EXAMPLES OF A GOOD OUTCOME
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on September 25, 2024 under AM Bible Study |
AM Bible Study Group: September 25, 2024 from James 5:10-11
Theme: We should put away all grumbling against each other, because our Judge is listening.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
God has preserved many good lessons for us in the sacred pages of His holy word. As the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 15:4;
For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope (Romans 15:4).
Obviously, then, it’s God’s will for us that we read and become familiar with the Old Testament stories that have been written down for us—inspired by the Holy Spirit and kept for us—so that we can learn from them what God wants us to learn. They constitute the indispensable, God-appointed provision for a life of faithfulness before Him in this New Testament era of grace. When the lessons of those Old Testament stories are carefully studied by us—and, by God’s help, are allowed to sink in and take hold of us—they transform our lives.
It’s to just such stories—and the lessons they teach—that Pastor James now turns to in his instruction to suffering Christians. In James 5:7-8, he wrote to his brothers and sisters in Christ who were suffering persecution and oppression at the hands of evil people; and told them,
Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand (James 5:7-8).
And to give them the comfort and encouragement they need, he then says in verses 10-11;
My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience. Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful (vv. 10-11).
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Now; as we’ve seen throughout this letter, James seemed to draw quite often from the teaching of the Lord Jesus in the Sermon on The Mount. Consider what the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 5:11-12;
Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you (Matthew 5:11-12).
Clearly, our Lord Himself turned the attention of His followers to the Old Testament prophets who suffered in earlier times—particularly with respect to their suffering of persecution. Jesus warned that, if His disciples followed Him as they should, they would suffer persecution—just as those Old Testament prophets also did. And so, He pointed their attention back to those Old Testament stories. They weren’t stories of great men and women to whom we couldn’t relate; but rather, were stories of very regular men and women that God used in great ways because of their faith in Him. Later in his letter, in teaching about effectual prayer, James even highlighted this fact—saying that “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly …” (James 5:17); and yet God answered his prayer miraculously. Those stories weren’t meant to show us that those Old Testament saints had unique natural powers or qualities that were greater or superior to ours. They weren’t superhuman saints. Instead, those stories were meant to show us that the same mighty God that they trusted in their time of need is the same God that works mightily on our behalf—if we will trust Him as they did.
And the particular aspect of their trust that James is highlighting to us is how that trust enabled them to keep on enduring the trials and oppressions of persecution until they saw God’s good outcome for them. James showed this to his readers through two exhortations: (1) to look at the example of their endurance, and (2) to learn from the outcome that God brought about for them. The endurance of the Old Testament saints teaches us to look to God’s good outcome in our own trials.
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First, when it comes to the Old Testament prophets, let’s consider the call to …
1. LOOK TO THEIR ENDURANCE (v. 10).
James wrote, “My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience.” When he used the word translated “take” (lambanō), it’s very clear that Pastor James wanted the people under his care to do much more than merely ‘hear about’ or ‘know about’ these stories. He wanted them to truly ‘lay hold of’ them and truly ‘take them in hand’—to receive them and sincerely ‘take them to heart’. This, of course, would require something more than a mere superficial knowledge of them. It would require careful study of them, meditation upon them, and the application of them to real-life experience; so that they could truly learn from them and retain the impact that they were meant by God to have on them.
The apostle Paul once wrote about something like this to the Corinthian believers in 1 Corinthians 10. He reminded them of the stories of the sins and failures of the children of Israel during their wilderness wanderings; and he told them,
Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come (1 Corinthians 10:6-11).
Paul’s instruction to his fellow believers was that they needed to truly take those stories to heart and allow themselves to be ‘admonished’ by them—that is, to be firmly warned and exhorted to action by them. And in the case of the suffering brothers and sisters under his care, Pastor James was telling them the same thing. He encouraged them to open the Old Testament, study what it said about them, and learn from God’s past works on behalf of His servants in practical ways—except, in the case of James’ readers, not so much from the negative example of the unfaithfulness of some, but rather from the positive example of the endurance of others.
