http://www.midnightcall.com/articles/messages/item/462-the-most-precious-fruit
Spiritually speaking, we are all farmers. The Bible often uses examples from the world of agriculture. We are all working in the field, the place where God has put us.
Spiritually speaking, we are all farmers. The Bible often uses examples from the world of agriculture. We are all working in the field, the place where God has put us.
The New International Version says, “See how the farmer waits….” Spiritually speaking, we are all farmers. The Bible often uses examples from the world of agriculture. We are all working in the field, the place where God has put us. We “sow” and “reap,” we “plant” and "water,” we “weed” and “tend” the plants, whether it be within the family, marriage, the bringing up of children or in our contact with other people. And we live in hope of a good harvest at the end of our lives.
James also uses in his letter a picture from the world of agriculture, “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door. Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy” (James 5:7-11).
Three things are passed on to the Church through James’s allegory:
1.The proximity of the return of Jesus.
2.The inner preparation for His return.
3.The practical application in view of His return.
1.THE PROXIMITY OF THE RETURN OF JESUS
It is certainly significant that our relatively short text speaks three times of the immediate return of the Lord:
James 5:7, “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.”James 5:8, “Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.”James 5:9, “Behold, the judge standeth before the door.”
The apostle and half-brother of Jesus tells his readers to await the coming of the Lord and not to wait for any preceding signs. The next great sign that the Church has to expect is the return of the Lord for His Church, to take her home. We must be clear that the Rapture can take place suddenly and completely unexpectedly. If the Holy Spirit inspired James to write that the Lord could come during his lifetime 2,000 years ago, this emphasizes the proximity of the Rapture as the next event we have to await.
Let us consider these three quotations from verses 7, 8 and 9, which refer to the imminent return, one after another: “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord” (verse 7).
What is true waiting?
To await a promised event means that I have a fixation on it, that I am awaiting this event and not something else. This tells us that the Church is not waiting for the signs of the return of Jesus in glory, not for the Great Tribulation, not the Antichrist nor the wrath of God which will be poured out in judgments, but for the Lord’s coming for the Church.My nephew trained to be a chef. When he had taken all his exams, he was told that he could soon await the result of them, and he would receive them by mail. Every time I spoke to my nephew we spoke about the imminent results. He and his family were waiting expectantly. His mother told me how he went to the mailbox first thing every morning hoping to find the results of his exams in it. Nobody would have thought of waiting for anything else, like a pre-result. It would have been possible for something else to be in the mailbox, but not necessarily. It would also have been possible for it to take a few more days, but it didn’t need to. He was waiting for nothing other than his examination results. In this way the generations before ours waited for the Lord and not signs, and He really could have come, “…for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh”, or “…the Lord’s coming is near,” as it says in the New International Version.
What does “nigh” or “near” mean?
It means a close proximity of something. If the Rapture could have been before James’s time, and if other signs had to be fulfilled first, the Holy Spirit would not have inspired James to write these words. From this statement we also see that the Holy Spirit is speaking of the Rapture, for the visible return of Jesus in glory is preceded by definite events as signs, but James does not mention these. He speaks to “brethren” (verse 7), that is, to the Church, and of the return of the Lord for the Church, the Rapture. “Behold, the judge standeth [at] the door” (verse 9).
What does it mean that Jesus is standing at the door as judge?
If an expected visitor is already at the door, there is no other event that is nearer than this visit. What else are we to expect than that He could come at any moment? Who or what could come between Him and the door? After Pentecost and the building of the Church, the Rapture with the following judgements is the next spiritual event. Therefore, with the coming of Jesus the judge is also standing at the door.
In 2 Corinthians 5 we find a clear parallel to and explanation of this. First, Paul speaks of the Rapture and uses the picture of being “clothed.” “For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit… For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:4-5 & 10). Paul is speaking here of three relevant things:
1. “We do not wish to be unclothed,” meaning we do not want to die,“…but to be clothed,” transformed at the Rapture, whereby what is mortal is “swallowed up by life.”
2. We have the Holy Spirit as a deposit (a down-payment, a guarantee) of this. He will take the Church to heaven, like Pentecost in reverse, at the Rapture (2 Thessalonians 2:6-7).
3. After the Rapture comes the appearing before the judgment seat of Christ.
Are you waiting for Jesus? Are you waiting for Him to appear at any time? Are you expecting Him to come today? It is one of the great failures within the Church that this attitude of expectancy has disappeared, and therefore she is lukewarm where other Biblical truths and sanctification are concerned. I heard of a man who so lived in the expectancy of the return of Jesus that he always ate the dessert first! This may seem exaggerated, but why should we not exaggerate if it helps us?
