James 5:7-12

Notes

1. James 5:7.—A very beautiful illustration in reference to the exercise of patience is drawn from the course and experience of the husbandman. He does not expect the yield of his fields, or the fruit of the earth, in a day. He sows and plants in faith. He carefully tends and cultivates the growing crops, though no fruit is apparent, and he knows that months must elapse before it will be matured. But his patience is at length rewarded, and his bins and barns are stored with plenty. So we are not to expect the Lord to accomplish all his work in a moment of time. Influences must have time to do their work and prepare a harvest for the kingdom of heaven. The promise of God being given is sufficient ground for our faith and patience. And if we faithfully endure, our patience will at length be rewarded by a revelation of the glories of the kingdom of God.

2. "The early and latter rain." For six months in the year, in the agricultural portions of Palestine, no rain falls. During this time "the whole land," it is said, "becomes dry, parched, and brown, the cisterns are empty, the springs and fountains fail, and the autumnal rains are eagerly looked for to prepare the earth for the reception of the seed. These, the early rains, commence about the latter end of October or beginning of November, in Lebanon a month earlier, not suddenly, but by degrees; the husbandman has thus the opportunity of sowing his fields of wheat and barley." From this time on showers fell during the period of the growth and development of the crop till the spring, when copious showers were expected to ripen the grain for the harvest. This was termed the latter rain. This course of nature is taken to illustrate the work of the Spirit in this dispensation. When, on the day of Pentecost, the great work of the gospel began, the Spirit was poured out marvelously. This, with the wonderful manifestation during the apostolic age, constituted the "early rain." The work of the Spirit has continued more or less from that time to this; but as the work of grace shall draw to a close, a more copious outpouring of the Spirit may be expected to ripen the gospel harvest for the kingdom of God. The second coming of Christ is represented by a reaper coming with a sharp sickle to reap the harvest of the earth. Rev. 14:14. From this expression in James, that the husbandman waits long till he receive the early and latter rain, and from Hosea 6:3, where the latter rain is mentioned first, it would appear that the latter rain was so abundant as to be accounted two together—the latter rain and the first added to it. If this is so, we may look for more than the scenes of Pentecost to be re-enacted among the people of God before the end.

3. Verse 11.—"The end of the Lord." The word "end" here means object or purpose. You "have seen" the "object" or "purpose" of the Lord in afflicting Job. In a similar sense the word is used in 1 Peter 1:9, "Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls," that is, the object, or aim, of your faith. These instances explain the use of the word in Rom. 10:4, "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth;" that is, the "object" or "purpose" of the law; or, to express it in other words, the purpose which the law was designed to secure in us, if we had never broken it, is now secured to us by Christ, if we will believe in him.

4. Verse 12.—The variety of oaths mentioned in this verse shows that it cannot be the judicial oath which is referred to, which is simply calling upon God to witness to the truth of what you affirm. Jesus himself under an oath of this kind made answer to the Jewish high priest. Matt. 26:63. Paul made a strong affirmation of this kind in 2 Cor. 1:23: "Moreover I call God for a record upon my soul, that to spare you I came not as yet unto Corinth." Again, Phil. 1:8: "For God is my record," etc. Rom. 9:1: "I say the truth in Christ, I lie not." 2 Cor. 11:31: "The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . knoweth that I lie not." Gal. 1:20: "Behold, before God, I lie not." 1 Tim. 2:7: "I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not." These expressions are all of the nature of, and equivalent to, a judicial oath. James doubtless had reference to a practice which our Lord severely condemned in Matt. 5:33-37, that is, a hasty and rash kind of promise to do something, or an affirmation of some statement, pledging something for the accomplishment or the truthfulness of the thing stated. We have no right to do this, by heaven, earth, nor Jerusalem; for these are not ours to dispose of; nor should we swear by our head (or, according to modern phrase, "Bet yer life"), for our head is not at our disposal, and we have not power to make one hair white or black.