Faith that Endures Patiently
James 2019 • Sermon • Submitted
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Patience Challenged
Patience Challenged
7 So be patient, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s return. Think of how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the ground and is patient for it until it receives the early and late rains.
Points back to , about endurance bringing about perfection (Allison).
This is not condoning passivity. It is not preventing people from changing their situation. Jesus commanded his followers to confront directly, honestly and yet graciously those who have wronged them. Paul told slaves to get out of slavery if they can but to be faithful to God even if they can’t.
14 then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil.
Deuteronomy
8 Now pay attention to all the commandments I am giving you today, so that you may be strong enough to enter and possess the land where you are headed,9 and that you may enjoy long life in the land the Lord promised to give to your ancestors and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 For the land where you are headed is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, a land where you planted seed and which you irrigated by hand like a vegetable garden. 11 Instead, the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy is one of hills and valleys, a land that drinks in water from the rains,12 a land the Lord your God looks after. He is constantly attentive to it from the beginning to the end of the year.13 Now, if you pay close attention to my commandments that I am giving you today and love the Lord your God and serve him with all your mind and being,14 then he promises, “I will send rain for your land in its season, the autumn and the spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine, and olive oil.
8 You also be patient and strengthen your hearts, for the Lord’s return is near.
“Strengthen your hearts” - this is hard work. Not passive waiting but getting after it.
9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be judged. See, the judge stands before the gates!
10 As an example of suffering and patience, brothers and sisters, take the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s name.
Suffering is nothing new, and we have some examples to look to. (Allison, 708)
11 Think of how we regard as blessed those who have endured. You have heard of Job’s endurance and you have seen the Lord’s purpose, that the Lord is full of compassion and mercy.
What is the “purpose of the Lord”?
Could it possibly relate to Job’s looking to resurrection or the “Crown of Life”?
17 and Iob died, old and full of days
7 After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.
17 So Job died old and contented.
16a Now Iob lived after his calamity one hundred and seventy years, 16b and all the years he lived were two hundred and forty-eight years. [16※and Iob saw his sons ※and the sons of his sons, a fourth generation, 17※and Iob died, old and full of days⸔]17aαAnd it is written that he will rise again with those the Lord raises up.
17 And so Job died, an old man and full of years.
Job
12 And above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath. But let your “Yes” be yes and your “No” be no, so that you may not fall into judgment.
17 And so Job died, an old man and full of years.