God’s Longsuffering and Forbearance
Herman Hoeksema provides a detailed exegetical analysis of God's longsuffering and forbearance as presented in Romans 9:22 and related passages, distinguishing between the Hebrew and Greek terminology used to express these divine attributes. Through careful linguistic and theological examination, Hoeksema clarifies how God's longsuffering relates to both His mercy toward the elect and His suspended judgment over the reprobate, contributing to a Reformed understanding of divine providence and God's sovereign governance.
Herman Hoeksema In Romans 9:22, the concept “longsuffering” occurs in close connection with the concept “forbearance”: “What if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.” In the Old Testament, the same term אֶ֥רֶך אַפַּ֖יִםְ (e-rek appa-yim—long or slow of anger, patient) is used to denote not only an attitude of God toward His people and the operation of His love and mercy toward them, but also an...