11 How James Warns the Rich and Encourages the Suffering (James 5:1-11)

Speaker: Welcome to Wednesday in the Word with Krisan Marotta. This is the 11th lesson in a series on the Book of James. Krisan's text today is found in James 5, verses 1 through 12. Krisan Marotta: Well, since this is our penultimate week in the Book of James, I always have to work that word in every chance I get. It's our penultimate week. I want to spend some time reviewing the major theological themes of the letter. Because next week's section, if you've looked ahead, is one of the most difficult interpretive-wise, and it has some difficult interpretive challenges, and that's going to take all our time. Today's section, on the other hand, while there's a lot in it, it's more straightforward. So because of that, I want to do our a kind of review and wrap-up of James today rather than next week. So we're going to start by reviewing the themes that have been underlying the book, and then we're going to go, uh, we'll finish up next week. So one of the things I think James does really well is echo and expand on the words of Jesus. And we find a lot of the themes of James in the words of Jesus. I haven't been spending too much time on that in the lectures because you do so much cross-referencing in your homework. I thought you might throw something at me if I gave you some more. unknown: Quite likely. Krisan Marotta: But we're going to look at one today. So look at Matthew 7. This is the end of the Sermon of the Mount, and it's to me, I think this is one of the most terrifying texts in Scripture. We always think of the Sermon on the Mount as, you know, this wonderful blessings and things. But it ends like this. This is Matthew 7, 21 through 23. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. So Jesus is giving us this preview of the last judgment, and he warns that on that day people are going to come to him and say, Look, we served you, we preached in your name, we did all these great things, and he's going to say, I never knew you. And he adds, many, many are going to say this. And to make it even worse, they come saying, Lord, Lord, which is, you probably are aware, the repetition of the personal name suggests an intimate relationship with the one you're addressing. So for instance, you see, you know, Jesus will say Mary, Mary, or Martha, Martha, or you see David, Absalom, Absalom. That repetition is says, I have a personal, intimate relationship with you. So these people are going to come to him expecting they've had this intimate relationship and they knew Jesus in a deep spiritual way, and he's going to say, I never knew you. So many who claim to be believers are not going to make it through the last judgment. And that's terrifying, I think. So it's it implies there are four kinds of people in this world: those who are saved and know it, and those who are not saved and know it. And those two, those are the first two groups. Those are relatively straightforward. Both people have assurance of their destiny and they're mirror opposites. One group knows they're saved and they're right, and the other group knows they're not saved and they're right too, but both accurately understand their destiny. The third group is those who are saved and don't know it yet. So these are people who are in fact saved, but for whatever reason, they haven't found that assurance of their salvation. So maybe they're still doubting, or maybe they're still really young in their faith. Maybe they can point to the day and the hour they had a conversion experience, but they're not sure it really counted. Now, we often we need to make a distinction between a conversion and a conversion experience. Not everyone is aware of the moment the Holy Spirit opens their eyes or changes their heart. And I can tell you the day and the hour of my conversion experience, but when I look back, I actually think he was probably working in me for weeks before then. And somebody finally said, Hey, do you do you want to pray the sinner's prayer? I was like, Finally? Somebody asked me. I didn't know what to do. So, you know, I'm not sure. I can tell you the day and the hour, but I'm not sure that was the actual time when he opened my eyes. In any case, regeneration is instantaneous, so it's not a process. And by regeneration, I mean the moment you come to faith. So the moment before you did not have faith, and now you do have faith. That's instantaneous. No one is half saved and half not. Sanctification is a process. So growing in faith is the process, but the moment of faith is instantaneous. So in any case, so we have those who are saved and know it, those who are not saved and know it, those who are saved but don't know it yet, and then there's this fourth group that throws the monkey wrench into the picture, and that is people who think they are saved and they are not. So they are not saved and they don't know it. And I think these are the people Jesus is addressing in Matthew 7, and this is the primary audience James is writing to. So these people may go to church, they may be able to point to a conversion experience, they may have taken part in the sacraments, they