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I want to take another look at Data Centers because POTUS Trump and others indicated they are a vital security and economic concern. I am starting with this video because he has an excellent easily understandable explanation of the SCAM the City of London Financiers have been playing on the USA.

ROUGH PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT:

The economy, the real physical economy that enabled hardworking people like you to really thrive 30 years ago. Well, that’s gone. It’s been systematically eliminated. This all really started because of an owl. The spotted owl. Just look behind me. That closed mill means nothing to you right now. But I’m going to show you where your money is disappearing to and how that closed mill is the very reason you can’t get ahead anymore. Here’s the simple loop.

The timber industry used to create revenue for the government. That revenue paid for the government to operate. When the industry was destroyed, the revenue stopped. The government spending increased at the same time. And they printed money to fill the black hole of the new spending. Printing that money cut the value of dollars in your bank account, which made everything you buy cost more. You didn’t change. The system did. Now, you may understand the basics of inflation, but what you may not understand is that someone got rich and is still getting rich off of that very system. And I’m going to show you who that is so that you never let it happen to you again.

When this mill was running, it produced physical wealth. And that wealth paid the taxes that you now have to pay. And it funded a reality where a single inome family could do just fine. But in the 1990s, elites in the highrises decided they couldn’t control independent producers. So they used emotion to stop them. But here’s what you need to understand. The money didn’t just disappear. It went to someone. It went to someone sitting in a boardroom in a high-rise. It was an engineered transfer of wealth from you to a global elite. We’re going to call him Arthur. Arthur is a high-powered lawyer for a massive environmental NGO, which we’ll call the Evergreen Defense Fund. Arthur realized he could weaponize the Endangered Species Act, to make money for himself. So, he stirred up anger in the public over a perceived injustice to a cute little owl. Then he used that same injustice to file thousands of lawsuits to stop the logging on public land under laws like Equal Access to Justice Act.

When Arthur’s NGO sues the federal government and wins, the government is legally required to pay Arthur’s attorney fees with your tax dollars. Arthur got rich from donations and then got paid from your taxes to get even richer. Arthur didn’t save the environment. He stopped the flow of real wealth that paid to keep our public lands and our wild places open and well kept. So, every time you feel the sting of inflation at the grocery store, just remember that you’re paying Arthur’s bonus. Now, to really wrap your mind around this, let’s go through an economic example to show you how the money flows from you to Arthur.

Before Arthur’s lawsuits, federal law required that 25% of all timber revenue from timber sales on federal land to go directly back into the local counties. In a prime timber county in the 1980s, that meant 20 to 30 million a year of pure debt-free cash pouring straight into your public schools and county road departments. On top of that, the logging companies maintained thousands of miles of mountain roads entirely for free just so they could run their trucks. The Forest Service budget was green, filled with cash from an American made product that went directly to consumers all over the country. Remember, there’s two silos that always have to be filled. The local county budget, then there’s the Forest Service itself. If the Forest Service decided to sell standing timber for $10 million, a timber company would come along and pay it. 7.5 million of that would go directly into the Forest Service budget to help keep our campgrounds clean and our trail heads open and pay the people who take care of our Forest Service. 2.5 million of that went directly into our counties to fill their budget to take care of our school funding, keep our roads graded and maintained. When Arthur used a spotted owl to shut down the woods, that $30 million vanished overnight. The free road maintenance stopped, but the county still had to keep the schools open. So the federal government stepped in with bailout programs like secure rural schools, which is SRS, and PILT, which is payment in lie of taxes. And they replaced real physical timber wealth with your tax dollars and printed money. And the bleeding didn’t stop there. When these mills closed, hundreds of men lost their jobs. The local cafe went out of business because no one was buying lunch. But worst of all, the mill was the largest single taxpayer in the county. With them gone, who makes up the difference to fix the crumbling schools? You do. Government spending overall skyrocketed. Not only did they lose revenue, but they literally created a county welfare program that caused us to pay even more.

