The Book of James, Patience Works Endurance, Endurance Works Hope, James 5:7-9 - Lesson 22

James, at the beginning of his epistle, told us to count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations, trials if you will, for the trials of your faith work patience.

And then he said that patience should have her perfect work, a work that results in a child of God who will be complete, and entire, wanting nothing.

In our passage for today, James 5:7-9, he again speaks of patience.

The Apostle Paul also spoke of patience in Romans 5 where he told us that we are to glory in tribulations for tribulation worketh patience.

He did not stop there, thinking that patience was an end in itself, for he adds that patience works experience meaning endurance, and that endurance works hope of eternal salvation.

If things come quickly, where is the endurance?

And if things come quickly where is the hope?

Apparently God wants us to endure and he wants us to hope.

For endurance and hope are tools that God uses in our perfection, in our completion.

And remember that which God uses to perfect us ought to be the pattern which we follow in the rearing of our children.

There ought to be in the home a call for patience, in order for endurance to come about, in order for hope to blossom.

So there is a reason for patience and that reason is to bring us to hope in the Lord.

That hope is to be exercised on the road of patience.

And this is where James also leads us for he leads us to a lively hope in the coming of the Lord.

Now let us read James 5:7-9,  Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. ⁸Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. ⁹Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.

This passage is a "therefore" passage indicating that James is starting to wrap up this message to his brethren but also indicating a connection with what has been said before.

What has been said before has been bold instruction to a varied audience.

In Chapter 4 though the sixth verse of chapter 5 James gave strong words of warning concerning future judgment, clearly calling for those addressed to repent.

He found guilty those who were misusing their poverty or their wealth as a excuse for sin.

But here in verse 7 James begins to entreat his reader as a father would entreat.

He begins to speak assuring words of comfort.

He is no longer speaking to the abuser, but is now speaking to those who have been abused and he tells them to be patient unto the coming of the Lord.

By what follows this call for patience, it is clear that the patience that James is urging is the kind of patience that keeps a Christian from retaliation for wrongs done against him or her.

It is the kind of patience that quietly leaves the work of retaliation to take place upon the return of the Lord, for that is His business.

It is also the kind of patience that works itself out as endurance and perseverance.

It is a kind of patience that makes for big shoulders to bear heavy loads for long periods.

It is the kind of patience that keeps God’s child in the doing of good works as a part of the body of Christ.

It is the kind of patience that keeps us from being weary in well doing.

For if you do well in this life with thoughts of reward in this life you will quickly grow weary in this kind of well doing.

It is the well doing with patience unto the coming of the Lord that will keep a person keeping on and on and on for the Lord.

It is a patience that is bolstered by a continuous looking for the appearing of the Lord.

And then James gives us an example of this kind of patience.

He reminds us of the patience of the farmer, who patiently waits for the early and later rains which he expects will produce the precious fruit of the ground in abundance.

Verse 7b,  Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

This illustration brings to mind the instructions of Moses in Deuteronomy 11:8-15, to the children of Israel regarding their conduct in the land of promise:

This passage very clearly explains the kind of patience that James is talking about which God wants us to have as we wait for His return.

And it has to do with land that is watered by irrigation versus land that is watered by rain.

So God describes land that is watered by foot or land that is watered of the rain of heaven.

One is a land that is flat and the other is a land of hills and valleys.

One is a land where the efforts of man take care of the watering but the other, the land where God was leading the children of Israel, is where God takes care of the watering.

One is where it is said, I’ll do it myself, but in the other it is said, I must wait upon the Lord to bring it to pass.

For in Egypt where the children of Israel had spent 400 years, farming was done with the aid of irrigation systems.

Irrigation was done by the movement of the foot for the Egyptians had the Nile River and flat land.

The Egyptians dug ditches from the Nile throughout their fields and simply by pushing dirt with their foot, opening up one ditch to another, they would cause water to flow along a particular ditch of a particular field.

So as God said, they watered the land with their foot.

