There was a surprising, out of character moment in one of the Star Trek movies, I believe it was "The Search for Spock", where Captain Kirk does the unthinkable. He kicks a Klingon over a cliff to his death.

Now, that particular Klingon has throughout the movie tried to kill Kirk. In fact, he has fallen over the edge of the cliff (the Klingon has) and Kirk in his normal, merciful style has reached down to save his enemy from a long fall and sure death. Instead of gratitude, the villain tries to pull Kirk over with him. Thus our good captain utters the completely un-Kirk-like phrase "I... have had enough... of you!" and kicks himself free of the "cling-on."

I was reminded of that the other day when I was contrasting various villains in scripture. It is perplexing, on the surface, why God spends so much time with some but with others, well, he has no patience at all.

For example, consider Nebuchadezzer or even Ahab. Both ungodly, wicked men but God sends them many prophets, gives them many miracles to chew on, and even prolongs their days to give them time to repent. One of them does, and one of them does not, which illustrates that God leaves it up to us. I think both of these men had a mind that was not wholly given to evil (hard to argue with Ahab, but Neb is no joy either, we just know there must have been something to work with because he does come around eventually.)

Now contrast that with their children. Both of these villains had a villain son or grandson. Both of these saw how their fathers behaved, and how God was so very patient with them. With their own eyes! Yet even knowing all this, and seeing themselves the power of God demonstrated, they mocked God. And God, through either the words of an angry prophet or "handwriting on a wall" quickly declared in no uncertain terms his feelings. To paraphrase - "I... have had enough... of you!"

Why is God longsuffering with some evil doers, but others he has no patience? Nations, too. In the time of Noah, God decides to wipe the slate (and the world) clean. I suppose he did have Noah preach to them, but their minds were evil continually. In Sodom and Gomorrah, he made a deal to save the cities for 10 good men, but they could not be found. Whammo! Consider how many times God would have destroyed all of Israel, except that he remembered the promise he'd made to David of a king in his descendants (and even on one occasion for the sake of Moses). In the New Testament, Jesus also expresses his frustration with folks like this, saying on one occasion "How long must I suffer you?"

Yet the northern kingdom, which had no good kings at all, God put up with until, as the prophet said, God "sought for a man but found none." Edom and other nations were given time to keep their covenants with God, and were preserved quite a while, until they too turned aside and broke from God's laws. Ok, sometimes God's patience holds his wrath in check, others not so much. What's the connection between these two types of sinners?

There are those who know don't know God, and he is patient with them. That may be because some of these - us - after learning about his will become obedient to it. His grace and his words reach us. But I think he is saying to those who DO know God but choose to disobey "it is more tolerable for those of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you." Why? Because they are in a very bad way. They are on a cliff, about to fall to their doom. They have shown only selfishness, and no mercy. And Jesus is going to say "depart from me, ye that work iniquity." In other words, "I... have had enough... of you."

Randy