Arthur flipped the system upside down.

He got rich and all the hardworking people in the West are still paying the bills. Sadly, all of those people who held up a spotted owl sign or screamed in the face of a logger are paying, too. All of us paid to make Arthur rich. Whether you gave money to Evergreen Defense Fund or fought against it, we all lost. Add in the hundreds of millions that the government has to spend fighting Arthur and the millions that we pay him when he wins. It’s a massive black hole of spending, entirely funded by raising your taxes and printing more money. Bankrupting the American West wasn’t enough for Arthur because what he left behind was not a pristine wilderness. It was a ticking time bomb…

6:30: The people who engineered this transfer of wealth are relying on your ignorance. They want you to think that the economy is just very complicated so you don’t realize that you’re being robbed…

[Description of old decayed forests, forest too thick to feed wild life and massive out of control fires.]

16:51: When a mega fire breaks out now, the government has to fight it. The federal fire suppression budget was a fraction of what it is today. Now it is a multi-billion dollar black hole on top of all the other expenses. Who pays for the fleets of helicopters? Who pays for the thousands of firefighters? You do, of course. Your tax dollars are drained to fight a fire that never should have happened.

And Arthur, his lungs are perfectly fine. He’s sitting in a high-rise with hospital-grade air filtration. Arthur sells you the cure to the disease that he created. Your kids get to breathe in toxic ash every summer. And more of your tax dollars go up in smoke for fire suppression. While Arthur and his buddies each bought another vacation home. Arthur burned the system down. He bankrupted the counties and he scorched the timber. But he’s just a lawyer. He doesn’t want to actually own anything. But what he did was create a county system that is desperate enough to sell. And that’s when the vultures come in from Wall Street. You thought that was it? That was all the money and power and rights that they were going to strip from you. Well, if that’s the case, you don’t understand how the world works because there’s always someone left to pick up the scraps. To understand who’s taking from you now, you have to understand the concept of a mob boss takeover. How does a mob boss takeover work? Well, the first guy comes in to a perfectly healthy business and he breaks the kneecaps of the owner and then he drives away every one of the customers and makes it impossible for them to come back until that owner is literally in debt up to his eyeballs. Cannot make a dime. That’s when the second guy comes in and offers him pennies on the dollar for his business. Now, Arthur and his lawsuits are the first guy.

They have really driven everybody to the edge of insolvency. They have siphoned out a whole bunch of the industry. Anything that’s real economy has been removed, which opens the door for the second guy, the one who’s going to make the offer to make it all right. We’re going to call that second guy Eleanor. Eleanor works for a firm called Green Rock and they’re rolling out a new product. They’re going to buy the ecosystem services off the land that is now on the edge of bankruptcy in the name of protecting the environment and saving the ecosystem. They’re going to take the one thing you have left. Your access.

Do you understand what they’re doing here?

Arthur burned it down. Eleanor is buying it up for Wall Street. The trees and wildlife are no longer nature. They’re now a highly regulated financial asset. and Eleanor can’t afford to have you or your children hiking, recreating, or hunting on her asset. Arthur burned the system down. He bankrupted our counties and then he handed you an inflation bill. And now Eleanor is coming in to buy up the resources, what’s left on the dirt, to lock you out of the American West forever. If you want to understand the real mechanisms behind natural assets, nature credits, and the ecological services that they’re selling off the land, and how it’s going to really affect you and your children.

You need to learn the playbook. Go to the link in the description and join the high lonesome society. Now you know the reason you can’t go forward. It’s not about the spotted owl. It’s not about saving the timber. Every time you earn a dollar, it’s being taken from the back end. It’s all about extracting money from you to them. And they’re not going to stop there. The more we give, the more they take. And now you know about Arthur. You need to look out for Eleanor.

Until next time, I’m Trinity Vandenaker. God bless.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

This video starts at 2:30 minutes with a speech by POTUS Trump. It is about Data center companies pledging to build electric generation and promises no rate increase. In some communities the rate have gone DOWN and now they have NO PROPERTY TAXES! Critical comment on foreign Propaganda.

