It is not only a mystery, but it is a 'mystery of love.' We can see
but a little way into it, but we can see so far as to be sure that the
apparent passivity of God, which looks like leaving evil to work its
unhindered will, is the silence of a God who 'doth not willingly
afflict,' and is 'slow to anger,' because He is perfect love.
The ground of necessity for the delay in executing the sentence lies,
partly, in the probationary character of this present life. If
evil-doing was always followed by swift retribution, obedience would
be only the obedience of fear, and God does not desire such obedience.
It would be impossible that testing could go on at all if at every
instant the whole of the consequences of our actions were being
realised. Such a condition of things is unthinkable, and would be as
confusing, in the moral sphere, as if harvest weather and spring
weather were going on together. Again, the great reason why sentence
against an evil work is not executed speedily lies in God's own heart,
and His desire to win us to Himself by benefits. He does not seek
enforced obedience; He neither desires our being wedded to evil, nor
our being weighed upon by the consequences of our sin, and so He holds
back His hand. It is to be remembered that He not merely does thus
restrain the forthcoming of His hand of judgment, but, instead of it,
puts forth a hand of blessing. He moves around us wooing us to
Himself, and, in patience possessing His spirit, marks all our sins,
but loves and blesses still. He gives us the vineyard, though we do
not give Him the fruit. Still He is not angry, but sends His
messengers, and we stone them. Still He waits: we go on heaping year
upon year of rebellious forgetfulness, and no lightning flashes from
His eye, no exclamation of wearied-out patience, comes from His lips,
no rush of the sudden arrow from His long-stretched bow. The endless
patience of God has no explanation but only this, that He loves us too
well to leave any means untried to bring us to Him, and that He
lingers round us to win our hearts. O rare and unspeakable love, the
patient love of the patient God!