Perverting the patience of the Lord …

Are you easily warned?

That’s an odd sounding question, but how much warning does it take for you to receive an urgent message and respond?

Something like that was measured in a study conducted last year:

• Six in 10 Gen Zers and Millennials have a complicated relationship — with their cars. A recent survey of Gen Z and Millennial car owners reveals that it takes an average of eight warning lights for them to schedule vehicle maintenance. However, one in four tend to disregard and continue driving with broken speakers or a radio, excessive emissions, low tire pressure light, oil change, or scratches on their vehicle’s body or windshield.

Two out of three say they’re okay with their car not being up to par as long as it passes a state-licensed safety test. On average, it takes five breakdowns for Gen Zers and Millennials to buy a new car.

Not responding to a car’s early warning system could have disastrous results of damaging your car and creating bigger and more expensive repairs than would have been necessary if you had acted quicker.

You might think of a warning system as moment or period of patience to provide for the repair or correction of something for good results and to avoid calamity.

That’s somewhat the idea of God’s patience with us today. The Apostle Peter warns us that Jesus Christ is going to return to this world, and when that happens, every human being will be accountable for their lives. Peter sees this time we have as almost like a warning signal on a dashboard, a period of time of God being patient so we can correct our relationship with Him now so we will be ready for Him then:

“The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment. Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live, looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames. But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness. And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight. And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him,” 2 Peter 3:9-15.

Unfortunately, a lot of us are like the Gen Z and Millennial car owners who need warning after warning after warning that something is wrong with their vehicle. In other words, we’re prone to pervert the patience of God by abusing it.

That was a serious problem with the people of Israel in the prophet Ezekiel’s day. The Old Testament book of Ezekiel begins with this:

“Again a message came to me from the Lord: ‘Son of man, you live among rebels who have eyes but refuse to see. They have ears but refuse to hear. For they are a rebellious people,'” Ezekiel 12:1-2.

The remainder of the chapter deals with how God provides multiple warnings to the people that His severe judgment for their sin is coming. The chapter concludes with this:

“Again a message came to me from the Lord: ‘Son of man, you’ve heard that proverb they quote in Israel: “Time passes, and prophecies come to nothing.” Tell the people, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will put an end to this proverb, and you will soon stop quoting it.” Now give them this new proverb to replace the old one: “The time has come for every prophecy to be fulfilled!” There will be no more false visions and flattering predictions in Israel. For I am the Lord! If I say it, it will happen. There will be no more delays, you rebels of Israel. I will fulfill my threat of destruction in your own lifetime. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!’ Then this message came to me from the Lord: ‘Son of man, the people of Israel are saying, “He’s talking about the distant future. His visions won’t come true for a long, long time.” Therefore, tell them, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: No more delay! I will now do everything I have threatened. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”‘” Ezekiel 12:21-28.

The excuses the people had used in ignoring God’s warnings included:

– He sometimes gave them such a long lead time to repent and return to Him that the prophetic warnings didn’t occur their lifetime, so they didn’t take it seriously for themselves.

– When God gave them a long time to repent, they sometimes thought of Him and His prophets as “all talk and no acton, so nothing to be afraid of.”

– Even if the prophets were speaking truth on God’s behalf, their was nothing urgent about their message.

But in this case (and every case), it was an urgent message. In this case, God gives Ezekiel a message that this is a final warning; that their cavalier attitude regarding His patience with them was going to end in their doom because God was done issuing warnings, now His judgment was coming – in their lifetime, they would face it.

Some people today pervert God’s patience in the same way. They think they have a lifetime to indulge themselves, then at the last moment they’ll respond and slide into heaven. The problem with that is God looks at the heart and knows that isn’t genuine repentance but a human effort at “fire insurance” on judgment day. It also misses the greater point that God wants a reconciled relationship with you now. He has a place for you in His family, and a work for you to do in His kingdom, now.

Trying to play fast and loose with the patience of God is to have no heart for God, but a heart for other desires. We need to change that now by being reconciled to God, and ready for an eternity with Him.

We have been warned.

Scotty