Psalm 85, Isaiah 40:1-11, 2 Peter 3:8-15a,18, Mark 1:1-8
Why So Long, O Lord?
In the Psalms appointed for the Sunday of Advent this year, there is theme that runs through them all, a note of sadness, mourning, and more than either of these, a plaintive note of anxiety concerning whether or not the Lord will come to save his people.
Last Sunday, for example, we sang these words from Psalm 80 and verse 4: “O LORD God of hosts, how long will you be angered despite the prayers of your people?” A short while ago, we sang these words from Psalm 85:4-5: “Restore us, O God of oursalvation, and cause Your anger toward us to cease. Will You be angry with us forever? Will You prolong Your anger to all generations?” Next Sunday, we will sing these words from Psalm 126:5: “Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like the watercourses of the Negev.” And, in the last Sunday in Advent we will sing these words from Psalm 132 and verse 5: “For your servant David’s sake, do not turn away the face of your Anointed.”
Why the anxiety? Well, there are two reasons. First of all, there are the abundant promises from the Prophets that God will, indeed, return to save His people. The Old Testament lesson from Isaiah 40 is just one of many we could cite: “10 Behold, the Lord GOD shall come with a strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him; Behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him. He will feed His flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those who are with young. (vv10-11). In fact, from this point in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, the passages pile up on one another about the arrival of the Messiah, about God breaking out against the enemies of His people and his rescuing them from all their troubles.
So, if the people of Israel are worried about God’s returning to save his people, the most fundamental reason for this anxiety is that he has promised to do so. Without the promises, there would be no anxiety about his fulfilling them!
However, the promises alone do not produce anxiety about their fulfilment. Rather, it is the passage of time combined with these promises which create this anxiety. As the years stretch into decades, and the decades into centuries, and the centuries pass by one after the other, it is no surprise that we find in the Psalter these plaintive questions: How long, O Lord?
One can find the same anxiety among Christians concerning the return of Jesus Christ, and at this Advent season, we do well to ask ourselves what do we think about the 2,000 years since Jesus departed the earth for heaven? It is easy to see even in the New Testament that waiting for the Second Advent was giving Christians no little anxiety. It was to address this anxiety that the Apostle Peter wrote the words in the Epistle appointed for today.
Before what we heard read in the second lesson, Peter had said this: 1 Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder), 2 that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, 3 knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” (1 Peter 3:1-4)
The fact that Peter had written a second letter to address this issue shows us that doubts about the Lord’s return were alive and well during the lifetime of the Apostles themselves. But, here we are, two thousand years AFTER the ministry of the Apostles has ended, and still the Lord has not returned. Is what Peter wrote in answer to this problem still valid? Let’s look again at Peter’s answer to this doubt and find out.
Peter’s answer is found in verses 8 and 9 of 2 Peter 3, and this answer has two parts.
First of all, Peter says, God’s view of time is very different than ours. He quotes the Psalm of Moses, Psalm 90 to make his point. “But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
I once heard a story about the man who asked God this question: “God, how long is a million years to you?” God said, “A million years is like a second." And so the man asked, “How much is a million dollars to you?” And, God said, “A million dollars is like a penny.” The man said, “Could you spare a penny?” God said, “Sure, just wait a second.” [hat tip: Mark Batterson]
If God says he’s going to do something soon, we mustn’t hold him to our standards of time. And, for that matter, our own standards of time show us the same thing.
Last evening, my family was at my Dad’s house, putting up a Christmas tree. Dad was sitting on the couch watching us, and I’m pretty sure what he saw brought back memories of last year when we were doing exactly the same thing. I think this, because of what he said as he was watching us.
“My goodness,” he said. “This year has really flown by. I can’t believe a whole year has passed.” He didn’t say much more on that topic, but I wondered if he didn’t look back further to evenings long past in his own lifetime, maybe to the the time my brothers and I were still little boys, helping to put the up Christmas tree in Amarillo, Texas, or Needles, California. That would have been 30, 40, or 50 years ago. And, yet, in some ways it seems like yesterday.
In fact, the one thing that is consistently reported by older people is how fast time flies. What do you think the past would look like to someone who has lived for 500 years? Or a thousand years? What do you suppose time looks like to someone who is eternal? The difference between us and God -- as far as time is concerned -- is important to keep in mind, and that’s why Peter says, “Beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day.”