11 minutes — They have also agreed to invest heavily in communities where data centers are built ,supporting job training and local services.

11:40 — Other countries are trying to get us to slow down.

Badlands Media Special Coverage: 7/23/26 – Trump Expands Ratepayer Protection Pledge at EPA

POTUS Trump mentions foreign propaganda. Is this an example?

China has spent roughly $100 million on influence operations inside the United States, DOJ records show — spanning state-run propaganda networks, corporate lobbying and efforts to shape American policy at every level.

The spending includes $66.8 million funneled to CGTN America,… pic.twitter.com/kjr1yPByxv

— Fox News Politics (@foxnewspolitics) July 26, 2026

TEXT:

China has spent roughly $100 million on influence operations inside the United States, DOJ records show — spanning state-run propaganda networks, corporate lobbying and efforts to shape American policy at every level.

The spending includes $66.8 million funneled to CGTN America, Beijing’s flagship English-language media operation, between February and November 2025 alone. Dozens of American lobbyists have signed new contracts with Chinese-owned companies, including firms the Pentagon has designated as Chinese military companies. Tencent alone has spent over $10 million on lobbying since 2025.

And that’s just what’s on the books. Campus groups linked to the Chinese government and organizations under China’s United Front Work Department — a global network of CCP loyalists — don’t file disclosures at all.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/chinas-influence-machine-federal-records-expose-beijings-push-sway-america

President Trump Expands Historic Ratepayer Protection Pledge to Protect American Ratepayers, Lower Electricity Prices – epa.gov

This article covers parts of the President’s speech.

President Trump’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge Will Now Cover 80 Percent of All Power Delivered to American Homes and Businesses

President Trump first announced the Ratepayer Protection Pledge in his State of the Union address on February 24, 2026.  On March 4, 2026, seven leading AI companies and hyperscalers — Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI — signed the Ratepayer Protection Pledge at the White House. Companies that sign the pledge are committing to build, bring, or buy all of the energy needed to power their facilities and to pay the full cost of that energy and its supporting infrastructure, no matter what. Ratepayer Protection Pledge extends those obligations across the full chain of parties whose decisions determine what a family pays each month: the electric utilities that set rates, the developers that build the facilities, and the States that regulate both.   

“The United States never settles for second, and we don’t under this administration… we live by the motto ‘America First,” said President Donald. J Trump. “Thanks in part to this incredible [AI] technology boom, investments are pouring into the United States from all over the world.”  

“The global race for AI is underway, and America must win it — but not by asking working families to pay for it,” said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. “Communities that welcome these facilities deserve every fact in front of them and every protection behind them. That is what the Trump EPA has delivered, and that is what Ratepayer Protection Pledge builds on. Our Team at EPA is honored to host President Trump, Secretary Wright, and many other distinguished guests, for today’s important announcement.” ….

EPA has advanced this work by making the rules of the road public and accessible before a shovel goes in the ground. In December 2025, EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation launched the Clean Air Act Resources for Data Centers webpage, giving developers, local communities, and Tribes a single location for the regulatory information, permitting guidance, and air quality modeling tools relevant to these facilities. In May 2026, EPA launched the Permitting Authority Map, a public interactive tool that allows anyone to select a location and identify which agency — EPA, State, territorial, Tribal, or local — issues each environmental permit. EPA also published reuse considerations and a Redevelopment Mapper to help communities and developers evaluate Brownfield and Superfund sites for industrial reuse. Together these resources advance two pillars of Administrator Zeldin’s Powering the Great American Comeback initiative: making America the AI capital of the world, and permitting reform through cooperative federalism. 

A facility that generates its own power, returns what it does not use to the grid, hires from the community it joins, and stands ready to keep the lights on when the system is under strain gives back to its community. The States and localities welcoming these facilities are building new generation their regions did not have before, putting their own residents to work, and ensuring that the infrastructure of the next century is built here at home — by American workers, powered by American energy. 

