Can You Wait Patiently?
HAVE you learned to wait—to wait patiently? That is a lesson that the Creator, Jehovah God, might be said to be wanting to teach us earthly creatures. And this he does both by his Book of Creation and by his inspired Book, the Holy Bible.
You cannot speed up the days, seasons or years. Nothing that you or anyone else on earth may do can accelerate the revolution that the earth makes around the sun in 365 and one-fourth days. Neither can anyone hasten the seasons or the pace at which the earth rotates on its own axis. Each day takes twenty-four hours.
The farmer sows his seed, but then he too has to wait. He cannot hurry matters much, if at all. For some crops he has to wait several years. His exercise of patience is set before Christians as an example for them by the disciple James: “Exercise patience, therefore, brothers. . . . Look! The farmer keeps waiting for the precious fruit of the earth, exercising patience over it until he gets the early rain and the late rain. You too exercise patience.”—Jas. 5:7, 8.
Jehovah God himself sets us an example in waiting patiently. Thus the apostle Peter tells us that “the patience of God was waiting in Noah’s days, while the ark was being constructed.” Likewise God exercised patience with his ancient wayward people of Israel “until there was no healing.”—1 Pet. 3:20; 2 Chron. 36:15, 16.
Jesus Christ, God’s Son, also set a fine example of waiting patiently. He knew, as can be seen from the prophecies found at Revelation chapters 19 to 21, that it was God’s purpose for him to wipe out all of God’s enemies. And although upon his resurrection he had the will and the power to proceed against his enemies, he “sat down at the right hand of God, from then on awaiting until his enemies should be placed as a stool for his feet.”—Heb. 10:12, 13; Matt. 28:18.
Furnishing us another fine example of waiting patiently is David the son of Jesse. As a mere boy he was anointed by the prophet Samuel to be the future king of Israel. He showed himself to be Israel’s chief warrior by single-handedly slaying the giant Goliath, and in battles against the Philistines he slew ten times as many as King Saul. When hunted like a dog by envious Saul, David had several opportunities to slay Saul and so take possession of the kingdom that God had assured to him. But no, David was willing to wait patiently until the time when ‘Jehovah himself would deal Saul a blow.’