The New Testament points to the prophets as outstanding examples of patience in action. What can we learn from them?

When James, the Lord's brother and the leader of the church in Jerusalem, wrote a letter to the Christians of his day, he stressed the importance of patience and pointed to the prophets as an outstanding example of this quality. "Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord" (James 5:10).

Of the more than 50 commands in the 100 or so verses of this short letter, not the least significant for today's prophets is the command, "Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord's coming" (James 5:7).

Examples of the Prophets' Patience

1. Job

Having referred to the patience of the prophets in general, James points to Job as a particular example of patience in suffering. This is the only place in which Job is mentioned in the New Testament. Job has traditionally been regarded as a prophet, and who can doubt that attribution when we consider his amazing picture of a Redeemer who would be resurrected and return to earth? "I know that my redeemer lives and that in the end he will stand upon the earth" (Job 19:25).

Meanwhile his patience had to withstand the vicious attack of his three friends, all of whom insisted that the terrible misfortunes Job had had to face were the result of some secret sin on his part.

Job's persevering patience has taught all subsequent prophets that hardships and, disappointments are not meaningless, but that God has some purpose and objective in them which will, in the end, fully justify what he has allowed us to go through.

Job's patience teaches us that hardships and disappointments are not meaningless, but that God has some purpose in them which will ultimately fully justify them.

2. Abraham

Abraham was called a prophet by his contemporaries (Gen 20:7) and, like Job, he had to wait for God to vindicate his purposes in him. God had promised him a son and many descendants:

A son coming from your own body will be your heir...Look up at the heavens and count the stars...so shall your offspring be...Abram believed the Lord and he credited it to him as righteousness. (Gen 15:4-6)

The writer to the Hebrews commends him for his patience: "And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised" (Heb 6:15). But that is not the whole story, for when there was a considerable delay in the fulfilment of God's promise and he and Sarah were beyond the age of child-bearing, Abraham agreed to Sarah's suggestion that he should father a child through Hagar. His impatience has had an awful consequence in subsequent history, as the angel foretold: "He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against every¬one and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility towards all his brothers" (Gen 16:12).

It is important that modern prophets should "let patience have her perfect work" (James 1:4, KJV).

Abraham's story shows that impatience - and taking matters into our own hands - can have awful consequences in subsequent history.

3. Moses

Moses is another example of an outstanding prophet who nevertheless lost out through impatience. Scripture teaches us that "no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face" (Deut 34:10). Moses was the prototype prophet, to be surpassed only by Jesus himself, concerning whom Moses said, "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to him" (Deut 18:15).

Hosea tells us of the ministry of Moses in bringing Israel up out of Egypt: "The Lord used a prophet to bring Israel up from Egypt, by a prophet he cared for him" (Hos 12:13). But the Lord could not let Moses lead Israel into the promised land because of his impatience.

The Lord said to Moses, 'Take the staff...gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water...Moses said to them, 'Listen, you rebels'...Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 'Because you did not trust me enough to honour me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them'. (Num 20:7-12)

The Psalmist's commentary on the event tells us something of the emotions involved: "By the waters of Meribah they angered the Lord and trouble came to Moses because of them; for they rebelled against the Spirit of God, and rash words came from Moses' mouth" (Ps 106:32-33).

It was not God but Moses who was angry with the people, and in his anger and impatience the Israelite leader struck the rock twice. If Moses had merely spoken to the rock, as he had been directed, the miracle would have pointed away from Moses to God and the Lord would have been glorified in the eyes of the people. As it was, the intended witness to God's power was confused, because the rock was struck twice and Moses attempted to do God's work in man's way.

Moses is another example of an outstanding prophet who nevertheless lost out through impatience, attempting to do God's work man's way.

Today's prophets need to remember that "the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God" (James 1:20 RSV), that impatience can spoil their presentation of the Lord's message. Notice that in the account of the rock being struck in Numbers 20 the verbs are plural: Moses and Aaron were held jointly responsible and neither was allowed to enter the Promised Land. Moses and Aaron acted together in their transgression and together they shared in the judgment. Today's prophets need to watch out that they are neither leading nor being led by their fellow prophets to go beyond what God has actually told them.