think they are saved, but in fact they are not. And that raises this really haunting question of how do I know I'm not in that group? How do I know I'm not going to be one of those people who's going to come to the last judgment and address Jesus as Lord, Lord, is my intimate savior, and he's going to say, Who are you? Well, that's what the book of James is about. I think that is precisely the question he's been trying to answer. And that is its core, it's a letter, the book of James is a letter about living out your faith. So there are two important perspectives on faith. I think they're shared by all biblical authors, James included, but he seems to emphasize them more strongly than others. So this is all part of my summary. So the first thing about faith that he emphasizes is that it's there's a sense in which it's a matter of the will, in that we believe what we want to believe. So, as rebellious creatures, what we believe is determined by what we're willing to believe. So there are times when the evidence ought to lead us to a particular conclusion, but we refuse to go there. We don't like the implications of it, or we don't like the consequences, and so we refuse to believe it. Paul talks about this in Romans 1. He talks about they exchange truth for a lie. They begin worshiping the creation rather than the creator. So it's that idea we refuse to believe. The evidence is there, it's clearly pointing in the right direction, and we say, nope, I'm not gonna not gonna go there. So scripture emphasizes that when we hear the gospel, we are to respond to it. We're not just to hear it and evaluate it as a philosophy or debate it as a worldview or as accept it as some great moral teaching. We are to hear, to understand, and respond. And to not believe the gospel arises from this rebellion, this willful rejection of the truth. So the gospel challenges our deep-rooted selfishness. It tells us we're not the center of the universe when we want to believe that we are. It tells us that we are guilty before God and we need forgiveness, which by nature we don't want to admit. We'd much rather believe, you know, I'm good enough, I've made a sincere, reasonably successful, you know, a good middle class effort, and that's all that's required because hey, I'm better than the next guy. And the gospel says that's not enough, but we don't want to believe it. So faith requires a response, a humbling of ourselves, a bending of our knee to God and the truth, and humbly accepting its claims. The second thing that's important to understand about faith is that what we believe is reflected in our lives. So what we believe influences what we say and what we do and every choice we make in our daily lives. And that's one of those, you know, Dr. Obvious kind of profound common observations, but it has profound implications. So if I'm sick and you come to me and you say, I have the cure, just drink this, and I say, Great, and I put it on the shelf. I my word, my actions have questioned my belief. I've said I believe you, I've said I've believed it's the cure, but if I don't, in fact, take the medicine, my belief is called into question. It's doubtful. If I believed it was the cure, I would take it. So James has been all about that idea that our actions reflect what we believe. And that's behind the New Testament concept of testing our faith. So we claim to believe that certain things are true, and eventually our actions are gonna either prove our claims or disprove them. So God's gonna put us in situations where we have to make a choice, and that choice is gonna reveal what we actually believe and what we're actually embracing. So the situation forces us to make a choice where we have to act, and that action will reveal what we believe to be true. So faith is a is in part is a matter of the will. It's we refuse to believe what is obviously true, and that's why the Holy Spirit has to open our eyes and give us the eyes to see and the ears to hear. And then what we believe is reflected in our actions and in our lives. And therefore, our faith is tested. It God puts us in situations where that genuineness, where we have to make a choice. So this testing then accomplishes two things. First, it reveals to me what sort of person I really am and whether I uh in fact believe what I say I believe. So other New Testament authors write about the same idea. John, for instance, in 1 John says that testing can be a source of great personal comfort. James says it's a source of great joy because we're all going to face those doubts where we go, am I in that fourth group? How do I know I'm not fooling myself? How do I know I'm not, you know, that I'm not just kidding myself and I'm faking all this Christianity stuff? Am I the real deal? And in those moments of doubting, I can look at the trials in my life and say, I made it through that. I am still here. That was hard. That sifted me like wheat, and I came out the other side and I'm still following Jesus. And James has been saying, that is evidence. That's how you know you're not in that fourth group. Because pseudo-faith will fall away when life gets hard. You've probably met people who've