The verses for today are instructional.
James is instructing us to be wise and patient. Wisdom and patience walk together hand in hand. When we have the wisdom that comes from God, we have an awareness and confidence that everything will work out in the end. Even while things seem to be falling apart we know that things are really falling together, we just can’t see all the pieces.
Wisdom and patience together also guide us away from false prophets. We don’t even have to know that they are false prophets, their character will make them distasteful to us and we will naturally move away from them.
False prophets can be in a hurry to learn how to perform miracles and will try to get you to follow their methods. The fact that they are in a hurry and are trying to learn these things by themselves rather than being led by God and trusting in God, shows their character.
The sorcerers of Egypt were able to turn their staffs into snakes just as Aaron did. But while the Egyptian sorcerers learned to performs these acts seemingly on their own with spells and enchantments, Aaron had been led by God and was simply throwing down his staff trusting in God to do the rest. God’s greater power was shown in that the snake from Aaron’s staff ate all the other snakes. Even when the sorcerers tried to perform miracles, God received the glory and Moses’ and Aaron’s faith was strengthened.