The abovementioned example of this man, even if it is an extreme example, is a lovely picture of the inner attitude we should adopt where the return of the Lord is concerned. We should love His appearing. Love does not tolerate anything coming between us and the object of our love. Recently one of our daughters said to us at dinner, “I have not seen my husband for 14 hours now. I hope he comes soon!” The return of Jesus at the Rapture is the greatest historical and political event of the future. All natural phenomena, all scientific discoveries, everything will be nothing in comparison to this. The Church should be doing everything to express her hope of the coming of Jesus. And this is just what God is putting His finger on through James. We should be patient and strengthen our hearts, “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman [the farmer] waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh” (James 5:7-8).
The emphasis is on the term “patient” in this allegory and strengthening our hearts in expectation of the return of Jesus.
What does the farmer do as far as his work is concerned? He waits patiently for the precious fruit and does not let himself be discouraged. He works for this fruit, he lives for it, he invests in it. He knows the work is hard, and the possibility of bad weather, pests, drought, etc., and yet he waits patiently for the fruit. This example is used in connection with our expectation of the return of Jesus. We should overcome all unpleasant things, all setbacks—“bad weather,” “pests” or even persecution where our vision of the return of the Lord is concerned. We should look beyond everything to Jesus and His return. Patience means that the Lord Jesus Christ does not have to come today, but he could come and He will come one day. It is a “precious fruit” to wait for the return of Jesus. This is not an exaggeration, something outlandish, but something precious.
Patience (endurance) produces inner stability, “Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh” (verse 8). What is a good foundation for inner stability, for conquering and persevering, for strengthening and comfort? To be convinced of the return of Jesus. In the passage concerning the Rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4, the Bible tells us a similar thing to James, “Wherefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:18).
Every inner attitude also has a practical effect. What are the practical effects?
Lay aside anger:
“Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door” (James 5:9). Here too I would like to quote the New International Version, “Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!”
Is not this statement interesting in view of the return of Jesus? Here it is not the so-called “grave sins” that are spoken of, like lying, occultism, immorality or theft. We should give no room to negative thoughts concerning our brothers and sisters in the faith. We should not be annoyed, nor even grumble. Why does the Lord demand this? Because annoyance costs us strength, possesses us and devours us. It divides, distracts us from what is relevant and makes us incapable of doing really fruitful things. “He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap” (Ecclesiastes 11:4).
It is interesting that no reason for grumbling is given here, because grumbling is already in itself wrong. If we are annoyed with someone who is, spiritually speaking, our brother or sister, then the discussion of who is right or wrong is irrelevant. Being annoyed is wrong and unspiritual. Paul wrote, “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:30-32).]
John Wesley once said, “I have often regretted judging too harshly, but seldom of being too kind.” How we can get upset over another person, inwardly complaining about him or her, hinting at our feelings or even causing a violent quarrel. It is often our own discontent, the lack of the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives, which expresses itself in criticism and seeking fault in others. The Bible does not say anything about who is right or wrong in this text, but simply says, “Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned.” Christians who accuse one another are all under the judgment of God.
“…Behold, the judge standeth [at] the door.”
The Judge who is standing at the door will have the last word. He will pronounce the judgment. And instead of us devouring one another, we should be working in the fields in the expectation of our Lord. We should notice thereby that each one has his own field that he is put in and for which he is responsible. We should not force our way into another person’s field with bad intentions, but see that our own is cultivated.
Suffering sorrow:
“Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure” (verses 10-11). We praise the suffering prophets today, like Isaiah, Jeremiah or Daniel. We call them blessed.
- Isaiah was sawn in half at the command of Manasseh, according to tradition.
- Jeremiah was probably stoned by his own people.
- Daniel was thrown into the lions’ den, but was preserved by God.
We need to persevere and endure in a hard and unpleasant time. We must not give up but carry on, continue to pray, to believe and to trust. In spite of all unpleasantness, we must fulfill the service we have been called to. Are you about to give up, to resign and throw in the towel? God wants to encourage us not to do this through this text from the epistle of James.
Look at the end:
“Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy” (James 5:11).
We know that Job had his weaknesses, faults and laments, but ultimately he remained firm in his faith. He was faced with family and material losses, cruelty in various forms, attacks of Satan, sickness, criticism, and isolation. But we also see the end that the Lord had prepared for him. Only the end counts, only the goal. The Greek word for end that is used here is telos, and means goal. Job was given more at the end than he lost at the beginning. His story is eternal in the Bible and is a blessing for millions of people on all continents. Your and my life has a goal. This is what counts. Let us not let it become dark through impatience, complaining or fleeing.
