James 5:7

Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receive the early and latter rain.

Until the coming of the Lord ... In Jesus' great prophetic utterances regarding the destruction of Jerusalem, as recorded in Matthew 24; Mark 13, and Luke 21, our Lord blended the prophecies of the destruction of Jerusalem with those of the coming of the end of the world; and, in all probability, not even the apostles and other New Testament writers understood until long afterward that the two events would be separated by a vast distance in time. Only time would reveal that the destruction of Jerusalem, which was indeed the end of the Jewish dispensation, of the Jewish state, and of Judaistic persecution of Christianity, would be only a type of the destruction of the whole world at the Second Advent. They fully understood that Jerusalem was to be destroyed before that "generation" had passed (see in my Commentary on Mark for double meaning of "generation," p. 292). "Coming of the Lord," therefore, in this place has primary reference to the destruction of Jerusalem; but in its wider reference to the Second Advent, the admonition of "patience" applies to all generations of Christians.

Be patient, therefore ... "Patience," as used here, does not mean merely patience with respect to persons, but as Gibson noted, "It includes endurance in respect of things (that is, of events)."[24] Harper paraphrased the meaning as "Patiently accept God's delay in the timing of our Lord's return."[25]

The early and latter rain ... "The husbandman" here is a farmer who, after planting his crops, does not expect the harvest at once, but patiently waits until the early and latter rains have sprouted and matured the grain. As Wessel explained:

In Palestine, the early rain in October and November came after the crop was planted, and the latter rain in April and May when they were maturing. Both were crucial for the success of the crop.[26]

Some have seen in this illustration an intimation that God in his harvest of the earth will also wait for the early rain (that prosperous era of Christianity before the destruction of Jerusalem), and the latter rain (the evangelization of the world prior to the final advent of Christ). Although interesting, it is precarious to make such an illustration the basis of any specific prophesy. However, as Carson noted, "The words naturally recall our Lord's comparison of the consummation of the age to a harvest (Matthew 13:39)."[27] Joel also has some words in the same line of thought (Joel 2:23).

[24] E. C. S. Gibson, op. cit., p. 68.

[25] A. F. Harper, op. cit., p. 242.

[26] Walter W. Wessel, Wycliffe New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1971), p. 961.

[27] T. Carson, op. cit., p. 580.