Friday, September 7, 2007
By Faith... Or Not? Israel's Exodus and Conquest, Part 17 of 41
"Do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:8 NIV).
IDEA: Faith is often demonstrated by our patience.
PURPOSE: To help listeners see that when we really believe God’s promise, it may take patience to see it come about.
What, if any, is the relationship between faith and patience?
I. The spies came to Jericho; they had been sent by Joshua who was still encamped with the Hebrews on the east side of the Jordan River.
If you were Rahab, after the spies left what action would you have taken right away?
You would have put the cord in the window.
You had to get your family into your house because if they stayed outside, they would die.
Rahab knew she would have to wait some time, but do you think she really anticipated that she would have to wait a long time?
It would have taken some time for the spies to go back to report to Joshua what they had learned.
We might have assumed, perhaps wrongly, that Joshua would have gotten the report in the morning and gotten the people marching in the afternoon. It probably took days, perhaps weeks of planning.
The Israelites had to cross the Jordan River while it was in full flood stage.
How many people would you estimate had to get across the river? And how long would that have taken?
Every male in the camp had to be circumcised and given time to heal.
They also had to celebrate Passover.
How do you think Rahab felt while she waited with her family in her small house on the wall with that red cord in the window?
II. It may have seemed to Joshua and the spies a very short time, but for Rahab waiting for all of this to happen, it must have seemed like a long time.
Peter speaks of people who had lost faith that Jesus would return because he hadn’t returned right away. 2 Peter 3:8 says, “Do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting any one to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
Faith is often challenged by waiting, but we are able to wait if we really believe what God has told us.
