God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that a nation would come from them. Jacob and his descendants went to Egypt in the days of Joseph. This family multiplied into a great nation in the land of Egypt. In the days of Moses, God brought them out of Egypt. In the days of Joshua, God brought them into the land. In the days of Samuel, the people wanted a king. Their first king God gave them was Saul. The second was David, and the third was Solomon. After Solomon, the kingdom was divided. The northern kingdom was called Israel. The southern kingdom was called Judah. Most of the kings were wicked. There were a few good kings of Judah. Josiah was one of them.

By the time Josiah was king, the northern kingdom was already conquered by the Assyrians because of idolatry. The kingdom of Judah wasn’t much better. They too had fallen into idolatry. God had already predicted that Judah would be conquered by Babylon, but because Josiah did what was right, He would not allow that to happen until after Josiah died.

The first part of the fulfillment of this prophecy occurred when Josiah’s son, Jehoiakim, was king. During his reign, Babylon brought the first group of Jews out of Judah. Daniel and his three friends were part of this group. In this snapshot of history, we see that God was longsuffering. He wasn’t tolerant of sin but was longsuffering and even delayed His judgment because of revival under Josiah.

We see that God is longsuffering and allows us time to turn back to Him. Often today, Christians misjudge the longsuffering of God with tolerance. There is a day when time will run out! It will be payday. Make no mistake; God never tolerates sin. Don’t mistake longsuffering with tolerance. Confess your sins today and serve God in spirit and in truth.