Reminder To Be Patient

Talk about patience! God's promises are not always immediate. To Him, however, time is of no consequence. God's patience is short in his time but long in ours. When He makes a commitment, in divine time it is immediate. However, mankind must be patient. In fact, the difference in God's time and ours is a test. Mankind wants things, and he wants them now! God finds our impatience infantile. 

Revelation 22:12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. 20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

John wrote this ca 90 A.D. about Jesus's second coming. "Quickly" is better said "throttled" according to Strong's Dictionary. It has been about 1930 years! God's accelerator seems to is stuck! That's not "quickly" in our minds, and many are impatient with God.

The current Jewish year is 5778 A.M. (Anno Mundi ), meaning the world clock started at zero with the Creation. The genealogy of the patriarchs and events in the Bible correlate fairly well, say 6000 years as a round number. Sacred writings indicate that from Adam's fall  to the death of Jesus was 5500 years. That would mean since Jesus died ca 30 A.D. (Anno Domini), add 1987 years to 5500, and we have 7487 years from the Creation until now. (It seems that Adam fell the first year of his existence).

I'm not trying to calculate. I am merely putting time in perspective. God apparently promised Adam a Savior in 5500 years. Since, that was not canon but merely sacred writings, we can question that, but it does seem reasonable, and maybe even accurate. My point is that patience is required on our part because God's time is not our time. When Simon Peter said that to God, one day is as a thousand years, that was not a formula. (2 Peter 3:8). It's just that God doesn't do things by our clock! "Quickly" to him is lengthy for us!

Now, let is consider today's verse:

Hebrews 10:36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

God was speaking here to the Jewish people. It seems that he would be using their time, not His. He told them that they "have need of patience". The Jews were an impatient people. They wanted things, and they wanted them immediately!  Their impatience was obvious during the Exodus, and God made them understand the concept of patience as they wandered for forty-years in the wilderness. God taught them patience.

God made a promise to the Hebrews long before. At the time that Hebrews was written, ca 68 A.D., Peter asked them to be patient just a little longer. You see, the promise of Abraham had been fulfilled, but most of the Jews had yet to receive the promise!

What did God promise to Abraham? God cut a deal with Abraham ca 2091 B.C. (Bible Timeline: The  Covenants of God) which was:

• "I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." (Genesis 12:2-3).
• "Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates." (Genesis 15:18).
• "Thou shalt be a father of many nations." - "I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee." - It shall be "an everlasting covenant, to God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee." -  I give to thee "the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God." - And finally, the condition: "Thou shalt keep my covenant... thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations." (Genesis 17:2-9).

What was Abraham's part in "keeping the covenant"?

Genesis 15:6 And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

Abraham and his seed were to believe in the LORD. "The Lord" is Jesus Christ - the Word in the flesh. Abraham demonstrated that he believed in Jesus because he was willing to sacrifice his "only son", Isaac, just as God did Jesus. Hence, the covenant was Jesus focused.  That is accentuated by "and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." Hence, the covenant pointed toward Jesus in "whosoever believeth in him should not perish" (John 3:16). Christians accept that God "so loved the world" of Abraham that his seed was blessed!

Hebrews 10:36 is a reminder of that. About 2,121 years later, God fulfilled the Abrahamic Covenant. Jesus was the Promised One in that covenant, just as Israel was the promised land. In 1948, God's covenant with Abraham was renewed as the Jews regained much of the Promise Land!

However, Hebrews 15:6 is not about land at all. The real promise had been fulfilled. A Savior had come, yet most Jews had yet to receive the Promised One - Jesus Christ. He told them that before they could have the promise "after ye have done the will of God". Looking back in the Abrahamic Covenant, what is the will of God? "Believe in the LORD." The LORD just happens to be God in the flesh - Jesus, the promised Messiah. We call him Christ!

Hence, the Jews had been patient for 2, 121 years. Now they had to do what Abraham did - that which was credited to him as righteousness - believe in Jesus.The Hebrews wanted salvation without believing in Jesus. With teaching, Jesus could be theirs when they first believed. Paul was telling the Jews to be patient - you must believe just as everyone else must!

There are no works which earn Jesus, nor did the Jews earn Jesus by being the people of the Covenant. God is not a respecter of persons, and with patience, the Jews would  soon learn that! God still waits patiently on them. The patient 144,000 will someday believe!

Hebrews 10:36 is a reminder of the Abrahamic Covenant. Is that more obvious now?