I also want to add a Tweet by Barbara Boyd of Promethean Action. In a recent Question and Answer session she mentioned she lives in Virginia and that you can not drive a mile without tripping over an AI Data Center. She said nothing about noise or any other problems.

I know this will set some of my friends hair on fire but Sacks is right and I don't want my nieces and nephews to be speaking Chinese. When you walk across Hoover Dam do you think about how many men died there constructing it. There were lots but they signed up for it because it… https://t.co/DJM6O2U226

— Barbara M Boyd (@BarbaraMBoyd) July 18, 2026

TEXT:

Barbara M Boyd @BarbaraMBoyd Jul 18

I know this will set some of my friends hair on fire but Sacks is right and I don’t want my nieces and nephews to be speaking Chinese. When you walk across Hoover Dam do you think about how many men died there constructing it. There were lots but they signed up for it because it was such a grand undertaking to provide both water and electricity to an entire area of our country for generations.

David Sacks @DavidSacks Jul 17

This is concerning. For the first time, a Chinese model Kimi K3 has taken #1 on the Frontend Code Arena and is scoring at or near the frontier on other benchmarks. Meanwhile America is tying itself in knots: politicians and bureaucrats are banning new data centers, piling on state regulations, and pushing for new federal agencies to pre-approve frontier models. This is how you lose the AI race. The rest of the world won’t play by our rules if we bog ourselves down. Permissionless innovation is how America won the internet and became the technological envy of the world. We can do it again with AI — while addressing risks in a targeted way — or we’ll watch our lead evaporate

1:42 The RAM chip shortage story

2:15 Who shut the memory lines down

3:13 The hyperscale data centre narrative

4:07 The collapse has already happened

5:11 Seven companies propping up the market

6:16 The alchemy engine and rehypothecation

6:55 Manufacturing a key dependency

8:36 Gödel, Goebbels and the chipset proof

9:46 Why the hyperscaler future isn’t coming

11:06 Hydraulic despotism and the debt

12:09 The TLDR: holding the general price level

13:08 What gold bugs and Bitcoiners miss

Generally I like Rich and his guests but this one has me doing suspicious cat. However there are a lot of interesting nuggets so I am bringing it to the QTree for discussion.The lead speaker is

EM Burlingame – 蒲 奕 言

The Chinese characters seem to indicate the last emperor of China.

Much of this is over my head but we do have these data points. We are already aware of ‘Managed Decline’ and the off shoring of our manufacturing, mining and REAL wealth producing industries. Some of us are aware of the gambling casino called the derivatives market — 81 Abstract notes “Some market analysts estimate the derivatives market at · more than 10 times the size of the total world gross domestic product, or GDP.”

EM Burlingame who starts off the following discussion, thinks the City of London’s Ponsi scheme has already collapsed and AI and data centers are the next Green-Swindle like wind turbines, that they are being used to drain the last wealth from targeted countries. I do not have the expertise to have an opinion on the information presented. However Burlingame mentioned physics when he talked. He also mentions Oracle being valued really low. That makes me thing of Game Stop and the Wall Street Apes. He says the flock cameras are not connected to anything but there are the cops caught stalking women.

There is also this Qtree discussion about the ‘new’ physics LINK:

Last night you [Wolf] posted a tweet with:

 …Physicists are rewriting the 200-year-old mathematics of heat and work, placing daily thermodynamics on a rigorous footing traditionally used for quantum fields…

a pioneering effort by physicist Bryan Roberts at the London School of Economics and Political Science 

Fabian LSE???

Boy does that stink of Psy-op. Smells like the Global Warming scientific diversion, especially when you are talking thermo and cooling and Quantum Computers.

…

Wolf responded:

YES!!! “nEt ZeR0 is QuANtuM!” LOL.