In writing these words, James highlighted two important qualities that these Old Testament prophets exhibited. First, he highlighted their suffering. The word that James used was kakopatheō; which is a compound word that combines the verb for ‘suffer’ (paschō) with the word for ‘harm’ or ‘cruelty’ (kakaō). So; James was reminding his readers that the prophets of old were examples to God’s people of suffering harm or cruelty or bad treatment. They suffered unjustly—as James indicated—for having spoken to the people in the name of the Lord. But he also highlighted another quality—their patience in that suffering. The word that James used to describe their patience is a word that we’ve already encountered in our study—particularly in verses 7-8. It’s makrothumeō; that particular word that describes the quality of being far away from being hot in anger—and that described their patient attitude toward those who were treating them badly. James tells his brothers and sisters to ‘take up’ the stories of the Old Testament prophets “as an example” of both “suffering” and “patience”.
Now; who were “the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord” that James was referring to? We might consider the great ‘prophets’ that are honored in the Hebrews 11 “Hall of Faith” passage—such godly individuals who stood as God’s spokesman to their day as Abel (v. 4), Enoch (v. 5), Noah (v. 7), Abraham (vv. 8-12, 17-19), Isaac (v. 20), Jacob (v. 21), Joseph (v. 22), Moses (vv. 23-29), and the others that the writer said ‘time would fail us’ to tell of (vv. 32-40). The writer of Hebrews said,
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them from afar off were assured of them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13).
And James told his readers that the patience and endurance of these saints paid off. “Indeed, we count them blessed who endure.” We, upon whom the end of the ages has come, have the great advantage of learning from the whole story of their experiences. We don’t learn from them that God always preserves His faithful servants from ever suffering harm or wrong-doing. But we do learn that God proved to be a faithful trust for them in their suffering—and that He will prove to be a faithful trust for us in our own. As he wrote earlier;
Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him (1:12).
So; we’re to look to the example of those Old Testament saints who endured the trial of oppression and persecution. And more than merely “look”, we’re to take full hold of those stories and take them to heart.
But even more still; to gain the full benefit, James added that we’re to then …
2. LEARN FROM THEIR OUTCOME (v. 11).
In verse 11 James gave his readers a very specific example. He wrote, “You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.”
Sometimes when we speak of some people, we say, “They have the patience of Job.” The story of Job has become a proverbial story of patience. But rarely do people stop and think of how much suffering was involved in that story of Job—and how impatient with God Job often was. To ‘have the patience of Job’ would involve a great deal of struggle in the heart—and even times of failure and repentance. His patience didn’t come easy. And it may be that James particularly highlighted Job because suffered as a fallible man like us; but as one whose suffering was unusually great, and because it clearly fell upon Job by the permission of God, and because it so vividly resulted in God’s great blessing at the end. According to the Book of Job, everything that Job lost at the beginning (Job 1:3) was restored to him two-fold (42:12-14). As it says in Job 42:12, “the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning”.
James didn’t tell his readers the whole story of Job; because, as Jewish readers, they most likely already knew it well. Instead, he highlighted the end of the story; affirming that “the Lord is very compassionate and merciful”. When he wrote that the Lord is “very compassionate” he used an interesting word. In the original language of his letter, it’s a word that—again—is a compound word formed by joining the word for “great” (polus), and the word for intestines that symbolized the seat of someone’s emotions (splangchnon). In using the word polusplangchnos, James was telling his readers that—at the end of the trial of oppression—God proves to be very ‘large-hearted’ and merciful. He will always prove to be so toward those who trust patiently in Him and who bear up faithfully under the trials He allows to come upon us. As God said of Himself;
“The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth …” (Exodus 34:6-7).
The whole point James was trying to make in reminding his readers of the story of the Old Testament saints—and especially Job—is that when we’re going through a time of suffering and affliction, or when we’re being tested by being dealt with unjustly because of our faith, we should look to these great heroes of faith in the past who likewise suffered unjustly. When we do so, we learn that the real value of our suffering isn’t found in looking at the suffering itself, but rather in its outcome. That’s when such stories encourage us. And that’s why it’s good for our souls if we become proficient students of the examples of the Old Testament saints who suffered.
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And let’s not forget the greatest Example of all—as the writer of Hebrews tells us at the end of his long list of the heroes of faith;
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:1-2).
AE
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