said, you know, I tried that Christianity stuff, it didn't work for me. Or they get, you know, life gets hard and they go, boy, following God means I have to give up that, I'm out of here. It's, you know, you've I think that's where you're saying that was a claim to faith that was not, in fact, real. But genuine saving faith goes through that trial clinging to the hope of the gospel and the promises of God. So having gone through those trials, I can put my doubts aside and say, I've been tested and my faith has been shown to be the real deal. And that is a source of great joy and great comfort. So the testing reveals to me that my faith is in fact real. The second thing it does is it leads to maturity, it leads to growth. So not only is it revealed to my faith revealed to be true, it's refined, it's strengthened. God uses that testing to work it more into my character, to make me more a person that the person he intended me to be. So trials lead to spiritual maturity and strengthen our faith and give us wisdom. The more we act on our beliefs and decide whether we will stand by them or stick to them in the hard times, then our beliefs become more and more integrated into our lives and our characters. So those two perspectives on faith I think run throughout the Bible, but this is the they are particularly emphasized in James. This is his great theme, that it's all about the testing of our faith and how faith works out in our lives and expresses itself. Now, there's a sense you could say every book of the Bible is about that, but I think they come at it from different angles and different different uh perspectives. And I think this explains why James and Paul are sometimes pitted against each other. They use the same language and they seem to contradict each other. But as I've argued, I think they're using the same language in very different contexts because they're answering two very different questions. So the Galatians were faced with the challenge of legalism. Do I believe that Jesus' death on the cross is enough to save me? Or must I diligently keep the law? Do I think that I'm worthy because I keep the Mosaic rules, or do I think that I'm worthy because of the blood of Christ? James, on the other hand, is dealing with the problem of worldliness. And by worldliness, I don't mean materialism. I mean do I believe the claims of the world or do I believe the claims of the gospel? Do I believe that grace is enough to save me, or must I also seek fame, fortune, prestige, the comforts of the world, and so on? Do I believe that the pleasures of this world are going to fulfill me, or do I trust that what God is promising in the gospel is going to fulfill me? Where am I going to find true life? So while he covers several issues in worldliness, he emphasizes two throughout the book: speech and wealth. And you've probably noticed he comes back to those over and over. So the way I view wealth and the way I view the way I speak. So wealth or lack of it confronts me with the question of what's my real problem and what's really going to solve it. Because money solves a lot of problems. I mean, I've been rich and I've been poor. Rich is better, it's a lot easier. But the question is, what's ultimately the answer to my problem? Money solves a lot of problems, but they're not the important ones. What's really my problem is I'm guilty before a holy God. And the only way to solve that is with the cross and the blood of Christ. So he says, he challenges the uh his audience to say, how are you treating the rich? How are you treating the poor? What is that revealing about your faith? Who are you trusting in? Do you trying to butter up the rich because they can help you with jobs, with with loans, with business, they can introduce you to the right people, or are you trusting that God is ultimately in control of your lives? So the gospel tells me that the place I'm going to find true wealth is in the kingdom of heaven. Do I believe it? Or do I lust after the wealth of this world and what it has to offer? And then the second major issue is speech and the way we talk to each other. So we saw people were coveting the positions of power in the church. They wanted to be teachers and leaders out of this selfish ambition and jealousy. They wanted to triumph over each other. They were treating each other as competitors, not family members. They wanted to be the ones in control. And he's saying that reveals something about your faith. That kind of attitude, how you're speaking to each other, the way you're treating each other, is giving away what's in your hearts. So their speech was showing them to be quarrelsome, contentious, greedy. Their desire for power caused them to abuse the very people they should be treating as their brothers and sisters. So those are kind of the big themes. And let me just set the stage then for where we are in this passage. So I've done this every week and I will do it again next week. In chapter one, James says, consider it joy when you face trials because trials test your faith, and that testing brings about maturity and wisdom. And remember, this is all kinds of trials, big trials, little trials, everything