Revelation 2:21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling.
Waiting for justice is very testing and difficult. There are times we pray for fire from heaven to fall and consume the wicked and the ruthless but it would appear that God is silent. Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong; (Psalm 37:1). We wonder why God doesn’t strike the evil doer and stop the violent and the abuser. God’s mercy extends not only to those who call upon His name but also to the viler, disobedient and the dishonest. His compassion gives them a long rope to repent and return back to Him.
Jezebel was the wicked Queen of King Ahab. She was a Phoenician and the daughter of the priest-king of the King of Tyre and Sidon (modern city of Lebanon). This wicked woman influenced and persuaded Ahab and Israel to worship Baal, the Tyre pagan god of fertility. She coerced the king and misled the people into idolatry, adultery and revelry. This Phoenician princess was manipulative, derogative, depressive and destructive. Yet, Revelation 2:21 tells us that God gave her time to repent, but she was unwilling. This is the grace and mercy of God. The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). God never gives up on us. He waits for us patiently to repent, reverse and return back to Him.
Why is God so patient with the sinner?
1. Grace: God’s grace is His priceless gift to us. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8). God was patient with you and me while we were steeped in our stubborn ways. His grace forgave us even when we were not worthy and waited for us to regret and relinquish our pigheadedness. Hence we must not be impatient when God is patient with the rebel.
2. Goodness: God’s goodness stands as the buffer between our sins and the punishment that was due to us. The goodness of God leads you to repentance (Romans 2:4b). Goodness of God melts the heart of stone.
3. Glory: God waits patiently for us, without striking us dead, in order to be glorified through our lives. He waits for all our selfish ambitions and secret sins to die down and then He picks up the ashes and turns it into beauty. To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes (Isaiah 61:3b). God can take the ashes of our silly sins and turn into a monument of beauty. What the world would conclude as ‘defeat’, God will turn it into a glorious beginning.
God waits patiently for us to be glorified through us.
Psalm 103:8 The LORD is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, help me to be patient and gracious like you and wait for the stubborn, rebellious and the wicked to repent. May I never become self-righteous or judgmental. Amen.
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