We forget that while we’re awaiting the return of Christ, He also is waiting. When He ascended to Heaven, He sat down at the Father’s right hand… “waiting until His enemies shall be made His footstool” (Hebrews 10:13).
After telling His disciples to take the Gospel around the world, the Bible tells us that He is like a Heavenly Gardener, “waiting for the precious fruit of the earth, and has long patience for it, until he receives the early and late rains”– (James 5:7,8). That “precious fruit” are souls He died to save.
But this isn’t the first time He’s waited long years. In the days of Noah, “the longsuffering of God waited, while the Ark was being prepared…” (1 Peter 3:20). The flood took place 1656 years after Creation, which is a huge testimony to the truth that God is indeed “slow to wrath.”
During the days of Israel’s split kingdom, when the people forgot that holiness made them strong and they embraced the idolatries around them, the Lord warned them of the miseries and destructions awaiting them. But the more He called, the more they ran. So the Lord said, “Therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious to you” (Isaiah 30:18).
Today the Lord says He is not slack to keep His promise to return, as some people consider His delay, but is “longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). His waiting is out of love.
So as we wait, look, long for, and anticipate His return, it’s good to remember that He has waited longer. In one fell swoop, He will roar from Heaven, lift His Bride to Himself, and restore the baton to Israel.
Soon and very soon!
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