Thank you for taking a look at that. Yes, it sounds like they’re trying to spin science in a direction that might be more useful to their plans. At the very least, they are clearly trying to fertilize a “you cannot understand this science but you must respect it” position – one that is against “money follows science follows truth” – and into the much more dangerous realm of “science follows money controlling truth” which has created this phony “carbon economy” that was about to enslave all of humanity.

They may even be reacting directly to Trump’s highly Americanized “quantum” stuff by spinning this guy’s work into media focus right now.

“More work is needed” – yes – BY US.

…

ROUGH PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT:

Chapter 1: There is no RAM shortage

EM Burlingame:

My sense is that the financialist step seven collapse has already happened and the only thing that is preventing us from collapse, [a] sudden implosion is the illusion of the future value of technologies. For all intents and purposes, there are seven high technology companies that are propping up the markets. And over 80% of the companies in the exchanges are debt companies that only exist anymore because they can borrow money against their stock valuations. So what you do is you find a key dependency upon which all things are dependent. You create an artificial scarcity in it.

If we were having a real chip shortage, we would not be expanding the drone warfare in Russia. Every one of those drones gets blown up, blows up chips that you don’t get back. There is no RAM shortage. If there was an actual RAM shortage, we could deal with it in very short order.

Chapter 5: The hyperscale data centre narrative

3:14: Over in Idaho there’s some things happening but part of this is a story about this massive push for hyperscaler AI data centers. Another one of those narratives that’s out there that’s not real. It’s mostly been like the hypers scale data center threat is already in the past because we’re going to get to distributed workloads and a variety of other things that just don’t really matter. So a lot of this is just narrative control and that’s the way Dexter White and I have been seeing it. He’s been following the story a lot more closely than I have. I would say actually, at some point in the future if you really want to talk that kind of stuff, you might want to hit up Dexter because he’s written about it for the newsletter a couple times and it’s a focus of his. And he’s been following it very closely…

Chapter 7: Seven companies propping up the market

5:12 So let me just say for people who don’t know FANGS is Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Nvidia, Google, and there’s more. There’s Tesla and those kind of companies. So yeah, so terribly sorry, you know, there is for all intents and purposes, seven high technology companies that are propping up the markets and over 80% of the companies in the exchanges are dead companies that only exist anymore because they can borrow money against their stock valuations. And this is very well demonstrated.

Maverick of Wall Street does a great job. I haven’t listened to him in a while, but he does a great job modeling this stuff. So you have an illusion of an economy going all the way back to 2008, 2012 area. We have the illusion of an economy that is sustained by two things. Government spending. So inflation of government debt and inflation of stock valuations of these high-tech companies….

Chapter 11: Why the hyperscaler future isn’t coming

10:00 …We have vastly unused capacity right now in all of our computing personal AI. Personal AI is on your phone correct? I worked on how do you do distributed, I don’t understand hyper scale future. All these data centers, all these massive data centers. That was my first funded company. It was building out data centers. That’s what I did in the banking industry etc before. This hyper scale massive data center build-out future isn’t going to happen and it isn’t necessary. We’re not giving up that future productivity capability by getting rid of that. Tom’s exactly right. What’s going to wind up happening is it’s all already moving into here. [Points at phone] We will do the compute, the storage, the process and everything. And oh, by the way, you don’t need RAM here because you do what’s called a system on a chip and it’s edged right into this, the chip itself.

…

Burlingame then gets technical. You can go to his Substack and see the steps.

The Financialist Kill Chain: A Predatory Blueprint

The Financialist Kill Chain is a calculated strategy of exploitation:

1. Infiltration and Influence: Financialists embed themselves in a nation’s leadership and economic systems.
2. Debt Entrapment: Countries are enticed into unsustainable loans with punishing terms.
3. Asset Identification: Valuable resources—oil, infrastructure, or industries—are marked for takeover.
4. Economic Destabilization: Markets are manipulated to deepen crises and erode resistance.
5. Debt-for-Asset Swaps: Assets are surrendered in exchange for debt relief, stripping national wealth.
6. Extraction and Exploitation: Wealth is funneled offshore to enrich the Financialists.
7. Abandonment and Collapse: The nation is discarded, its economy a hollowed-out shell.

