After blasting the rich people who were taking advantage of others, James now turns his attention back to those who had been the oppressed. James begins to address the "victims" of the evil doing. His advice can be summed up in two words: "have patience."

Our society today fosters a victim mentality. "Everybody" is a victim. It is popular to be a victim; to be the oppressed today. The number of lawsuits that are being brought to the courts of America are at an all time high. When a person is caught breaking the laws of the land and is being sentenced for it, they will always begin to justify their actions by saying that they are a "victim." This trend tends to come over to the church. If the preacher identifies sin by the Word of God, and a person does not want to change, they immediately are a victim. We somehow think that if we are a victim, then we have the right to stay in the same sinful behavior!

James teaches quite the opposite behavior. Jesus did not come to create victims but to create victors! Keep in mind that if anyone in the world had a right to feel victimized and justified it was the Jewish Christians to whom James was writing. They had been savagely driven from their homes and their places of birth by extreme persecution. Very few people in America have ever experienced the persecution that they faced. They could not return to their home towns to visit relatives for fear of their entire family being killed. They had to go to Gentile countries with strange gods and try to worship the one true living God in places that had no churches or even synagogues. To make matters worse, we learned last lesson that obviously when they had gotten new jobs, their new employers were not paying them fair wages that they were due. Today, they would be eligible for all kind of social programs, but those were not available then. All that they knew was that they had received this precious Holy Ghost, and then literally all hell had come against them!

Keeping this in mind, most preachers today would have dealt very softly with them and just encouraged them with "sweet nothings." But James did not do that. James did not mind pointing out the sinfulness of some of their lifestyles and correcting their actions. James did not mind being blunt in dealing with their issues. James does not tell them "oh that's right, you have every right to be down and out, and it's okay to keep sinning." James told them to "have patience!" Why? Because James knew that if he avoided confronting sin just because of their circumstances in life, that they would hold on to that sin. God will not bless sin and sin will always bring death. Justifying it is actually the worse thing that anyone can do for someone else. James had no problem being very upfront with these persecuted Christians because he wanted them to make it living for God in the long run. James told them: "Have Patience...unto the coming of the Lord." Wait until Jesus comes back, then everything will be straightened out. Has Jesus come back yet today? No. So James' advice to Christians who feel like their life has been one of a victim still applies.

James uses the beautiful analogy of a farmer who plants the seed and then waits until the early (spring) and latter (fall) rains. The point is that all a farmer can do is till up the ground, and plant the seed and then wait. Once the farmer has done all that he can do, he must wait upon God to do what only He can do: bring the rain. I want you to notice two other points: first, that the farmer cannot hoard the seed to see if it rains or not, but must give up the seed and then wait on God. Second, the farmer's entire life depends on waiting on God to do what He has promised.

Matthew 13:23 makes it clear that the Word of God is similar to seed that is sown. When persecution comes or you feel as if you have been done wrong, it breaks up the "ground" of your soul. It is very true that people tend to be more sensitive to the things of God when their life has been stressed out. In other words, God usually has to get people to the lowest of lows for them to open up to His Word. What this means is that when you have a situation where you feel oppressed or you feel persecuted, that has broken up the ground in your life to receive seed and grow it. Whatever kind of seed that you sow becomes very important when you realize that it will grow in the broken up ground of your life. James has already encouraged these people to be "doers and not hearers only" of the Word of God. He is encouraging them in this broken time of their life to sow the seed of God's Word!

Some people respond to the plowing up of persecution by planting seeds of bitterness or rebellion. They then have to later on deal with major spiritual issues in their life, all because they have reaped the harvest of the seeds that they sowed in that troublesome time in their life. Jesus taught that it "rains on the just and the unjust." (Matthew 5:45) No matter what seed you sow, the rain will come and they will grow. So HOW you act and respond in times of adversity is very important because it determines the crop that you will receive later! People who respond to hurt and persecution by planting the seed of revenge will receive the fruit of that planting. If you plant bitterness, rebellion, gossip, strife, jealousy, backbiting, greed, or lies, then do not be surprised when you reap lonliness, condemnation, hatred, and variance.

When in a time of adversity, we must plant the seed of the Word of God by following the instructions that God has for us! If we must make something right, then we must do so according to the Word of God. When we obey His Word we are planting good things! When you sow the seed of the Word of God, you will reap the benefits such as righteousness, great peace, joy, fulfillment, a closer walk with God, loving friends, and a caring family. We all have the seed of the Word of God available to us, but not everybody who has the seed plants it in times of trouble! Our spiritual man's life depends upon whether or not we plant the Word of God!

