Christ Is King Baptist Church

James continues discussing the patient endurance believers are to exercise in the face of suffering in light of Christ's soon return. Having brought up farmers in the previous section as an illustration of patience he now moves on to Old Testament examples from accounts with which his Jewish audience would have been familiar.--Job and the prophets endured all sorts of trials from persecution to natural disasters, and emotional anguish of all sorts. In addition, God's blessing was manifest in the latter years of Job's life, and in the prophets' joy in heaven.--God has left us example after example of patient endurance for us to follow, so we know we are not alone but surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. In each case, God demonstrated His immense compassion and mercy through His pity upon our misery. God offers this same mercy in our lives as He alleviates us from our plight.