in between. We tend to think of only the trials that are the big crisis issues that seem to roll around every year or so. But I think he means everything, you know, losing something, running late, thoughtless words, missed actions, inappropriate sarcasm, failing a test. It could be anything. So trials come in all shapes and sizes. They're not reserved for the big issues of, you know, health or bankruptcy or something. In chapter two, then he argues if we really have saving faith and we genuinely understand the gospel, it's going to change the way we think and the way we live, what we value and who we are. And he gave us some specific examples of the kind of changes faith brings about. Then in chapter three, he begins focusing on strife within the community. And he argues that this strife results from lack of embracing the gospel, that there's this wisdom from above, and then there's earthly wisdom. And the people who are trusting God and growing in faith are growing in this wisdom from above, and that leads to peace and righteousness. And the wisdom of the world leads to quarrel, strife, discord, because we're focusing on ourselves, ambition and jealousy. We're evaluating each other at the expense of others, and so on. So wisdom from above, we summed up as two basic ideas: a growing, single-minded pursuit of the gospel, and a humble, merciful attitude toward others. In other words, loving the Lord my God with all my strength and loving my neighbor as myself. So the single-minded pursuit of the gospel and a humble attitude toward others. Then in chapter 4, he begins the conclusion of the book, which is I think a call to repentance. So in 4 7, submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil, he will flee from you, draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. He begins his final push, and the first thing he says is, wake up. I've seen these red flags in you. You are with this fourth group of people who think you're saved, but your actions, the way you're treating the poor, the rich, these are telling another story. So you need to wake up and do a 180 about face. Stop trusting in the lies of the devil and turn toward God. So humble yourself before your creator. Cry over the things you're boasting in, mourn over the things you're laughing about, because you're embracing the things of the world and not the things of God. And then he ends chapter 4 with these warnings about speech, which again reveals our attitude toward God. And I think this is again an issue of humility, because when I judge someone else, I'm acting as if somehow I am better than them. So to judge someone else does to say, hey, you and me, God, we know how messed up that person is. Let's throw the book at him. And who do we usually judge? Our spouse, right? You know, we know how bad he's doing. Throw the book at him. But in that picture, I'm on the wrong side of the line because I am acting as if God's judgment doesn't fall on me. When it does, God's on the on his side of the line. I'm standing among the condemned. So to slander someone or to to speak against them is this hypocrisy of denying my own need for mercy. It's a way in which I am not humble before God. And then at the end, he also talks about the lack of humility of us believing that we're the masters of our faith, that we are in control. And again, it's acting as if I can plan my life, I can make my plans, show God how great I am, and you know, check in with him now and then as a courtesy, but I'm gonna control my destiny. And he's saying, Who are you to be that? You need to realize God is the one who's in control. So he's summed up his warnings about speech, and I think now he's gonna come back to his warnings about wealth, which is his one of his two major application points, and that's the session we're gonna look at today. So, to look now finally at James 5. We're gonna look at 1 through 6. Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth eaten, your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidenced against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your field, which you kept back by fraud are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord. You have lived on the earth in luxury and self-indulgence, you have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter, you have condemned and murdered the righteous person, he does not resist you. Now his words are pretty blunt, I think, and pretty strong, and they may sound harsh, but remember this the context of this is a call to repentance, which begin back in 4.7. So in 4-7 to 10 he calls for repentance, and 12 through 17 he sums up his warnings about speech, but I'm not to judge and I'm not to boast as if I'm the master of my faith. And now he's summing up the folly of trusting in riches. And if you looked at the commentaries, you probably found there's considerable debate as to who is James talking to. Is he talking to wealthy believers in the congregation, or is he talking to wealthy unbelievers who may be like Jews or God fearers or Gentiles who are hanging around the contr the congregation? And there's some good grammatical arguments on both sides. For