Perseverance

        “Take the old prophets as your mentors. They put up with anything, went through everything, and never once quit, all the time honoring God. What a gift life is to those who stay the course! You’ve heard, of course, of Job’s staying power, and you know how God brought it all together for him at the end. That’s because God cares, cares right down to the last detail” (James 5:11 MSG).

        Staying the course, persevering, not giving up, standing in faith, unwavering. In the midst of trials, temptations, and disappointments, perseverance is often easier said than done.

        When I think of perseverance, two Old Testament characters come to my mind – Noah and Daniel. Let’s look at each of them a bit more closely.

NOAH

        In his second epistle, Peter calls Noah a “preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5). The writer to the Hebrews wrote that “by faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith” (Hebrews 11:7 NASB).

        Jesus referred to the days of Noah when He talked about His return. “When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. In those days, the people enjoyed banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat and the flood came and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:26-27 NLT).

      We don’t know how long it took Noah to build the ark. Some suggest 120 years based on Genesis 6:3 – “Then Jehovah said, ‘My Spirit must not forever be disgraced in man, wholly evil as he is. I will give him 120 years to mend his ways” (TLB).

      Based on the size of the ark, it had to take a long time to build. And all that time, Noah preached, day after day after day. And NO ONE heeded his warning. NO ONE repented. If anyone demonstrated perseverance, Noah did!

      Think how Noah’s heart must have ached. I’m sure friends, relatives, neighbours, acquaintances heard his preaching. But NONE of them paid attention. He could have become discouraged. He could have remained silent. He could have given up. But he didn’t.

      Because of Noah’s preaching, no one who was lost in the flood could say they didn’t have the opportunity to hear destruction was coming, and avail themselves of the safety of the ark.
 
 
DANIEL

        Daniel was a young man when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon captured Jerusalem and took him and members of other noble families and the royal family to Babylon. As an exile, everything familiar in Daniel’s life was gone.

        A worshiper of the one true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Daniel was given the name Belteshazzar, which means ‘Bel’s Prince’. Bel, which means “lord,” aka Marduk, was the patron deity of Babylon.

        The purpose of changing the names of Daniel and his three friends was to indoctrinate them into the religion and culture of Babylon. But even though the four young men had to answer to the names of foreign gods, they never forgot their allegiance to the one true God, Yahweh.

        We see their unwavering loyalty to Yahweh in their refusal to eat the king’s food,  bow down to Nebuchadnezzar’s gold statue, or pray to the king. In the face of fiery furnaces and hungry lions, they persevered.

     The Scripture never records that the four Hebrews ever felt sorry for themselves, or compromised, or allowed the Babylonian religion and culture to seep into their souls. Instead, they kept their eyes fixed on the living and true God, NEVER wavering. They lived by 2 Chronicles 15:7, “But as for you, be strong; don’t give up, for your work has a reward.”
​
           Today, in light of those who have gone before us, let us do as the Apostle Paul admonished – to persevere, and “not grow tired of doing good, for, unless we throw in our hand, the ultimate harvest is assured” (Galatians 6:9 Phillips).