Our Longsuffering Lord

Key Verse- 2 Kings 21:15

...they have done evil in my eyes and have provoked me to anger from the day their forefathers came out of Egypt until this day.

Our world is an impatient place. We rush, grab our food to go, cut others off, take shortcuts, and honk our way through life, dodging delays at all cost. And our ever decreasing attention span tricks us into believing that we have much more patience than we really do. After all, I think I am being patient if I hold my peace waiting in line at Tim Horton's.

Here in the middle of the wicked reign of Manasseh, we see one of the great understatements of the Bible (21:15). Have the Israelites really been so bad since the Exodus? Actually, they've been even worse. Let's take a brief walk down memory lane.

Exodus-Deuteronomy
These folks saw the miracles of God up close (think the plagues in Egypt or the Red Sea) and with amazing regularity (think the daily manna supply or the pillar of cloud/fire). But instead of being strengthened by these events, they specialized instead in whining and grumbling. Psalm 78:32 sums this gang up the best:

"In spite of all this, they kept on sinning;
in spite of his wonders, they did not believe."

This entire generation, save Joshua & Caleb, perished in the wilderness (Nu. 14:30)

Joshua- Ruth
This generation got off to a promising start as long as Joshua & Caleb were around (Jos. 24:31). But once those two die the Israelites once again abandon God (Jd. 2:10-13) . They become ensnared in a vicious cycle of blatant sin, terrible oppression, crying out to God in their misery, God raising up a judge to deliver them, only to repeat that same cycle again and again and again.

1 & 2 Samuel
This period of history starts with the almost comical account (if it were not such a tragedy) of the bumbling High Priest Eli. The Israelites then long for a king "to be like the nations around them" (1 Samuel 8:19-20) against the clear will of God. Even the great men of God Samuel and David have their serious flaws.

1 & 2 Kings
And here where we've been camping out for much of the Autumn, we've maybe become a bit too accustomed to the wickedness of the kings who lead two nations that are far from God (Israel & Judah). For Judah, there is certainly some good (Josiah, Hezekiah, Jehoshaphat), but more often than not, the king or tyrant queen (see Athaliah) is leading the people astray. Israel is a lost cause, a perfect 20 for 20 when it comes to bad kings. And despite multiple prophets and warnings, both nations are stuck on a collision course of destruction because of their wickedness.

And all that brings us back to verse 15, and our Longsuffering Lord. God calls us to "be patient" (Eph. 4:2), but in doing so, we are only following the greatest example of patience ever seen: God Himself. From Adam to Malachi- God consistently restrains his full wrath and righteous indignation from people who more than deserve it. In the New Testament, Jesus follows that same example by refusing to bring His enemies to a deserved and wretched end (see Mt. 26:53). Instead He humbly prays for His enemies, even as He is dying upon the cross (see Lk. 23:34).

Let's be honest- as brick headed or prone to evil as Israel was, people haven't really changed that much. Their history is really a microcosm of human history. Their story is my story. But the great joy of the Gospel is that is not the end of the story. "Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed" (La. 3:22) was Israel's promise. In Jesus Christ, this is my story as well.