But there is another reason for the delay. “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward you, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
First of all, Peter is pointing to something that is everywhere evident in God’s Word – his extravagant patience with sinners. You remember no doubt that before the flood, Enoch preached for centuries, and then affixed a promise of the coming judgment on his son Methuselah by giving him that name, which means, “When he dies, it will come,” referring, of course, to the promised judgment. Noah spent 120 years building the Ark, and if that’s not a warning, I don’t know what is! By the days of Jonah, God’s reputation concerning sinners was well established, for Jonah said, “I I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm.” (Jonah 4:2).
But there is more than God’s extravagant patience with sinners here. There is an amazing truth here that we need to slow down and look at, in order to understand it. And, that truth is contained in a three letter word: “you.” Peter says that it is not God’s will that any should perish. Peter further says it IS God’s will that all come to repentence. This is one of the places where the Calvinists make a point that I think merits our acceptance. This was first pointed out to me by one of my Greek professors, Dr. S. Lewis Johnson, who said to us, “Men, Peter here tells us that God’s patience is directed toward specific sinners: “you,” the beloved whom Peter addresses at the beginning of this chapter. Peter is saying that Jesus has not yet returned because he is waiting for all of you to come to repentence. Who is the “you” here? It was certainly those to whom Peter wrote. And, it is also those of us to whom this Apostlolic teaching applies, just as much as it did to those who were living while Peter was living.
Looked at another way, Peter is saying this: Jesus has waited 2,000 years to return from heaven, so that you and I who are here in this sanctuary in Waxahachie Texas will not perish, but come to repentence. This is a startling thought, or at least it was to me when Dr. Johnson first pointed it out to me. But, I immediately thought of a passage in the Book of Hebrews, that passage we looked at on the feast of All Saints just a few weeks ago.
After surveying all those saints in Hebrews chapter 11, some known to us by name, most not known to us at all, who persevered by faith in God’s promises, the author of Hebrews says this: Heb. 11:39: And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise ….”
Was God’s promise in vain? Was their faith in his promises vain? Not at all, says the author of Hebrews. If they are STILL waiting for the fulfilment of God’s promises to them, even in death, there is a reason. “40 God having provided something better for us, that they” – these Old Testament saints – “should not be made perfect apart from us.”
Do you know why Abraham has STILL not seen the fulfillment of God’s promises to him recorded in Genesis 12:1-3? It’s because God is waiting – and, therefore, Abraham is waiting – for us. Do you know why all those Old Testament prophets and martyrs are still waiting to see God’s promises fulfilled? It’s because they are waiting for us – for us to be born, for us to be called to faith in Christ, for us to grow into the fulness of the stature of Christ, for us to patiently run the course that is set before us.
And, that is why Peter makes the application he does in the following verses:
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God,… we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 14 Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; 15 and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation.
With every passing year that the Lord does NOT return, the sinful mind will be more likely to say, “He’s not coming back at all.” They are like the drunk driver that was stopped by the Highway Patrol. The officer said, “Let me administer a breathalizer test,” and the drunk man refused. So, the patrolman said, “If you don’t take this breathalizer test, you are going to be in a lot of trouble.” And the drunk man shot back, "The last time I took one of those tests, I flunked and I am a lot drunker now than I was then." [hat tip: Jeff Strite] For the unbelievers, the Lord’s tarrying is a kind of judgment, for it seals in them the mistaken idea that he is never returning at all.
But, the truth is actually the opposite. With every passing year that the Lord does NOT return, the wise and prudent believer will know how much MORE important it is for believers on the earth to prepare themselves for His return.
And, the return of Christ is one of the most constant promises that believers in Christ have. This promise was made when Jesus told his confused and frightened disciples that they shouldn’t be troubled because he was leaving them. "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you may be also." (John 14:1-3).
After Jesus ascended into heaven, an angel promised the disciples that he would return. He told them, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven.’" (Acts 1:10-11).
Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, "For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord." (I Thessalonians 4:16-17).
In the Letter to the Hebrews, we read, To those who eagerly wait for him, he will appear a second time..." (Hebrews 9:28).
At this Advent season, when we remember how all the promises of the Old Testament concerning the coming of Israel’s messiah were fulfilled, let us put away doubts and anxieties about the promise of Jesus’ return to the earth. Instead, may we find grace from our heavenly father, to put off the deeds of darkness, and to put on the armour of light, that in the last day – which Jesus has promised will surely come – when Jesus shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal through him who lives and reigns with Christ and the Holy Ghost, now and forever. Amen.