4. Simeon

Here is a man in whom patience had her perfect work. "There was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ" (Luke 2:25-26).

Simeon belonged to what has been called 'the quiet people', a group that included Zechariah the priest, Anna the prophetess and others who were "looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem" (Luke 2:38). Simeon had received a prophetic word informing him that he would not die before seeing the Messiah. He did not grow anxious as each year came and went but waited patiently for the fulfilment of the divine word he had received.

He must have often spoken of the promise of God and his conviction that it would be fulfilled, but by now he was an old man. However, he spent his time in the Temple precincts, which strengthened his patient anticipation that God would keep his promise.

Simeon is a man in whom patience had her perfect work, waiting until old age before God's promise to him was fulfilled.

Then one morning the child Jesus was brought to the Temple by his father and mother and Simeon knew that the moment he had been waiting for all these years had come. He took the child in his arms and praised the God who had fulfilled his promise in the words of his Nunc Dimittis: "Now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation" (Luke 2:29).

It is not given to us to know the day or the hour when Jesus will return but we may certainly sense that his coming is imminent (Matt 24:36). Like Simeon, we have the privilege of patiently awaiting his return. "For in just a very little while he who is coming will come and will not delay" (Heb 10:37).

The Written Prophets Teach Patient Waiting

Hosea says, "You must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always" (12:6). At a time when a man's enemies are members of his own household, Micah declares, "As for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Saviour; my God will hear me" (7:7). God speaks through Zephaniah and says, "Wait for me...for the day I will stand up to testify...to assemble the nations...to pour out my wrath on them" (3:8).

Jeremiah protests that it is not the idol gods that send down the rain. "No, it is you, O Lord our God. Therefore our hope is in you, for you are the one who does all this" (14:22). Isaiah affirms the God who operates on behalf of his people: "Since ancient times no-one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him" (64:4). Isaiah sums up the happiness and security of those who wait for God in the words, "Blessed are all who wait for him!" (30:18). But they must wait patiently, as David writes in Psalm 37:7: "Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him."

The prophets testify that God is our Saviour and justifier, our hope and portion. It is a blessing to watch and wait patiently for him.

I believe our patient waiting is precious to the Lord because it expresses our absolute confidence that he will not fail us and that all his promises to us will be kept.

Areas in Which a Prophet's Patience is Tested

The areas in which prophetic testing takes place are:

• Circumstances, where patience is the capacity for calmly enduring pain, delay, and other trying circumstances with an even temper.
• Other people, where patience is the equanimity that can cope with difficult people and their frustrating behaviour without getting worked up.
• God, where patience is the ability to go on trusting God when prayer appears to be unanswered and his promises remain apparently unfulfilled.
• Ourselves, when like the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane we are unable to keep awake, or on other occasions when we just cannot manage to call on our inner resources (Mark 14:40).

No 'Instant' Patience

We live at a time when 'instant' everything is the order of the day. We want the end-product but not the frustrating period of training or preparation. But there is no available supply of patience that we can call on. We can acquire it only by facing the things that make us impatient and by learning how to react to them - above all, by allowing the Holy Spirit's fruit of long-suffering and patience to get deeply rooted in our lives (Gal 5:22-23).

We can only acquire patience by facing the things that make us impatient, and learning how to react to them. Patience is a fruit that must be borne in us by the Holy Spirit.

In his teaching Jesus was keen on agricultural illustrations and following the parable of the sower he explains that the harvest the farmer looked for depended on his patience. "As for those in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bring forth fruit with patience" (Luke 8:15 RSV).

Let the final word, as was the first, be from James' letter: "See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient...the Lord's coming is near" (James 5:7-8).

First published in Prophecy Today, Vol 7 No 2, March/April 1991.