instance, some argue that whenever James speaks to believers, he uses the word brethren or brothers and sisters, and he doesn't use that here. So they say, see, he's clearly speaking to non-believers. And others say, but look, he begins the section with Cubnow in 5.1, which is the way he introduced 4.13, that section when he was clearly talking to believers. So he's continuing his address to believers, and you'll find a lot of debate about this. I think, for whatever it's worth, as if my opinion matters, that he is speaking to that fourth group of people, those who claim to have faith and think they are saved, but they are not in fact saved. Their lives reveal a different story, and that, especially because I think this is still part of his call to repentance. So I would say, yes, he's he's speaking to non believers, but these are probably. Non-believers who don't know it, who think they're saved. So he's calling them to repent, and he gives three pieces of evidence that their attitude toward wealth is wrong. They are hoarding, which is verses two and three. They are engaging in fraud, which is verse four, not treating your employees fairly, and they are they are uh living a life of self-indulgence, which is verse five. So hoarding in two and three, fraud in four, and self-indulgence in five. We're gonna go right through those. So two and three, your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten, your gold and silver have corroded, their corrosion will be evidenced against you against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. So the idea is that they have so much excess they can't use it all. Their garments are stored away and they are never ever worn so the moth eats them. They have so much gold and silver that they can't spend it so it corrodes. And the idea is that there's just so much excess, it's wasted before they ever get around to looking at it or using it. Now, there's a difference between hoarding and planning for your retirement. So, I people, I I'm a my business is in the finance world, and my husband and I do a lot of financial counseling for couples, and this is always one of the questions that comes up. Well, if I'm trusting God for my wealth and my money, why am I saving? And how can you encourage me to be rich and to plan for the future? So I'm gonna try to answer that in just a few minutes. It's a big topic, but I think I can give you some groundwork for that. So when it comes to money, we're called to be good stewards. I'm sure that's not a new idea to most of you. A steward is someone who manages someone else's affairs and properties and their finances, but he does not own it. So a steward is responsible for it, but he does not actually own it. God owns all the money and the wealth and the resources of the world, and he gives to each of us a measure that he desires, and we are to manage it and use it wisely. Now the we think that the opposite of good stewardship is ownership. So and we like, you know, you'll see people debate does God own it or do I own it? But in the financial world, the opposite of good stewardship is embezzlement. It is not a question of do I own it? God owns it. The question is, am I embezzling it for my own purposes or am I using it the way God would have me use it? And I think that's the more proper way we ought to look at it. It all belongs to God. The question is, am I using it wisely or unwisely? Am I using it for the things God has called me to do? And am I doing what he would want with the resources he's given me? Now, I think good stewards plan for the future. There are lots and lots of verses in Proverbs about the folly of not planning for the future. And you people tend to overlook those, but there are tons of them. A good steward plans for the rainy day, plans for the unexpected, and lives within his means, knowing that there are going to be future unknowns. And you say, like what? It's like, we don't know. That's the whole point. There will be future unknowns. Maybe you have to buy a plane ticket for someone's future. Maybe you'll be in a car accident, maybe, who knows? There will be an unknown that you're to plan for. So it's easy to see if I spend every last dime I have, that's bad stewardship because I am not planned for the future. But then that raises the question of how do I save from retirement? Is that hoarding? And I would say no, because the day is coming when no one's going to want to pay you to do anything. So isn't that, yeah. So you either have to be self-employed or you need to have planned for your retirement. And not planning for retirement is bad stewardship. In fact, you will find that condemned in Proverbs. Because if I spend everything I have and then I get to a point where I am in need, I am now a burden on you. And I have expected you to take care of me. Well, what right do I have to do that? So the problem with hoarding is not are you saving, it's why are you hoarding? Who are you trusting? And are you hoarding because you don't trust that God's going to take care of you? Or are you ultimately trusting on God and planning on meeting the necessary expenses of retirement and long life? So it all comes down to