words, God's compassion outweighs His anger. If someone stirs His anger, Biblical characters are more likely to find His compassion, His patience, and His mercy before the strike of His backhand. It is this truth that so many unsaved people in the world cannot comprehend and by many measures, believers do not relay it with much conviction. In part, I believe, we fail to share it because we fear the possibility of implying that God is tolerant.
"Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance." Romans 2:4
"Whom God hath set forth [to be] a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;" Romans 3:25
The word
forbearance is found almost thirty times in different variations throughout Scripture, but in each case, it usually attaches itself to the idea of "temporary toleration." Unfortunately for mainstream political Christians, toleration now has a horribly poor stigma that's tough to get away from. If we believe that those who live in a homosexual situation should have the same "free" rights as anyone else, are we then "tolerating" their behavior? If we believe that those who have gone down a road of an active pre-marital relationship should be embraced, are we perpetuating the notion of "toleration?"
Just as before, these are difficult questions that aren't the responsibility of any one person to answer. What we're dealing with is the mind and heartbeat of God. And in so doing, this portion of our study has so far been narrowing down the way in which our King eternal has been reckoned with mercy. In order to have the truest form of mercy, compassion, and patience, you must be willing to tolerate, or
forbear, that which would otherwise give you cause to act in anger. God is rich in forbearance because, quite frankly, He has tolerated sin for ages beyond our own. Through His patient tolerance, our God is longsuffering.
In the year that preceded our engagement, my future wife taught me the applied meaning of this term. When faced with a deeply troubling situation at her church, I found myself often declaring that she should "leave and find someplace that could minister to her needs." Her response to me was gradual, but nevertheless direct. She went on to explain how her situation was tough, yes, but that there were believers in that church who were encouraged every morning that she showed up. In other words, she wasn't making decisions based on her own state of mind or her own emotional turmoil. She was making decisions based on the best interest of just a few whose smile or spoken word made it worth the pain. In the end, her conviction to stand fast and "suffer long" brought healing to relationships that were otherwise broken. And to a more personal end, her lesson of patience was my lesson in humility.
"But thou, O Lord, [art] a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth." Psalm 86:15
"And account [that] the longsuffering of our Lord [is] salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;"
II Peter 3:15
Deeply cutting to our hearts as it is, the longer the Lord suffers, the more people are saved. The sooner He ends His suffering, the closer salvation comes to a close. And in the end, it's like being between a rock and a hard place (as they say). For if God pulls out all of His children and ushers in His wrath, He can no more display His mercy. What a fortune that we are not forced to wrestle between such depths of mercy and patience!