Once you have done what you can do, then leave it alone and wait for God to finish the job. James told those early Christians to take their troubles to God. After doing so, then leave it in God's hands. Be patient and "stablish your hearts." "Stablish" in the Greek means to "make stable." In other words, once you have planted the seed by obeying what God's Word commanded you to do, then leave it alone! A farmer cannot plant the seed and then keep digging it up to check on it's progress! When you constantly bring up the past and make it an issue, that's exactly what you are doing: digging up the seed that you have planted. You may have sowed the seed of God's Word then but if you bring it back up, you have dug up the seed.

What you absolutely do not do is hold grudges against people when you are going through something! To the human mind, we think we have the right to grumble and complain whenever we are mistreated. We somehow think that our complaining and whining will make it better. Actually it makes it worse when God gets involved.

Notice that the scripture calls God "the judge." A judge makes a decision on a case and does so by VERBALLY giving the answer. When you begin to criticize and grumble against one another, you are taking the place of a judge. This will bring your own condemnation because you are trying to be God.

Many Christians think that they have the right to criticize other Christians. Remember that when you criticize someone, you are becoming "the judge," and God does not take too kindly to people who try to play God. Criticism is probably the most single destructive element that a child of God can bring upon themselves. When you do it, it stops the blessings of God in that area and brings condemnation! If you have prayed about something, then keep your mouth shut and allow the Great Judge to perform His work. James said that He is "standing at the door." He will not be long in pronouncing judgment, but if you criticize others, you become the one judged as God deals with the much greater problem of a human being climbing upon HIS throne!

Just in case they still thought that is was unfair to have to wait upon the judgment of the Lord, James brings up another point of example. They were not the first people to experience great suffering in serving God. The prophets of Israel represent a long line of men and women who heard from God, obeyed God's Word, and yet had to suffer great persecution. If these great men and women had to suffer great tribulation for speaking for the name of the Lord, then what makes us think that we will be any different when we declare to the world that we are God's chosen people!?!

Time will no permit us to go through the hundreds of prophets and their unique cases so let's simply focus on the prophet Daniel. Daniel had great revelation from God about future events and the Bible says that Daniel was "greatly loved." (The disciple John was also referred to as "greatly loved" and it was to these two men that God revealed His mighty plan for the future) Daniel was carried away from Jerusalem, his home town, and forced to live the rest of his life in a foreign country. Despite the pressure to conform, Daniel maintained his relationship with God and lived for Him despite being in Babylon.

One day Daniel was set up by some jealous men who wanted him dead. They tricked the king into signing into law a decree that called for the death of anyone who prayed to any other God beside the king. Notice the following scripture:

"When Daniel knew the writing was signed..." He did not go confront the men and scream at them and tell them what losers they were. He did not immediately start planning a revenge and a scheme to get back at them. He did not call all of his friends together and tell them how that he had disadvantaged and oppressed. He did not go to the king, and present his case about how much a fool that he though the king was to get tricked into such a scheme. What did he do? He brought it before God and prayed!

Daniel was appealing to the great judge! Daniel was trusting God with his situation. THEN Daniel waited patiently for the judgment of the Lord. He did not pray and THEN confront the king. He did not pray and THEN plot revenge. He did not even tell his friends. He waited on God to work it out! In fact, I can not find Daniel saying anything after he had prayed to God until AFTER he had been delivered.

The king threw him into the den of lions and said: "Daniel, your God will deliver you." Again it is important to realize what Daniel did not do. He did not now rail on the king and say "He wouldn't have to if you were not a weanie!" He did not vow revenge. Daniel quietly allowed himself to be lowered into the den of lions! What Daniel said after he was delivered tells us much about Daniel's character and why he was greatly loved by God:

The first thing that Daniel did was to pronounce a BLESSING on the one who had thrown him into the lion's den!! There was no "I told you so" but just the patient answer of someone who trusted completely in his God. Daniel also said that the lion's had not hurt him because he had been found innocent by the great judge, God himself. Daniel knew that he was innocent and therefore had no problem allowing the God who knows all things to judge and decide. People who criticize always criticize in others that which they themselves have a problem. When people take on the role of judge through criticism and are not content to patiently and quietly allow God to deal with the situation, they proving their own guilt. When people criticize others, they are saying that they do not want God to judge because they know that they are guilty! Abraham said in Gen 18:45, "will not the judge of all the earth do right?" Yes he will always do what is correct in EVERY situation and that is why people whose motives are not pure are the gossips and the criticizers because they do not want God to do what it fair. By doing so they heap greater condemnation upon themselves!

