You have wearied the Lord with your words; “Yet you say, “In what way have we wearied Him?” In that you say, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delights in them,” or, “Where is the God of justice?” (Malachi 2:17)

The Lord Gets Weary

There is little doubt the longsuffering of God is one of the greatest eternal graces given to men. The divine suffering waited in the days of Noah. For forty years, the Lord endured the abuse of His own people as they wandered through the wilderness. In the period of the Judges, God delivered Israel time and again after they had abandoned Him. After the death of Solomon, the patience of the Lord allowed Israel to remain for two hundred years and Judah three hundred forty-five years. After the remnant returned from seventy years of captivity, the heart of the people became dull and despaired. Worship became mundane and lifeless. Idolatry had been removed from the nation, but they had little desire to devote their hearts to God.

The burden of Malachi was to correct the attitudes of the nation of Israel and rebuke the half-hearted worship offered by the people. The Temple had been rebuilt and the walls restored through the courage and faith of men like Nehemiah, Jeshua, Zerubbabel, Haggai, Zechariah, and Ezra. Yet worship to God was so lax it became a burden with indifference, vanity, and weariness. Sacrifices were offered with diseased and lame animals. The table of the Lord was given no respect. Worship was nothing more than going through a series of inconsequential actions without feeling – to appease a God few loved or cared for. God had had enough. The faithless people had worn out the patience of the Lord by their murmuring and discontent. Life was not going like the people wanted and as they complained, the Lord lost patience.

Discontent calls into question the justice and holiness of God. It impugns the divine character of the Lord. The mistake men make is to believe the longsuffering of God is without end. It is a divine truth the longsuffering of the Lord is immeasurable, but no one should be lulled into believing the patience of God will not end. In the days of Noah, the longsuffering of God waited, but then it started raining. During the forty years of wandering, everyone above the age of twenty years died because of unbelief. After the death of Solomon and the kingdom divided, God allowed His nation to remain until the Assyrian and Babylonian armies appeared. The Creator neither faints nor is weary and His understanding is unsearchable but there comes a time when the Lord becomes weary with the faithless spirits of those who refuse to obey Him.

If the longsuffering of the Lord is without measure, consider the amount of rebellion it takes to have the Lord say He is wearied with the words of men. God’s patience has an ending point. A time can come when the Lord has had enough. He is wearied, tired, and without mercy when men’s hearts refuse to acknowledge Him. When God becomes weary, men become lost. Will men do evil and expect God to accept them? He is full of compassion, but there is no mercy to those who will not subject themselves to His will. The saddest words a man will hear is when they hear the voice of the Father say to them, “You have wearied me with your words.” What comes next is not good. The lesson of the day is to live in such a way that you do not weary the Lord.