Joan Boney
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Longsuffering of God
The world was very evil and God decided to destroy the world.
Genesis 6:5-8 ... And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that HE had made man on the earth, and it grieved HIM at HIS heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth ME that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
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Because God did not want to destroy Noah, God held back the destruction until Noah finished the ark so Noah would not be destroyed with the wicked.
I Peter 3:20 ... when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing,
Peter speaks of the "longsuffering of God" in the pending destruction of this present heaven and earth.
II 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.
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God is longsuffering "to us-ward", to his own people, not willing that we would perish. Like God saved Noah from the wrath to come, God will save HIS own people from the wrath. God is not willing that HIS people perish. The world will perish as they did in the days of Noah, but God will save HIS people from the appointed wrath while the others are destroyed. Just as in the days of Noah.
I Peter 3:10 ... But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
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I Thess. 5:1-10 ... But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with HIM.
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As with Noah, God is not willing to destroy us, HIS people, along with the world in the end-time wrath.
God waits until the way of escape is brought by HIM and ready for us.
As God waits in bringing the wrath, we view the longsuffering of God, not willing that we should perish with the worldly. Exactly like the days of Noah.
Jesus says, concerning the end of this world ...
Mt. 24:36-51 ... But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but MY Father only. But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
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