…

Chapter 13: The TLDR: holding the general price level

12:30 Tom Luongo:

So, yes, all what Em just said is a thing here... I’ve been saying this for a while because I mean, it’s a great note. What you said was great. I just want to make sure that the layman audience [understands] because Rich looks confused

…Which is the following. We have a general price level that we need to maintain in order to maintain credit markets around the world. Okay. that general price level, that inflation, all the deflationists need to get it out of their heads. We’re not going to have a 90% stock market crash. No one wants that. No one wants the the societal collapse that goes along with a 90% correction. Our enemies do, but we’re not going to allow it….

Chapter 15: The Austrian structure of production

13:35 – The point being is that the general price level of credit based assets, assets that derive their value from the credit markets, that’s the mortgage industry, the meaning your home price, that is your insurance, your life insurance, your homeowners insurance, your cars value, all of this stuff, all of those credit based assets that are at the long end of the structure of production, meaning the 20th or 30th order good, not the first order good like crude oil. Crude oil is a first order good. The basic refined oil is second and tertiary order goods. You know, plastics are a fourth order good. Pharmaceuticals are a fifth order good. Blah blah blah blah blah. Houses are a 40th order good. They’re at the far end of the structure of production if you were doing this from an Austrian perspective. Therefore, they’re also the most interest rate sensitive. Okay?

So in order to maintain the general price level while you convert the economy from 90% fraud, let’s just pick a number, it’s probably 90%, let’s call it 50% fraud, to 20% fraud, which is a massive paradigm shift. Yes, you’re trying to do that and maintain the general price level to maintain the general level of civilization.

14:52 EM Burlingame: Yes. Okay. without also giving your enemy an entry point with which to destroy and buy up all your real assets at 5 cents on the dollar.

Tom Luongo: Step number seven, which is what they’ve done to Argentina, you know, & everybody else.

So this is what we, Ian and I have both identified as what the general plan is. It’s what Trump has articulated. It’s what Bessant has articulated. It’s what others have articulated that’s what they’re going to do. And they’re willing, in the case of Donald Trump, to drop bombs on people who are the enemies to that plan. And they happen to be named things like the IRGC, Hezbollah, soon to be the Cuban Communists if necessary, the Sinaloa cartel, this one, that one, all of those people. And what we like to put under the big rubric of City of London. Okay. Now with all that said that is the framework for the war. Here’s one for you. My friend Matt Dyn.. who’s a bond trader and is watching all of this with the same eye that we are is noticing that oracles 10 year debt is trading at 6.1% and rising.

Chapter 17: Oracle’s debt and the junk bond signal

👉 We talked about this on episode 252 of the gold and guns podcast. Matt and I went through all this and he brought up Oracle’s debt and I’m like you do realize that JNK which is the junk bond ETF only pays 6.7. Now when junk bonds are trading 50 basis points higher than tier one capital company like Oracle at the core of the data center and database story, you have a problem in that market, not in the junk bond market, but in the AI market. Meaning the market is beginning to figure out that the future that EM just said is not going to happen. It’s we’re starting to see market signs of it. That’s the point, that’s why I’m bringing up.

17:00 EM Burlingame: Absolutely, Tom. Absolutely. So very much to your point, in the tech sphere, if we look at the very same articulation you did about oil, tier one, two or three, tier five product, layer, whatever you want to call it, Igen value mode. Oracle is one, two. You can’t run any of these other things without Oracle, You just can’t. So, it was chosen. It was chosen, He [Larry Ellison] was a made man….

…

There is a lot more that is quite interesting but I will leave it at that. Tomorrow I will do a look at POTUS Trump’s national security strategy which includes science.

This Rejoice & Praise God Sunday Open Thread, with full respect to those who worship God on the Sabbath, is a place to reaffirm our worship of our Creator, our Father, our King Eternal.