what's my attitude toward money? Who or what am I counting on? And you can test it by how do you feel when you have to give it away? You know, if you have to pry open the little fingers, you know, that's that could be a bad sign. And we all start there. We all start there with uh we have to learn to be generous. But as we grow in wisdom and maturity, it becomes easier. So all through this letter, James has been concerned with the question of who do you trust, and I think that's still his concern with this section on money. He's not abandoning that theme, he's embracing it head on and saying, these choices you're making are red flag choices. You claim to believe, be a believer, and yet hoarding is your is evidence to me that you're trusting in wealth. Your actions are not in line with a mature faith. So it reveals this attitude of I can't trust God to take care of me, I have to take care of me. I can't give money away because I might need it for me. I can't respond to a need God has dropped on my doorstep because I don't I have to take care of myself. I can't trust God to take care of me. And that's his point that trusting in riches is gonna lead to misery because riches are gonna rot and burn in the end. And a time is coming when money is not gonna matter a single bit. It's going to be worthless on the day of judgment, and in fact, it may be even worse than that because it may be evidence against you if your actions are showing that you're counting on wealth now. So I think the issue in hoarding is not that you have money at all, but what is your attitude toward it? Why do you have it? What are you planning to do with it? What's the money for? Okay, so that now he turns to fraud, I think. In four uh 5-4, behold the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept by fraud, are crying out against you. So throughout this letter, he's warned that the way we treat other people reveals something about our claim to faith. So if we judge by external factors, that says something about our understanding of the gospel or our lack of it. If we treat the rich and the poor differently, that says something about our claim to faith. If we disrespect those at the bottom of the social scale, like widows and orphans, that says something about our understanding of the gospel. And the gospel tells me money is not the pearl of great price, and wealth is not going to save me. So, and it also tells me we're all in the same boat in terms of our relationship with God. We're equally sinful, we need the same grace. My employees are those neighbors I'm supposed to love as I love myself. Why would I treat them unfairly? So, in those days, most workers got their wages at the end of every day, and if you didn't pay them, they didn't eat. Because they used the money they got to go out and buy food for the next day. So if you held back wages, you were essentially making your work your workers starve. And he's saying, What does that show about you? If you're treating those who are supposed to be your brothers with fraud, what does that say about your faith? Because if you've truly embraced the gospel, it says something about how you should treat your neighbor. It says something about whether you're trusting God or not. And this kind of behavior is not the kind of behavior you should be exhibiting. Okay, and then he turns to self-indulgence. You've lived on this earth in luxury and in self-indulgence, you've fattened your heart in the day of slaughter in five and six. And again, I think his concern is what do your actions reveal about what you believe? Because the gospel makes a claim about where blessing is to be found, and that influences how I spend my time and how I spend my money, because time and money are just placeholders for what I value. So the real question is, what am I valuing? Do I value the things of this world such that I'm pursuing luxury and pleasure in the here and now? And that's my chief primary concern, or do I value the things of God? Where am I looking for life? Where am I looking for blessing? Albert Barnes wrote in his commentary, there is no sin in merely being rich. Where sin exists among the rich, it arises from the manner in which wealth is acquired, the spirit which it tends to engender in the heart and the way in which it is used. And I think that pretty well sums it up. The problem is the way it's gained, the way it's used, and the way it's valued. And you can have in, and by the way, the dollar amounts are relevant. You can have a lot or you can have a little. And the way you gain it, the way you use it, and the way you value it is still critically important. Because we all like to think rich is $10,000 more than whatever I'm making now. But that's you can't let yourself off the hook that way. He's talking to all of us because he's concerned with the attitude that we have toward riches. And again, I think he's being harsh because this is a call to repentance. He wants these people to wake up and see what their actions say about them. Oh, we've got to go move on. So he begins this letter with a call to remain steadfast through trials, and I think that's how he's gonna circle back to close it. So as he moves into 5-7, he's gonna come back to this theme of be patient through suffering. So look, let's look at five through nine. Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. So as he's gonna wrap up this letter, he's gonna make his strongest appeal to persevere in the faith. Wait patiently, hang on to the Lord, the prize is worth the wait. So he's encouraging them to live out their lives with this eager, confident expectation that Jesus is in fact coming, the trial is gonna end, and the Lord is gonna be compassionate and merciful and make things right. Or to go back to my analogy from a couple weeks ago, to live in the life bold as if the shore really is five minutes away. It is coming. So the analogy he uses is see how the farmer waits. It's this idea that life unfolds in seasons. You have rain, then you have drought, you have planting, you have reaping, you sow your seed, then you wait for the rains, you wait for the sprouts, you wait for the harvest. Each season follows another. And he's saying life is like that, it has seasons. There's going to be seasons of spiritual drought, there's going to be seasons of spiritual hardship, and there's going to be seasons of spiritual plenty. So they will, one will follow another. And our job is to wait patiently for what the Lord will do. So we accept the hardships, the dry spells, because we know they're part of the fruitful process. The trial will lead to maturity and faith. We can't just jump over the hard parts and skip along the top of life from good time to good time. That's not how it works. There are peaks and valleys, and we wait and stand firm in the promises of God. So in agriculture, hardship is kind of reasonable and expected. It has its up and downs. There will be a dry season, there will be a rainy season. One will eventually give way to the others. And I think that's part of his point. The trials are going to end. Like agriculture, there will be seasons, they will come, they have a purpose, that purpose will be revealed. And they will end. Now he's not insisting that we be happy about it. I mean, we may feel nothing of the sort. Instead, I think he would call us to this settled conviction that there is a reason for this trial, there is a purpose. It's not just a random purpose, it is a great, wonderful, truly valuable purpose. And that purpose is that our faith would be tested and that we would grow in wisdom. And that is worth everything. And it's a purpose that is so wonderful that we ought to gratefully go through whatever God puts in our path. So we walk with this settled conviction that there is a purpose for the trial and that they are preparing me for the day that is coming, that on that judgment day I will be dressed, perfect and complete, lacking in nothing, because God has grown my faith through this. So that of course raises the question: well, how long? How long do I have to be patient? How long do I have to wait? And his answer is until the coming of the Lord, which I take to mean as long as it takes. It's not going to get better this side of heaven. Because the purpose that we're working toward, the goal we're working toward, is going to ultimately be resolved when Jesus comes back. And at that point he will make all things right. And we will be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Tears will be wiped away, all wrongs will be put right, but that's how long you wait. As long as it takes. So essentially, I think he's saying, go the distance. Wait as long as it takes. Keep your eyes on the promise. That promise is worth waiting for, and everything, and I mean everything we go through now is worth it. So we all want the suffering to end. And we all want it to end now or tomorrow. And sometimes it does end, and sometimes it doesn't end in this life. But our job is to wait patiently until Jesus comes back or he calls us home. So, from like the farmer, seasons are going to come and go. There's work, there's rest, there's wait, there's work, there's rest. There are wet seasons, there are dry seasons. You plant and you sow and you wait, and he's saying, You will see the fruit of your labors. Just like the farmer, you will see the fruit of your labors, and your job is to wait patiently. Okay, do not grumble against one another. I think he adds that. Why grumble? Uh, apart from the fact that one of his major themes has been speech, I think it reveals where our heart is. If we're grumbling, we're not focused on the promise. We're focusing on the circumstance or the trial or the temptation or the hardship. Um, but if you're focusing on the promise, the purpose of the trial, the place the trial is taking you, what it's revealing to you about your faith, then you're you're we have an attitude of gratitude, not grumbling. And I think the idea of um so that you may not be judged, is the same idea he had earlier about you show mercy because you've received mercy, because you understand how what the gospel says is true about you, and that everyone is in the same boat. And then the coming of the Lord is the fulfillment of the promise. So when he says the judge is standing at the door, I think he's saying, it's going