Longsuffering or patience is a Divine title for God, Paul referring to Him as the "God of patience" (Ro 15:5).
God is patient or long-suffering and not at all unreasonable in His dealings with sinful, rebellious mankind. In the Old Testament, God is repeatedly described as "slow to anger". God's longsuffering is that power which He exercises over Himself, allowing Him to bear with sinners, forbearing long in punishing them. Nahum in his oracle against Nineveh records that "The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. In whirlwind and storm is His way, and clouds are the dust beneath His feet." (Nahum 1:3)
The Puritan Stephen Charnock contrasts this "slow to anger" attribute of God with men, writing that "Men that are great in the world are quick in passion, and are not so ready to forgive an injury, or bear with an offender, as one of a meaner rank. It is a want of power over that man’s self that makes him do unbecoming things upon a provocation. A prince that can bridle his passions is a king over himself as well as over his subjects. God is slow to anger because great in power. He has no less power over Himself than over His creatures."
The Greek word "makrothumos" translates the Hebrew phrase "slow to anger" in Nahum 1:3 and provides added insights into God's longsuffering. Makrothumos is derived from makros meaning long and thumos meaning wrath or anger, which is literally a "long anger." What a picture of God's patience -- His anger has a "slow burn" or a "long fuse" so to speak. Makrothumos emphasizes God's restraint even in the face of actions and circumstances that clearly arouse His holy wrath. God remains controlled even when confronted with presumptuous, bold faced provocation! God's longsuffering is not only slow to anger but also slow to punish! It is interesting to note that longsuffering is the first quality mentioned in Paul's definition of "love" - "Love is patient (makrothumeo, the verb form)..." (1 Cor 13:4) This same Greek word group (makrothumos, makrothumeo, makrothumía) translates "slow to anger" in many OT passages (see below).
Ex 34:6 the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger
Nu 14:18 'The LORD is slow to anger
Neh 9:17 But Thou art a God of forgiveness...Slow to anger
Ps 86:15But Thou, O Lord, art a God merciful and gracious, Slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and truth.
Ps 103:8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger
Ps 145:8 The LORD is gracious and merciful; Slow to anger
Joel 2:13 Now return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness, and relenting of evil.
Jonah 4:2 Thou art a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger
God's longsuffering was strikingly displayed toward sinners prior to the Flood. In Genesis Jehovah declared that His "Spirit (would) not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." (Gen 6:3) In other words God gave all of corrupt mankind a "reprieve" of 120 years before He brought irrevocable judgment via the worldwide Flood. Peter recording that the world was "disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water." (1 Pet 3:20)
In Numbers 14, Israel had spurned Jehovah, refusing to believe His promise of a promised land, thus prompting Him to decree that He would "smite them with pestilence" and then would make Moses "into a nation greater and mightier" (Nu 14:11-12). Moses' interceded with Him, basing his appeal on the fact that Jehovah was "slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression" (Nu 14:18), the very phrase that God had earlier applied to Himself when He passed in front of Moses declaring Himself as "Jehovah, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; Who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, Who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin..." (Ex 34:6-7)
Luke adds that "in the generations gone by He permitted all the nations to go their own ways and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying (their) hearts with food and gladness.” (Acts 14:16-17)
In His longsuffering God did all of this even though most of mankind "did not honor Him as God or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened...and (they) exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures...(and) they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen." (Ro 1:21-23, 25) Paul further emphasized the restraining aspect of God's patience asking the rhetorical question "What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?" (Ro 9:22)
God could have justly destroyed every sinner (which is all of us) the first time (and every time) they sinned (which we all do!). Instead He patiently endured (and continues to endure) rebellion rather than giving sinners what every sin deserves (immediately) -- eternal punishment! God continues to endure the unbelief, rejection, hatred, blasphemy, and iniquity, while patiently allowing time for repentance, Peter writing that "The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance...15 and regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you" (2 Pet 3:9,15)
Note that although God's patience may be related to mercy, it is distinguished from it in Scripture, the Psalmist declaring "Thou, O Lord, art a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and truth." (Ps 86:15)
However since the longsuffering of God is a display of His mercy, it may not always be easy to discriminate between the two.
The Puritan, Stephen Charnock, has defined God's patience as "part of the Divine goodness and mercy, yet differs from both. God being the greatest goodness, hath the greatest mildness; mildness is always the companion of true goodness, and the greater the goodness, the greater the mildness. Who so holy as Christ, and who so meek? God’s slowness to anger is a branch...from His mercy: “The Lord is full of compassion, slow to anger” (Ps 145:8). It differs from mercy in the formal consideration of the object: mercy respects the creature as miserable, patience respects the creature as criminal; mercy pities him in his misery, and patience bears with the sin which engendered the misery, and is giving birth to more."
The TDNT entry adds that "The wrath and the grace of God are the two poles which constitute the span of His longsuffering."
“And what of the writer and the reader? Let us review our own lives. It is not long since we followed a multitude to do evil, had no concern for God’s glory, and lived only to gratify self. How patiently He bore with our vile conduct! And now that grace has snatched us as brands from the burning, giving us a place in God’s family, and has begotten us unto an eternal inheritance in glory, how miserably we requite Him. How shallow our gratitude, how tardy our obedience, how frequent our backslidings! One reason why God suffers the flesh to remain in the believer is that He may exhibit His “longsuffering to usward” (2 Peter 3:9). Since this Divine attribute is manifested only in this world, God takes advantage to display it toward “His own.” AW Pink.
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