Job’s sufferings show us, moreover, not a cruel God but His pity and mercy. God did not let go of Job. He turned everything into blessing and let him experience His pity and mercy. We will also be able to see at the end of our lives, when we reach the goal, that it was God’s pity that brought us through. Let us therefore persevere until He returns. Then we will be amazed!
James also uses in his letter a picture from the world of agriculture, “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door. Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy” (James 5:7-11).
Three things are passed on to the Church through James’s allegory:
1.The proximity of the return of Jesus.
2.The inner preparation for His return.
3.The practical application in view of His return.
1.THE PROXIMITY OF THE RETURN OF JESUS
It is certainly significant that our relatively short text speaks three times of the immediate return of the Lord:
James 5:7, “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.”James 5:8, “Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.”James 5:9, “Behold, the judge standeth before the door.”
The apostle and half-brother of Jesus tells his readers to await the coming of the Lord and not to wait for any preceding signs. The next great sign that the Church has to expect is the return of the Lord for His Church, to take her home. We must be clear that the Rapture can take place suddenly and completely unexpectedly. If the Holy Spirit inspired James to write that the Lord could come during his lifetime 2,000 years ago, this emphasizes the proximity of the Rapture as the next event we have to await.
Let us consider these three quotations from verses 7, 8 and 9, which refer to the imminent return, one after another: “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord” (verse 7).
What is true waiting?
To await a promised event means that I have a fixation on it, that I am awaiting this event and not something else. This tells us that the Church is not waiting for the signs of the return of Jesus in glory, not for the Great Tribulation, not the Antichrist nor the wrath of God which will be poured out in judgments, but for the Lord’s coming for the Church.My nephew trained to be a chef. When he had taken all his exams, he was told that he could soon await the result of them, and he would receive them by mail. Every time I spoke to my nephew we spoke about the imminent results. He and his family were waiting expectantly. His mother told me how he went to the mailbox first thing every morning hoping to find the results of his exams in it. Nobody would have thought of waiting for anything else, like a pre-result. It would have been possible for something else to be in the mailbox, but not necessarily. It would also have been possible for it to take a few more days, but it didn’t need to. He was waiting for nothing other than his examination results. In this way the generations before ours waited for the Lord and not signs, and He really could have come, “…for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh”, or “…the Lord’s coming is near,” as it says in the New International Version.
What does “nigh” or “near” mean?
It means a close proximity of something. If the Rapture could have been before James’s time, and if other signs had to be fulfilled first, the Holy Spirit would not have inspired James to write these words. From this statement we also see that the Holy Spirit is speaking of the Rapture, for the visible return of Jesus in glory is preceded by definite events as signs, but James does not mention these. He speaks to “brethren” (verse 7), that is, to the Church, and of the return of the Lord for the Church, the Rapture. “Behold, the judge standeth [at] the door” (verse 9).
What does it mean that Jesus is standing at the door as judge?
If an expected visitor is already at the door, there is no other event that is nearer than this visit. What else are we to expect than that He could come at any moment? Who or what could come between Him and the door? After Pentecost and the building of the Church, the Rapture with the following judgements is the next spiritual event. Therefore, with the coming of Jesus the judge is also standing at the door.
In 2 Corinthians 5 we find a clear parallel to and explanation of this. First, Paul speaks of the Rapture and uses the picture of being “clothed.” “For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit… For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:4-5 & 10). Paul is speaking here of three relevant things:
1. “We do not wish to be unclothed,” meaning we do not want to die,“…but to be clothed,” transformed at the Rapture, whereby what is mortal is “swallowed up by life.”
2. We have the Holy Spirit as a deposit (a down-payment, a guarantee) of this. He will take the Church to heaven, like Pentecost in reverse, at the Rapture (2 Thessalonians 2:6-7).
3. After the Rapture comes the appearing before the judgment seat of Christ.
Are you waiting for Jesus? Are you waiting for Him to appear at any time? Are you expecting Him to come today? It is one of the great failures within the Church that this attitude of expectancy has disappeared, and therefore she is lukewarm where other Biblical truths and sanctification are concerned. I heard of a man who so lived in the expectancy of the return of Jesus that he always ate the dessert first! This may seem exaggerated, but why should we not exaggerate if it helps us?
2.THE INNER EXPECTANCY OF HIS RETURN.
The abovementioned example of this man, even if it is an extreme example, is a lovely picture of the inner attitude we should adopt where the return of the Lord is concerned. We should love His appearing. Love does not tolerate anything coming between us and the object of our love. Recently one of our daughters said to us at dinner, “I have not seen my husband for 14 hours now. I hope he comes soon!” The return of Jesus at the Rapture is the greatest historical and political event of the future. All natural phenomena, all scientific discoveries, everything will be nothing in comparison to this. The Church should be doing everything to express her hope of the coming of Jesus. And this is just what God is putting His finger on through James. We should be patient and strengthen our hearts, “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman [the farmer] waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh” (James 5:7-8).
