Imitating God

Day by Day with Jonathan Edwards.

Zephaniah 2:3

Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness; it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger.

"Love to God disposes us to imitate him, and therefore disposes us to such longsuffering as he manifests. Longsuffering is often spoken of as one of the attributes of God. In exodus 34:6, it is said, "And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering,' etc. And in Romans 2:4, the apostle asks, "despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering?" The longsuffering of God is very wonderfully manifest in his bearing innumerable injuries from me, and injuries that are very great and long-continued. If we consider the wickedness that there is in the world, and then consider how God continues the world in existence, and does not destroy it, but showered upon it innumerable mercies, the bounties of his daily providence and grace, causing his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sending rain alike on the just and on the unjust, and offering his spiritual blessings ceaselessly and to all, we shall perceive how abundant is his longsuffering toward us. And if we consider his longsuffering to some of the great and populous cities of the world, and think how constantly the gifts of his goodness are bestowed on and consumed by them, and then consider how great the wickedness of these very cities is, it will show is how amazingly great is his longsuffering. And the same longsuffering has been manifest to very many particular persons, in all ages of the world. He is longsuffering to the sinners that he spares, and to whom he offers his mercy, even while they are rebelling against him. And he is longsuffering toward his own elect people, many of whom long lived in sin, and despised alike his goodness and his wrath: and yet he bore long with them, even to the end, till they were brought to repentance, and made, through his grace, vessels of mercy and glory."