Part 3: God’s Long-Suffering Is Not God’s Approval
Picture the partridge again. She has been sitting on that nest of stolen eggs for weeks. Nothing has gone wrong. No hawk has swooped in and no farmer has run her off. Every morning she wakes up on the same eggs and every night she settles back down on them. As far as she can tell, this is working.
However, she has confused time with permission.
Jeremiah 17:11 “As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.”
Notice the words “in the midst of his days.” Jeremiah does not say the man loses everything the day he takes it. He says the loss comes later. He has stopped worrying about it.
The Delay Is Not the Verdict
Part 1 told us the heart lies first. Part 2 told us the effort produces nothing. Part 3 is about the time in between.
The heart lies, hands act, and the eggs get warmed. And then nothing happens. For days, weeks, or even years. The partridge sits on the nest and life keeps moving.
The bills get paid, business is good and the friends still call. And we start to think God must be alright with what we are doing, because nothing has fallen apart yet.
That is where the second lie takes over. The first lie was that the eggs belonged to her. The second lie is that God’s silence means His approval.
Ecclesiastes 8:11 “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.”
Solomon is not saying evil goes unpunished. He is saying that when the punishment does not come right away, the heart gets bolder. The delay makes people worse, not better. The partridge that sat on the nest for a week goes back to the nest the next week with even less hesitation. Time is hardening her.
Why God Waits
The delay is not weakness on God’s part; it is mercy.
2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
God is patient. Every day the partridge sits on the wrong nest is another day God is giving her to get up and leave it. Every week the man holds onto dishonest gain is another week God is giving him to repent and give it back. The delay is not permission, it’s an opportunity to get right.
But if you mistake the mercy for approval, you will use the time to sink deeper instead of to get out.
Romans 2:4-5 “Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”
Paul says every day of unpunished sin is a day the sinner is storing up wrath for himself. The delay is not a discount, it’s a deposit. And every day the partridge sits on the wrong nest, she is not getting away with anything. She is adding weight to the day the account comes due.
What Time Cannot Change
Time can hide a lot of things. It cannot change any of them.
Time cannot make stolen eggs hatch. Time cannot make dishonest money holy. Time cannot make a wrong nest into the right one. The partridge can sit on those eggs for a full season and still walk away with nothing to show for it, because time does not have the power to change what was wrong at the beginning.
Galatians 6:7-8 “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”
The delay does not change the harvest. The delay only decides how much crop is coming when the day arrives.
Do Not Waste the Waiting
The mercy God is showing you today is not a signal that He does not see. It is a signal that He is giving you time to move.
Get off the wrong nest while there is still time. Do not measure your standing before God by how quietly things are going right now. Measure it by whether the eggs you are sitting on are actually yours. The partridge does not know how much time she has left before the day comes. Neither do we.
Get up before the waiting runs out.
