Psalm 86:5
Longsuffering
God often uses many means with wicked men to bring them to forsake their sins. This is what God declares in his Word, that he has no pleasure in the death of a sinner, but he should forsake his sins, and live. “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways and live? (Ezekiel 18:23). And again in the thirty-second verse, “For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.” And there God swears the same thing: “Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, Ye house of Israel?”
Surely it would be horrid presumption in us to call this in question, after God has sworn by his life to the truth of it. The same we are told in the New Testament by the Apostle. “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savoiur; who will have all men to be saved, and come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:3-4); “The Lord is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
And therefore God appears in his providence slow to wrath, and is wont to use many means with sinners to bring them to forsake their sins, before he gives them up. Thus God’s Spirit strove long with the old world, before he destroyed them. “My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years” (Genesis 6:3). For God sent Lot, a preacher of righteousness, to turn the inhabitants of Sodom from their sins, before he destroyed them. So he did not destroy hardhearted Pharaoh, till he had used many means to make him willing to comply with God’s commands.
Readings taken from Day By Day With Jonathan Edwards
Longsuffering
God often uses many means with wicked men to bring them to forsake their sins. This is what God declares in his Word, that he has no pleasure in the death of a sinner, but he should forsake his sins, and live. “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways and live? (Ezekiel 18:23). And again in the thirty-second verse, “For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.” And there God swears the same thing: “Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, Ye house of Israel?”
Surely it would be horrid presumption in us to call this in question, after God has sworn by his life to the truth of it. The same we are told in the New Testament by the Apostle. “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savoiur; who will have all men to be saved, and come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:3-4); “The Lord is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
And therefore God appears in his providence slow to wrath, and is wont to use many means with sinners to bring them to forsake their sins, before he gives them up. Thus God’s Spirit strove long with the old world, before he destroyed them. “My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years” (Genesis 6:3). For God sent Lot, a preacher of righteousness, to turn the inhabitants of Sodom from their sins, before he destroyed them. So he did not destroy hardhearted Pharaoh, till he had used many means to make him willing to comply with God’s commands.
Readings taken from Day By Day With Jonathan Edwards
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