This easy practice was not to be in the promised land, for God intended by his weather and terrain to teach trust in Him in this new land.

In Egypt, God’s people could farm without having to exercise faith in God.

But God says the just shall live by faith.

This is a God ordained process for His children and he puts this into practice in the promised land by His control of the weather.

God wanted His people to learn to trust Him for their daily bread and for their every need.

And so He took them to a land that was not watered by irrigation, but by rain at His direction.

He promised that if His people would abide by His law, He would give them the rains they needed, in their proper time.

This meant that the farmer had to sow the seed when there was no hint of rain, but with the knowledge that God would be faithful to His word.

The farmer went about his labors, trusting in God to bless his efforts, but not seeing the rain while he worked.

Then, having done what he could, the farmer had to patiently wait for the rains God had promised.

The first rains came early to cause the seed to grow, and then more time passed before the latter rains came to bring the crop to maturity.

Farming in Israel required working and waiting on God and this was God ordained for the benefit of His people.

This is the kind of patience that James exhorts his readers to practice.

It is a patience based upon faith, knowing that God is in charge of all things and what He chooses to do will be for our good.

God promised to provide the necessary rains at their proper time, and therefore James says that the Lord will also come at the proper time.

He is the husbandman and will look out for his fields and send refreshing at just the right time.

It is easy to be as many farmers are as they look out at their dry fields and grow impatient in the Lord’s timing.

Their faith is tested if the rains do not come as quickly as they would like.

And in the same way we too wish that His return would come sooner than later, that He may bring justice upon all who do not do His will.

We want the rain of righteousness to come on the dry fields of this earth but the Lord knows exactly when the fields are ripe already to harvest.

In all of this we are to learn to patiently wait upon Him, trusting Him and obeying His word.

And in this patience James says in verse 8, you will establish your hearts.

This means your heart will be set resolutely in a certain direction.

This is in contrast to those of verse 5 who have lived in pleasure on the earth, those who have nourished their hearts, as in the day of slaughter.

This contrast describes the difference between those who await with hope the Lord’s coming and those who live in pleasure on the earth, those who feed their hearts with the lusts of this world.

James says that these who do such things are preparing for the day of slaughter.

They are as a pig who is fattened for the day of slaughter when the master chooses him for the banquet.

The wicked fatten their hearts upon this world only to be ready for the banquet of God’s wrath.

This is what patience brings, it brings endurance, then it brings hope, hope in the coming of the Lord.

That hope establishes your heart and keeps you from loving the world and the things of the world for that hope will take you out of this world into a better place.

And when you have this hope you know that hope in any other thing or person is vanity.

And therefore James instructs in verse 9 to grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.

You don’t hear this word "grudge" much any more.

It means to murmur, to grumble, to be discontented at another’s enjoyments or advantages.

It means to envy another’s possessions or happiness and desire for ourselves.

A man named Erwin W. Lutzer said this: Complaining about our lot in life might seem quite innocent in itself, but God takes it personally.

James said the judge standeth at the door.

The judge hears your grudge and does not like it.

So again James comes back to the tongue for grudging displays itself in this little member.

He says don’t grumble or grudge against one another.

He has already said in James 4 not to speak one against another.

Grumbling is an act of arrogance, it is the taking upon one’s self the prerogative of God who is the judge.

It is a sin against brotherly love and Christian unity.

When we grumble against a brother or a sister, when we grumble about our circumstances we are grumbling about God’s provision for us.

Remember the children of Israel who lifted up their voices against Moses and Aaron and complained bitterly about their circumstances.

God took this very personally saying to Moses in Numbers 14:11:

This kind of murmuring does not happen when we have a lively hope in the Lord.

For that hope knows that God doeth all things well.

A grudging spirit is not a hoping spirit.

A murmuring spirit has taken his or her eyes off of the coming of the Lord, off of the fact that this is not our home, and that we are simply passing through.

He forgets that our life is but a vapor, a very short time where we are required to trust in our Father who does indeed do all things well.