p. 9 | IS THE LORD SLACK? by Uriah Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 2, 1900

IS THE LORD SLACK?

By Uriah Smith

Certainly; for so the scripture affirms. But there is a qualifying clause that takes from the passage every repulsive feature: “Not slack, . . . as some men count slackness.” With men, or in the sense in which men use the term, slackness is a very unsavory feature of one’s character. A man who is slack, is described as “one who is backward in action, lacking in promptness and diligence, negligent, remiss.” He is spoken of as “languid, limp, feeble, lacking in briskness and activity.” “Slackness” is defined to mean, “the character, or state, of being slack.”

To charge the Lord with being slack in the sense of any one of these human characteristics, would be the height of impiety; this is the way men count slackness. But when the scripture says, “Not slack, . . . as some men count slackness,” it bars out all these features from the divine character.

And yet there is a sense in which the Scriptures use this term as applying to the Lord, or as characterizing his course of action. The passage containing that which implies this, is 2 Peter 3:9: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

The very fact that such conditions and limitations are so carefully specified in this case, is conclusive evidence that there is something in God’s ways which men would be prone to misinterpret, and so come to regard God as dealing in a manner with his plans and purposes, his threats and promises, that might be pronounced wavering and dilatory. So while there would be in God’s dealings with the children of men that which would be covered by the term “slackness,” abstractly considered, we are hereby taught not to attribute it to any of these wrong principles by which men account for delays and failures in their dealings with their fellow men. “The Lord is not slack, . . . as some men count slackness.”

Notice, also, how the language is limited in another particular: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise.” When the Lord has given a promise, he ever bears that in mind. He does not forget it, nor grow careless about its fulfillment. And that promise is sure to come to pass; for God can not deny himself. But how difficult it is for us, whose existence is cut up into mere fragments of time, to view the progress of events from God’s standpoint, with whom a thousand years is as one day, and one day as a thousand years; and how ready we are if some promised, and expected, good is long in coming, to grow impatient, and fall into the despairing mood described by David, when he says, “Will the Lord . . . be favorable no more? is his mercy clean gone forever? doth his promise fail forevermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies?” Ps. 77:7-9. In answer to this, one of the latest of the New Testament writers says, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise.”

Consider also the reason why God often seems to be slow in the fulfillments of his promises. Peter gives the reason: “But is long-suffering to us ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” Therefore the immediate bringing to pass of God’s promises would be to cut short the probation of multitudes of people who are not yet ready for their account to be closed up, but whom God hopes by delay to bring to repentance, and finally to salvation.

Our waiting is consequently the salvation of others; and if, by foregoing a while the fruition of our hopes, we can give time for others to be reached and saved, who would not cheerfully accept that situation?

But if God is not slack concerning his promise, neither is he slack concerning his judgments and his punishments for sin. The wicked think he is; and how many are making this fatal mistake! “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” Eccl. 8:11. They count God’s long-suffering and forbearance, even as men count slackness; and they attribute the delay in the execution of the sentence to the same cause which leads men to carelessness and indifference. They say in their hearts that God does not see, or does not care for, their evil deeds, and is indifferent to them, and will never call them to account for them. They belong to the class described by David, who say, “God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.” Ps. 10:11. So they flatter themselves that all things continue as they were from the beginning, and that such a thing as his coming and their destruction will never overtake them.

But though God is, in one sense, slack, or seems so, on account of his waiting through his long-suffering and forbearance, and will wait before probation closes till every soul will have repented who will, or would, repent if more time, or any length of time, should be given, let none who are looking for any good despair, nor any who are worthy of condemnation flatter themselves that the account will never be closed and settled, and they receive their just deserts. God is not slack in these things as men count slackness. But all will be finished and closed up in its appropriate time,—the righteous glorified and saved, and the wicked banished forever from the presence of the Lord. “Say ye to the righteous,” exclaims the Lord by the prophet, “that it shall be well with him,” but “woe to the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.” Isa. 3:10, 11.

On the phrase, “not slack concerning his promise,” George McDonald says: “Never be discouraged because good things get on so slowly here; and never fail to do daily that good which lies next to your hand. Do nothing in a hurry; but be diligent; enter into the sublime patience of the Lord. Be charitable in view of it. God can afford to wait; why can not we, since we have him to fall back upon? Let patience have her perfect work, and bring forth her celestial fruit. Remember that the grand harvest of the ages shall come to its reaping; and the day shall broaden itself to a thousand years, and the thousand years shall show themselves as a perfect and finished day.”

The mercy of the Lord is designed to lead men to repentance; and the so-called slackness of the Lord, to lead men to salvation. Is not the reason good enough, and strong enough, and philanthropic enough, why the Lord should delay the culmination of his grand and glorious plans and purposes long enough for those so disposed to charge the Lord with slackness in carrying forward his work, and to give him reason to send back the challenge that “the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, . . . but is long-suffering to us ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance”?

This will be the keenest pang in the remorse of every lost soul,—that God was not willing that he should perish, but used every means within the limit of his almighty power to bring him to himself, and to induce him to accept of his offers of infinite life and glory; used all his power to induce him to do this, short of forcing him to accept his grace; which, for obvious reasons, he can force no one to do; and besides this, has waited, and waited, and waited, for all to come, till men began to call him slack, tardy, and untrue to his word, and all the universe was wearied with the delay, and raised the cry to him: “How long, how long, O Lord, how long?” before he would give them up, and let them perish. And then they will see that it was their own doing to reject his offers of mercy; that they set up their own wills against the will of God; and by that will they could, and did, not only nullify all God’s efforts in their behalf, and seal their own destruction, but grieved and distressed that heart of infinite love, the heart of their best well-wisher in all the universe; and when they apply to their own cases that challenge which God addressed to his ancient apostate church, “What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?” they, like their prototypes of old, will be speechless.

Thompson, on 2 Peter 3, remarks: “The certainty of this coming destruction should cause us to lead unworldly, godly lives; the delay of it should discipline our faith, and lead us to improve the time in bringing men to holiness; the fact that it will come suddenly, should keep us watchful against sin; the prospect of the glory beyond should make us delight in the service of Christ.” U. S.