to happen. It is so certain that it's gonna happen that it's like he's there now. So the trial will end, the purpose will be revealed, it will happen, and how are you gonna survive it? You have to embrace the gospel, you have to wait patiently. Then, 10, as an example of the suffering and patience brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Prophets really did not have an easy life. Just, you know, review Jeremiah's life. But they remained steadfast through it all. So, I mean, you can look at the life of James himself. He was martyred for his faith, and you can say, look what they suffered, look what they went through, and yet they remained steadfast. And then 5.11, behold, we consider those blessed who remain steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, you've seen the purpose of the Lord and how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. So the farmer, the analogy of the farmer gives us this idea of life has seasons that come and go. Bringing Job into the picture gives a whole new set of uh whole new analogy. Both circumstances require us to trust God, but Job's experience is like pain in chaos. His suffering was not, you know, a dry season between early and late rains. It was this wave after wave of tragedy and this overwhelming storm of chaos. So he had a very difficult life. He lost everything, his children, all his wealth, all his cattle, all his livestock, which is his business. He lost a lot of his friends, his health. He didn't have an easy button to push. He lost everything. So I think by bringing Job in, he's giving us a different kind of picture. Not this season, but what if your life is one unending wave of storm after storm? And we can learn from Job, because Job didn't receive an answer to the question, why me? But he did see why this was a kind of the glorious purpose of it all. So at the end of the book of Job, God reveals himself to Job, and this is Job's response. This is Job 42, I'm gonna read 2 through 6. And it's a little confusing to read because he Job is speaking in the first person, and then he is quoting God. And since you can't see the quote marks, I'm gonna try to tell you when he's quoting God. So in 42, 2, I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. And then quoting God, who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? And then he gets back to Job. Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. You, God said, Hear and I will speak, I will question you, and you make it known to me. And then Job responds, I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. So it's a little hard to follow, but the at the end of all his suffering, God reveals to him the purpose of it all, and he says, I didn't get it. I didn't see. It was too wonderful for me to understand. I heard, but I didn't get it. So now that I see, I despise myself, I repent. So even though God never explained all the reasons why his life was so hard, he did show something of the purpose for which he was working. And Job says, I get it. I see, I didn't understand before. I was speaking of things too wonderful for me to understand. I was complaining about things I barely had a grasp of, but now I see, and that's the promise for us, that one day, like Job, we're gonna see. We're gonna see where the trial took us, we're gonna see the purpose of all that pain, and we're gonna look at it and say, it's wonderful, it's glorious. I get it. I didn't get it then, but I get it now, and we're gonna consider ourselves blessed. Just like Job. So as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4 17, for this light momentary affliction, who would describe their life that way? Light momentary affliction. But in the light of eternity, this light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. And that's what Job saw. And he says, I repent of my former complaining. I get it now. It was worth it. It was wonderful. And that's what James is calling the two. Eventually we're gonna see and we're gonna understand and we're gonna be glad for these trials, but for now we wait. We wait and we trust the Lord. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that these things are too wonderful for us to understand, and we pray that you would give us the faith, the confidence to face each day, to face each trial and hardship, the good times, the bad times, the famine and the plenty. Just to face that, knowing you are our God, that your hand is on us, that you are in control, that nothing can happen to us that is outside your com your control or will surprise you, and that you have a wonderful, glorious purpose for it all. And even though we don't see it now, I pray that you would give us that assurance of knowing that we are your children, of looking at those trials and seeing evidence of faith, and waiting patiently for the day when you will come back and make all things right. In Jesus' name. Amen. Speaker: Thank you for joining us at Wednesday in the Word with Krisan Marotta. We hope you have enjoyed our study together and grown closer to the Lord. Please let us know if you have any questions about this study. 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