Daniel escaped out of the situation with no hurt "because he believed in his God." The situation was of no fault of Daniel's. He did not see it coming. You as a child of God will have to face situations of jealous people's creation that is no fault of your own. Yet even though, Daniel did not cause the situation, he could have reaped judgment had he sown the seeds of evil doing and retaliation. But Daniel did not do that. He was content to allow God to handle it. He took it up to the Lord and then quietly and patiently waited on the great Judge to handle it! When he did so, God delivered him and it was said of him that he "believed in his God."

If a person responds to adversity by criticism, that is a direct sign that they believe in THEIR God. And their God is self! Why? Because they feel qualified to be judgmental in the situation! Criticism is then the worse kind of idolatry because it elevates yourself in your own eyes. Remember Satanism is not the worship of Satan but the worship of yourself. Satan never tempted Adam and Eve with bowing down and worshipping him, but simply gave them a lofty view of themselves: "you shall be as gods," he told them. When they bit into that fruit, they were doing so for the purpose of elevating themselves to be "gods." It was the worship of self. When Adam was confronted by God he immediately criticized the only other human being around, his wife. When she was confronted, she criticized. Their criticism was the result of self worship; of the elevation of themselves to be as "gods." God cast them out of the garden not because they had worshipped Satan but because they had worshipped themselves! They lost out on the promises of God because of their criticism and what it revealed about the choices that they had just made.

When you criticize other people, you are telling God, "I am worshipping myself as a god." "I am comfortable taking on the role of a judge." It is no accident that Adam and Eve's sin involved their mouth! When you criticize others, no matter how justified, you condemn yourself to judgment! The correct response is to learn the correct response of the prophets, such as Daniel, and take it to God and God alone and leave it there! The judge of all the earth WILL do right!

"Behold, we count them happy which endure." We sure like to talk about what they went through and how they reacted, but it is always different when you are actually having to go through something. Character and Christian virtue is not revealed when things are going good but in times of adversity. Bad situations do not build character, they reveal it. Upon hearing this lesson, we all need to plant the seed of the word of God and build character for when we face tough situations. When you have something happen to you, you react. Reaction is a learned behavior. If you get in the habit now for trusting God with the little things, then your first reaction in the big trials will be to trust God.

This is the only mention of Job in the New Testament. That is important because it validates the story of Job as still applying to us today as Apostolic Christians. The story of Job is very familiar to us but notice the following points.

Job did nothing to deserve the treatment and the hardships that he received. He was a victim. Job endured hardships beyond anything that most of us will ever encounter and yet never sinned with his mouth or "charged God foolishly." (Job 1:22) He did this despite the loss of his health, the loss of his riches, the deterioration of his marriage, and the tragic death of ALL of his children! Job did not seek out his friends to complain but they came to him to accuse, and after everything was said and done, Job had to offer up a sacrifice for the SIN of his friends. In other words, the guilty ones were those who were critical NOT Job himself. Job "blessed the name of the Lord" and planted the good seed of the Word of God and in the end was doubly blessed! He received far greater riches doing it God's way than he would have had if he had not been tried! Being patient and waiting on God and not taking up a critical attitude will pay off in the end! The story of Job is living proof that when good people go through bad things, that how they react will determine whether or not they reap blessing or cursing. If you sow the Word of God during your trial, you will be twice as blessed as you had been! A sign of whether or not you are responding right in your trials is whether or not you are receiving more and more of the blessings of God!

Everybody is very familiar with the end of Job's ordeal, but the end of Daniel's trial is not as famous. Let's return to the end of the story for proof that the judge of all the earth will do right!

After God had delivered Daniel, "the king commanded" and his accusers were brought and thrown into the den of lions! What did Daniel have to do to get justice? Nothing, but wait on God! If we could only learn this lesson and allow God to fight our battles!

The sad point and the warning to note is that not only were the men who had accused Daniel thrown into the lion's den, but also their children and their wives! The scripture goes into to great detail at what happened to them and uses a curious word here "mastery." I looked up this word in the Hebrew and it means "to have power over" or "to rule over." When the men adopted a critical attitude of others, the evil that they had done became the ruler over not only them but their families as well. Criticism is the worst thing that a child of God can do to themselves! When you criticize someone, you WILL have what you pronounced and the judgment that you desired for them to come back upon yourself!

But those who take it to God and wait upon Him, will be delivered! After this ordeal, the king made a decree that ALL of his kingdom would worship the one, true God and the scriptures say that Daniel prospered in his reign and the ruler after him! We must learn to be patient on the judgment of the Lord!

Remember the words of Jesus that He taught His disciples:

We must have PATIENCE!