Why God Delays and Puts Off His People
Quest. “But what are the reasons that God doth so delay, and put off his people from time to time, as we see he doth?”
Jlns. 1. For the trial of his people, and for distinguishing of them from others, Matt. xv. 21 — 28. As the furnace tries gold, so delays will try both the truth and the strength of a christian’s graces; delays are a christian’s touch-stone, that will try what men are made of, whether they be gold or dross, silver or tin; whether they be sincere or unsound; whether they be real christians. As a father, by crossing and delaying his children, tries their dispositions, and makes a full discovery of them, so that he can say, That child is of a muttering and grumbling disposition, and that is of a capricious and wayward disposition, but the rest are of a meek, sweet, humble, and gentle disposition; so the Lord, by delaying and crossing his children, discovers their different dispositions.
2. That they may have the greater experience of his power, grace, love, and mercy in the close. Christ loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus; yet he defers his coming for several days, and Lazarus must die, be put in the grave, and lie there till he stinks: and why so? but that they might have the greater
Experience of his power, grace, and love towards them.
3. To sharpen his children’s appetite, and to put a greater edge upon their desires, to make them cry out as a woman in travail, or as a man that is in danger of drowning. God delays, that his people may come to him with greater strength and importunity; he puts them off, that they may put on with more life and vigor. God seems to be cold, that he may make us the more hot; he seems to be slack, that he may make us the more earnest; he seems to be backward, that he may make us the more forward in pressing upon him. The father delays the child, that he may make him the more eager; and so doth God his, that he may make them the more divinely violent. When Balaam had once put off Balak, “he sent again certain princes more, and more honorable than they.” Balaam’s put-off did but make Balak the more importunate, it did but increase and whet his desires. This is that which God aims at by all his put-offs, to make his children more earnesty to whet up their spirits, and that they may send up more, and yet more honorable prayers after him; that they may cry out more earnestly, strive more mightily, and wrestle more importunately with God, and that they may take heaven with a more sacred violence. Anglers draw back the hook, that the fish may be more forward to bite; and God sometimes seems to draw back, but it is only that we may press the more on. And therefore, as anglers, when they have long waited, and perceive that the fish do not so much as nibble at the bait, yet they do not impatiently throw away the rod, or break the hook and line; but pull up and look upon the bait, and mend it, and so throw it in again, and then the fish bites; so when a christian prays and obtains nothing. God seems to be silent, and heaven seems to be shut against him; yet let him not cast off prayer, but renew his prayer, pray more believingly, more affectionately, and more fervently; and then mercy, and comfort, and deliverance will come.
4. God delays and puts off his people many timesp that he may make a fuller discovery of themselves to themselves. Few christians see themselves, and understand themselves. By delays, God discovers much of a man’s sinful self, to his religious self; much of his worser part, to his better part; of his ignoble part, to his most noble part. When the fire is put under the pot, then the scum appears; so when God delays a poor soul, oh! how doth the scum of prides of murmuring, of quarrelling, of distrust, of impatience, and of despair, discover itself in the heart of a poor creature! When God delays his people, and puts them off, ah! what cause have they to cry out of themselves, to cry out of proud self, worldly self, carnal self, foolish self, and fro ward self! We are very apt, saith Seneca, to use spectacles to behold other men’s faults, rather than looking-glasses to behold our own; but now God’s delays are as a looking-glass in which God gives his people to see their own faults. Oh! that baseness, that vileness, that wretchedness, that sink of filthiness, that gulf of wickedness, which God, by delays, discovers to be in the hearts of men. But,
5. God delays and puts off his people, to enhance the value of mercy and deliverance. We usually set the highest value upon such things as we obtain with the greatest difficulty; what we dearly buy, that we highly prize; the more sighs, tears, weepings, waitings, watchings, strivings, and earnest longings this mercy, and that deliverance, and the other favor cost us, the more highly we shall value them; when a delayed mercy comes, it tastes more like a mercy, it works more like a mercy, it warms more, and it endears the heart to God like a mercy, more than any other mercy that a man enjoys.
“This is the child,” saith Hannah, after God had long delayed her, “for which I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him.” Delayed mercy is the cream of mercy; no mercy so sweet, so dear, so precious, to a man, as that which a man hath gained after many put-offs. Mr. Glover the martyr sought the Lord earnestly and frequently for some special mercies, and the Lord delayed him long; but when he was even at the stake, then the Lord gave in the mercies to him, and then, as a man overjoyed, he cries out to his friend, He is come, he is come!
6. The Lord delays his people, that he may pay them home in their own coin; God sometimes loves to retaliate. The spouse puts off Christ. u I have put off my coat, how can I put it on,” &c. Cant. v. 3; and Christ puts her off, ver. 6 — 8. Thou hast put off God from day to day, or from month to month, yea, from year to year; and, therefore, if God puts thee off from day to day, or from year to year, hast thou any cause to complain? Surely no. Thou hast often and long put off the motions of his Spirit, the directions of his word, the offers of his grace, the entreaties of his Son; and, therefore what can be more just, than that God should delay thee for a time, and put thee off for a season, who hast delayed him, and put him off days without number? If God serves thee, as thou hast often served him, thou hast no reason to complain..
Lastly, The Lord delays his people, that heaven may be the more sweet to them at last. Here they meet with many delays, and with many put-offs; but in heaven they shall never meet with one put-off, with one delay. Here many times they call, and cry, and can get no answer, Lam. iii. 8 — 14. Here they knock, and yet the door of grace and mercy opens not to them; but in heaven they shall have mercy at the first word, at the first knock; there, whatever heart can wish shall without delay be enjoyed. Here God seems to say sometimes, “Souls, you have mistaken the door,” or, “I am not at leisure,” or, cc Others must be served before you,” or, “Come some other time.” But in heaven God is always at leisure, and all the sweetness and blessedness, and happiness of that state, presents itself every hour to the soul there. God will never say to any of his saints in heaven, Come to-morrow; such language the saints sometimes hear now, but such language is no wise suitable to a glorified condition; and therefore seeing that the Lord never delays his people, but upon great and weighty account:; let his people he silent before him, let them not mutter nor murmur, but be mute; and so I have done with the objections.