It’s also a place to read, post, and discuss news that is worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.

In the QTree, we’re a friendly and civil lot. We encourage free speech and the open exchange and civil discussion of different ideas. Topics aren’t constrained, and sound logic is highly encouraged, all built on a solid foundation of truth and established facts, and not by agenda-driven accusations and pronouncements.

We have a policy of mutual respect, shown by civility. Civility encourages discussions, promotes objectivity and rational thought in discourse, and camaraderie in the participants – characteristics we strive toward in our Q Tree community.

Please show respect and consideration for our fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure your opinion addresses the issue only, and does not confront or denigrate the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name-calling, ridicule, insults, baiting, and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.

In The Q Tree, we’re compatriots, sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs, making s’mores, and discussing, agreeing, and disagreeing about whatever interests us. This board will remain a home for those who seek respectful conversations.

Please also consider the Guidelines for posting and discussion printed here: 
https://www.theqtree.com/2019/01/01/dear-maga-open-topic-20190101/

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On this day and every day –

God is in Control
. . . and His Grace is Sufficient, so . . .
Keep Looking Up

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Hopefully, every Sunday, we can find something here that will build us up a little . . . give us a smile . . . and add some joy or peace, very much needed in all our lives.

“This day is holy to the Lord your God;
do not mourn nor weep.” . . .
“Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet,
and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared;
for this day is holy to our Lord.
Do not sorrow,
for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

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God’s Patience

The attribute of God’s patience is evident in both the Old and New Testaments. One example comes from God Himself, who proclaimed to Moses, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6). The phrase slow to anger illustrates His patience. The psalmist also praises God as “a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness” (Psalm 86:15).

In the New Testament, the apostle Paul describes God as kind, forbearing, and patient (Romans 2:4). The apostle Peter also referred to God’s patience when addressing objections from scoffers then (extending to now) regarding the second coming: “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). These are just a few instances of God being described as patient.

When Scripture describes God as being patient, it means that He endures humanity’s flaws, does not easily get angry, and holds back judgment to make room for repentance. His patience is also demonstrated in how He condescended to work through imperfect humans to carry out His plans. Noah, Abraham, Moses, King David, and the prophets are some examples.

Additionally, we view God’s patience toward humans right after the fall, when God made clothing for His shamed creations (Genesis 3:21). He also patiently listened to Cain, even in the face of judgment (Genesis 4:15). Then there is the flood. Scripture describes the inhabitants of the world as being “corrupt in God’s sight and full of violence” (Genesis 6:11). Even with the moral depravity of our day, we would be horrified at the violence of the world in that day. Yet God did not execute swift judgment. Instead, He waited till Noah built the ark, which took a long time (1 Peter 3:20).

In God’s judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, His patience was revealed when He promised Abraham He would not exercise judgment if there were at least ten righteous people in the city (Genesis 18:32). For context, Sodom and Gomorrah had not only sinned, but there was a great outcry against them (verse 20). Yet God was willing to show mercy to all of them for the sake of only ten people.

Other instances of God’s patience include His dealings with the Canaanites (Genesis 15:16), the Ninevites in Jonah’s day (Jonah 3:10) and the Israelites before their exile (2 Kings 17:13–14). His patience also explains the perceived delay in Jesus’ second coming (2 Peter 3:9, 15).

Perhaps the most exceptional display of God’s patience is in the Person of Jesus. The Son of God took on human flesh, lived among His creation, and endured challenges in His ministry. He also patiently succumbed to humiliation at the cross in order to accomplish His redemptive work for humanity.

Like any other attribute of God, His patience surpasses ours. While this is good news for the struggling believer or those reaching out to an unbelieving loved one, it can also lead to frustration. Like the martyred saints in Revelation 6:10, believers may cry out “How long, Lord?” How long will we remain in the broken world? How long till restoration? How long till we are free from the clutches of sin and suffering? How long do we endure? But even in our perplexed state, we trust that God is absolutely in control and infinitely good.