The emphasis is on the term “patient” in this allegory and strengthening our hearts in expectation of the return of Jesus.
What does the farmer do as far as his work is concerned? He waits patiently for the precious fruit and does not let himself be discouraged. He works for this fruit, he lives for it, he invests in it. He knows the work is hard, and the possibility of bad weather, pests, drought, etc., and yet he waits patiently for the fruit. This example is used in connection with our expectation of the return of Jesus. We should overcome all unpleasant things, all setbacks—“bad weather,” “pests” or even persecution where our vision of the return of the Lord is concerned. We should look beyond everything to Jesus and His return. Patience means that the Lord Jesus Christ does not have to come today, but he could come and He will come one day. It is a “precious fruit” to wait for the return of Jesus. This is not an exaggeration, something outlandish, but something precious.
Patience (endurance) produces inner stability, “Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh” (verse 8). What is a good foundation for inner stability, for conquering and persevering, for strengthening and comfort? To be convinced of the return of Jesus. In the passage concerning the Rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4, the Bible tells us a similar thing to James, “Wherefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:18).
3. THE PRACTICAL EFFECTS IN VIEW OF HIS RETURN.
Every inner attitude also has a practical effect. What are the practical effects?
Lay aside anger:
“Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door” (James 5:9). Here too I would like to quote the New International Version, “Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!”
Is not this statement interesting in view of the return of Jesus? Here it is not the so-called “grave sins” that are spoken of, like lying, occultism, immorality or theft. We should give no room to negative thoughts concerning our brothers and sisters in the faith. We should not be annoyed, nor even grumble. Why does the Lord demand this? Because annoyance costs us strength, possesses us and devours us. It divides, distracts us from what is relevant and makes us incapable of doing really fruitful things. “He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap” (Ecclesiastes 11:4).
It is interesting that no reason for grumbling is given here, because grumbling is already in itself wrong. If we are annoyed with someone who is, spiritually speaking, our brother or sister, then the discussion of who is right or wrong is irrelevant. Being annoyed is wrong and unspiritual. Paul wrote, “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:30-32).]
John Wesley once said, “I have often regretted judging too harshly, but seldom of being too kind.” How we can get upset over another person, inwardly complaining about him or her, hinting at our feelings or even causing a violent quarrel. It is often our own discontent, the lack of the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives, which expresses itself in criticism and seeking fault in others. The Bible does not say anything about who is right or wrong in this text, but simply says, “Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned.” Christians who accuse one another are all under the judgment of God.
“…Behold, the judge standeth [at] the door.”
The Judge who is standing at the door will have the last word. He will pronounce the judgment. And instead of us devouring one another, we should be working in the fields in the expectation of our Lord. We should notice thereby that each one has his own field that he is put in and for which he is responsible. We should not force our way into another person’s field with bad intentions, but see that our own is cultivated.
Suffering sorrow:
“Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure” (verses 10-11). We praise the suffering prophets today, like Isaiah, Jeremiah or Daniel. We call them blessed.
- Isaiah was sawn in half at the command of Manasseh, according to tradition.
- Jeremiah was probably stoned by his own people.
- Daniel was thrown into the lions’ den, but was preserved by God.
We need to persevere and endure in a hard and unpleasant time. We must not give up but carry on, continue to pray, to believe and to trust. In spite of all unpleasantness, we must fulfill the service we have been called to. Are you about to give up, to resign and throw in the towel? God wants to encourage us not to do this through this text from the epistle of James.
Look at the end:
“Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy” (James 5:11).
We know that Job had his weaknesses, faults and laments, but ultimately he remained firm in his faith. He was faced with family and material losses, cruelty in various forms, attacks of Satan, sickness, criticism, and isolation. But we also see the end that the Lord had prepared for him. Only the end counts, only the goal. The Greek word for end that is used here is telos, and means goal. Job was given more at the end than he lost at the beginning. His story is eternal in the Bible and is a blessing for millions of people on all continents. Your and my life has a goal. This is what counts. Let us not let it become dark through impatience, complaining or fleeing.
Job’s sufferings show us, moreover, not a cruel God but His pity and mercy. God did not let go of Job. He turned everything into blessing and let him experience His pity and mercy. We will also be able to see at the end of our lives, when we reach the goal, that it was God’s pity that brought us through. Let us therefore persevere until He returns. Then we will be amazed!
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