James 5:7-11
Patient Until the Rains
7Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer awaits the precious fruit of the soil—how patient he is for the fall and spring rains.
8You, too, be patient and strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near.
9Do not complain about one another, brothers, so that you will not be judged. Look, the Judge is standing at the door!
10Brothers, as an example of patience in affliction, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
11See how blessed we consider those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen the outcome from the Lord. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.
Berean Standard Bible
After the thunder against the rich, James turns back to the believers those rich have been crushing, and his word to them is patience. Not resignation, but the patience of someone waiting for something certain to arrive.
See how the farmer awaits the precious fruit of the soil—how patient he is for the fall and spring rains.
The farmer is his picture, and it is a careful one. A farmer cannot hurry a crop. He puts the seed in and then waits through the seasons, through the early rains and the late ones, for a harvest he cannot force and did not make. He is not idle and he is not anxious. He waits because he knows what is coming. So too, James says, strengthen your hearts, because the Lord's coming is near. The one you are waiting for is on his way.
Then he adds a warning aimed at people worn thin by waiting.
Do not complain about one another, brothers, so that you will not be judged. Look, the Judge is standing at the door!
The one who grumbles against his brothers will be judged too, James warns, and the Judge is standing at the door. The waiting he calls for is not only toward the Lord's coming but toward one another in the meantime. Then James hands them two examples to steady them: the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord and suffered for it, and Job, who lost nearly everything and persevered. He does not offer them heroes who were spared the trouble, but people God carried through it. Their patience was not an easy temperament but perseverance under real affliction. And he ends on the ground under all of it.
The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.
That is why the waiting is bearable. It is not patience toward a distant or a harsh God, but toward one who is full of compassion, the same God who brought Job through to the end of his story. Patience, in James, is not gritted teeth. It is trust that the one coming is kind.
How We Know
James assumes his readers know how Job's story ended. "You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen the outcome from the Lord," he says. The outcome is in Job 42:10, where, after all Job's losses and long suffering, the LORD restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had owned before. So when James points to Job, he is not only pointing to the patience but to the mercy that met it in the end, which is the very compassion and mercy he names in the same breath. The example only works because the outcome is known.
Questions
1 What does James tell the waiting believers to do, and what picture does he use?
AnswerTo be patient until the Lord's coming, like a farmer. The farmer waits through the seasons for a crop he cannot hurry, and James holds him up as a picture of waiting that is neither idle nor anxious but quietly sure of what is coming.
2 Why does James warn them not to grumble against one another?
AnswerBecause the Judge is standing at the door. James warns that a believer who grumbles against his brothers will be judged, so he tells people worn thin by waiting to guard how they treat one another.
3 What examples of patience does James give?
AnswerThe prophets, who spoke in God's name and suffered for it, and Job, who lost nearly everything and persevered. He points to people who held on under real affliction, not to anyone who found waiting easy.
4 What ground does James give for patient waiting?
AnswerThat the Lord is full of compassion and mercy. The waiting is not toward a distant or harsh God but toward a kind one, the same God who brought Job through to a good end, which is what makes the patience bearable.
What This Means for Us
Think of the hard thing this family is waiting through right now, the answer that has not come, the season that will not lift, and set the farmer beside it. He does not force the harvest; he trusts the rains. Ask God for that kind of patience, and watch the place where it usually breaks first: how you treat each other when the waiting wears on you. The one you are waiting for is full of compassion, and he is near.
Prayer
Compassionate Lord, we are tired of waiting, and when we tire we turn on the people closest to us. Forgive the grumbling that pressure pulls out of us. Make us patient like the farmer, sure that your harvest is coming and that you are near. You are full of compassion and mercy. Help us to wait on you as those who know it. Amen.