We have come to the last month of 2005. We often say to each other: "time flies." The year 2005 is nearly behind us, and it too, came and went quickly. We are people who reckon according to time. We always look at the date and at the clock. Everything we do is determined by time, but not so with God. It is therefore beneficial at the end of another year to consider how God views time.

God Is the I AM⤒🔗

God is eternal; He is from everlasting to everlasting. He is immutable and remains the same forever. He cannot be changed. He is not subject to influences or affected by them as we are affected by external influences. There is a substantial difference between how God views time and as we view time.

God's Word reveals to us how the Lord views time. We find a very important saying in 2 Peter 3:8, But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. This text is like a riddle. We, creatures of time, find it strange that for God one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as one day. It seems contradictory. But this shows us that the Lord has a wholly different way of considering time. God does not use our measurements of time. His view of time is wholly different from ours.

For God, one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. This difficult saying means simply that time is always equally present with God. All time is the same for Him. Our thinking is totally different. When a certain event is going to happen today, we consider it to be very close. If, however, we know that something will not happen for a thousand years, we don't think about it because we will be in our graves long before anything will ever happen.

But with God it is different. All things are equally close in proximity of time to Him. In His view, all things are equally present in time. With God there is no past, no present and no future. The name whereby the Lord calls Himself describes who He is: I AM. He did not say about Himself: I was or shall be. God calls Himself the eternal I AM. His name refers to the present, the past and the future. God is present everywhere and He always was present everywhere. To Him everything that was is still in existence.

God Is Not Affected by Time←⤒🔗

Time does not affect God. For example, we do not say at the end of a day to each other, "How much older you look since this morn­ing." After fifty years, however, we do see a great difference; you hardly recognize the person. But in just one day it seems there is very little change. With God, however, even a thousand years makes no difference to Him at all. Ages roll on like waves against a rock and the rock remains undisturbed, immoveable, and unaffected.

Neither does God, as the ages continue, ever suffer from any weakness. We become feeble and our hearing and sight fails as the years increase. But the "LORD'S arm is not waxed short" (Num. 11:23), "neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear" (Isa. 59:1). If the world should continue another millennium, the Lord will be just as strong and able to deliver His people as now. The passage of time has no effect of weakness or decay on God. The sun shall darken, the moon shall fail, stars shall fall; the earth shall be rolled up, the ancient mountains decay, man shall grow old as a garment is worn out, but of God Scripture testifies: "Thou art the same, from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God" (Ps. 90:2).

Time does not change God's purposes. His plan is being fulfilled and His decree is carried out. In spite of every kind of animosity, His counsel stands. This is a tremendous comfort to God's people. He will not forsake the works of His hands.

A thousand years is as one day with God. Time is insignificant to Him. We are occupied with countless activities during a thousand years, but it is but a drop in the ocean with God. To Him it is like one leaf in a huge forest or as one grain of sand on the seashore. That is how great God is!

Time is also obedient to God because He created time. We were created in time and we are the servants of time. We are unable to prolong or to shorten time. But God commands time: "Then spake Joshua to the LORD and said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon" (Josh. 10:12). In Revelation 10:6 an angel sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer"

Let us worship God for His greatness and honour His commands. Let us sanctify His Name.

God Knows the Beginning and End←⤒🔗

God sees all things as it were at the same time. Time is immaterial to Him. To try to explain this, think of an oarsman guiding a boat on the river. While he is steering his boat on a winding river he only sees the water around him. That is how it with us. But now imagine a surveyor standing on the mountaintop, looking down at the winding river below. He is able to see the source of this river from high in the mountains and he is able to trace the course of the river through the valley to the plain below. In the distance he sees how the river empties into the sea. Standing on the mountaintop, he sees everything at once. That is how it is with God.

He sees time from its very first beginning and He sees it following its course through the ages until it ends up in eternity when He will bring an end to this world and all will meet their final destiny. God also sees all the things of the past clearly before Him. He sees the fall, the redemption accom­plished by His Son, the gathering in of His people, and the final judgment. He sees all things, as it were, in one view.

This is difficult for us to understand. For instance, God sees the fall and the rising again of Israel as a unity, but He also sees your birth and your death as a unity — because He is the eternal I AM. One day is for the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years are as one day with Him.

The Day of Grace←⤒🔗

Unrepentant sinners should realize this when they consider the sins of this past year and their past sins. There are sins that happened thirty or maybe even fifty years ago and we hardly are aware they occurred. But to God they are present in undiminished stark colours. Unrepentant sinners ought to realize this when they think of their guilt. Our sins make us liable to temporal death and the penalty of everlasting death.

We may think of some event or action in the past and say, "It happened so long ago that no one will remember." This may be true with humans, but not with God. To Him it is but a day. If we would only realize how close past sins are to God. He sees them all as clearly as if they happened yesterday. Therefore unconverted sinners are close to the judgment; for God does not forget. God remembers the sins of long ago and His judg­ment is near. The fire of His anger is ready to consume you. Therefore, consider the years and the days that remain in your life as one single day. Remember that one day in hell will be more painful than a thousand years on earth. Unrepentant sinners have only one day to repent, and that is today!

But today is also the day of grace and this one day is decisive! One day in God's favour is more than a thousand spent in the service of sin.

Christ's Return←⤒🔗

When it is stated that God views one day as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day, this especially refers to the coming of the Lord to judge the living and the dead. The Lord is keeping the sins of mankind in remembrance and one day He will judge the world. "But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men" (2 Peter 3:7). A thousand earthly judges would find it impossible to judge all the cases that will be brought forward in one day. But God can judge the sins of every human being of all ages in one day. Peter goes on to explain also that the Lord does not postpone His promises either, but He is longsuffering, and not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (vv.8, 9).

His church may mourn that the Lord is long in coming and say, we have waited for 2,000 years. But these 2,000 years are not long in comparison to eternity. They are as the ocean is in comparison to a small shell filled with water held in a child's hand. God reckons differently with time than we do; for one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."