AM Bible Study Group; September 12, 2012
James 5:10-11
Theme: The stories of the patience and endurance of the Old Testament saints teach us to look to God’s good outcome in our own times of suffering.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
God has preserved lessons for us in the sacred pages of Scripture. As Paul wrote, “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). And when these lessons are carefully heard by us, and are allowed to sink in an take hold of us, they change everything else about us. It’s to just such lessons that James turns to in teaching suffering Christians in the passage before us.
James, as you will remember, was writing pastoral instructions to a group of Jewish Christians who were undergoing persecution. Consider what the Lord Jesus said in the Sermon on The Mount. In Matthew 5:11-12, He said, “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.” Our Lord turned our attention to the prophets who suffered before us. Their stories aren’t so much the stories of great men as they are the stories of a great God who used men in great ways. They are meant to show us that the same God as they trusted is also great toward us. James does the same thing in the text before us—calling his suffering readers to look back to the examples of Old Testament saints, and be encouraged by God’s good outcome.
I. LOOK AT THE EXAMPLES (vv. 10-11a).
A. It’s God’s will that we learn from His works in the past. One of the reasons for His having recorded these stories for us was so that we might learn from them. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10 about the sins and failures of the children of Israel in the wilderness; and in verse 11 he said, “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 10:11). And in the case of his brothers and sisters who were suffering affliction at the hand of persecutors, Pastor James also encourages them to open their Old Testament and learn from God’s past works on behalf of His people—except in this case, he is pointing not back to the failures of faith in some, but to the endurance of it in others. He writes, “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” (James 5:10-11a).
B. In writing these words, James stresses two important qualities these Old Testament saints exhibited in their suffering. First, he highlights their “patience” (see also verses 7- 8). This is probably best understood as an inward attitude of long-suffering that is a manifest character of faith in God. And second, he highlights “endurance”. This is probably best understood as an outward manifestation of this inward attitude of patient faith. Now; who were “the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord” that James is 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 ‘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 no the earth” (Hebrews 11:13). And James tells us 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 have come, have the great advantage of learning from the whole story of their experience. We can indeed see that God proved a faithful trust for them in their suffering—and that He will prove to be a faithful trust for us in our own.
II. LEARN FROM THE OUTCOME (v. 11b).
A. In highlighting the patience and endurance of Old Testament saints, James gives special attention to Job. We’re often familiar with hearing someone referred to as having ‘the patience of Job’; but few of us realize how much suffering that involved—and what such patience really means. Perhaps James highlights Job because his suffering was unusually great, because it was clearly given by the permission of God, and because it so vividly resulted in God’s great blessing at the end. James writes, “You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord —” But rather than tell us Job’s story, it’s as if James simply gives us the “moral” of the story: “—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.” When he says that the Lord is “very compassionate”, he uses a very interesting word. In the original language of his letter, it’s a word that’s composed of two words put together: the word for “great” or “much” (polus), and the word for “intestines” or “bowels” (which signified the seat of affection—what we’d call “the heart” (splangchnon). In using this word, James is pointing out that ours is a very affectionate, very compassionate,”large-hearted” God who will always prove to be so in the end. He also calls God “merciful”. God described Himself this way to Moses (Exodus 34:6-7); and at the end of the story of Job, He very much showed Himself to be just as He described Himself to be (Job 42:10-17).
B. The whole point James is trying to make in reminding us of the stories of the Old Testament saints—and specifically of Job—is that when we’re going through a time of suffering and affliction, or when when we’re being tested in our faith by being dealt with unjustly because of it, we should look to these great men and women of God 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 in its outcome. That’s when such stories encourage us; and that’s why it would be good for our souls if we were to become proficient students of the Old Testament.
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Perhaps the greatest commentary on this—and truly the greatest Example—would be the one that the writer of Hebrews gave at the end of his great list of Old Testament heroes:
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).