⁹The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

The Lord is not slow! What a statement to make. That is the flat-out response to those claiming that the promise of final judgment will not happen, on the basis that the promise has gone unfulfilled for a long time. The question of God’s speed in getting things done is quite superficial and limited by our capabilities (as we discussed previously).

The issue, though, begs the question of why it is taking so long for that final judgment to come. It is not because God is slow but because He is intentional. At this juncture, we cannot escape talking about this concept in our limited terms of time. To us, it is a long time coming, but there is a reason for that. He is not slack, forgetful. He is not like someone dangling a carrot in front of a mule to get it moving, even though the carrot is unattainable.

God is not slow; He is deliberate. He is working His plan. In our fast-paced times today, when TV solves problems in sixty minutes, things and relationships are replaced at a whim, and promises are easily broken, God’s timing seems intolerable. But faith in Him takes us up above the limitations and strictures of the worldly way of seeing things. When we pray, “Our Father, who is in heaven . . .” we ascend to Him who is the Ancient of Days (Dan. 7:13), who, in the persona of Melchizedek, was “without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life. . . .” (Heb. 7:4). From that vantage point, we can see more clearly that God’s timing for end-time judgment is conditioned by His patience, not by slackness.

Here we see the heart of God so clearly; His delay in time reveals His character of patience. And His patience is motivated by His desire. What is His desire? It is not to destroy people in judgment. True, God is the one who will bring judgment and condemnation, but that is not His primary goal. Judgment is the natural consequence of rejecting the Creator; it is inherent in how God created all things out of nothing. We owe our existence to Him. To reject Him is to deny our very existence. At the core of rebellion against God is a complete corruption of ourselves. The result of this is destruction. We see this as God’s doing because that is the essence of how He created things.

His goal is and always has been to rescue us from the consequences of sin. “God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:17). So God holds His judgment back for now because His ultimate desire is that everyone would repent.

Lord, help me not waste my remaining time but tell the gospel now to others.