A Day to the Lord, part 1

I was doing some reading this past week and found myself in 2 Peter, which took me to other places, such as 2 Samuel and the Psalms.

I have always felt that verse 8 of 2 Peter chapter 3 was an interesting one. 2 Peter 3:8 “But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.” It indicates several things; one is that the way God sees time and the way we see time are really quite different. I don’t even believe God sees time. Everything is simply “now.” 

Just think about it; in heaven there will be no evenings or mornings, which is how we measure time. Look at this passage in Isaiah with me: “No longer will you have the sun for light by day, nor for brightness will the moon give you light; but you will have the Lord for an everlasting light, and your God for your glory. “Your sun will no longer set, nor will your moon wane; for you will have the Lord for an everlasting light.” Isaiah 60:19-20.
 

Can you imagine that?! This is Jesus as the “Light of the World” in a very real sense. What will it be like to live in that kind of presence? There will be no need for a sun or moon to rise or fall; therefore, there will be no measurement of time. We will simply exist. 
 

Let’s consider Genesis 6. Genesis 6:3, 5 “Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.” 5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” Sin is so devastating and man’s wickedness great, that once he sinned, the judgment on man was so severe that God gave man one “day” to get right with Him. 

No man has ever lived more than one “day.” Methuselah, the man who lived longer than any other man, died when he was 969 years old. Genesis 5:2 “So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and he died.” He missed living one full day, in the Lord’s eyes, by 31 years. Since God gave man approximately 120 years (at the most) to live on this earth, our whole lives would be looked upon as less than ‘one day’ to the Lord.

That’s why the Bible says that today is the day of salvation. 120 years is only 12% of 1000. 2 Corinthians 6:2 “Behold, now is ‘the acceptable time,’ behold, now is ‘the day of salvation.’”     

You’ve probably heard me teach on this before, but I wanted to bring it up again and look at it from a more contextual perspective. Often, I have just pulled this verse out and made these same points about it. However, if you read it in context, it is a very hopeful verse. I want us to gain an awareness of the day we are living in and yet understand the hope 2 Peter 3:8 gives us. 

If we compare what’s going on in our world to the Scriptures it’s pretty safe to say that we are living in the last days. Look again at what the first part of 2 Peter 3 says. 2 Peter 3:3 - 4 “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” 

There will be mockers in the last days proclaiming that the Word of God has been disproved by the fact that everything is just as it was when the promise of His coming was made. They had convinced themselves that there was no need to fear God! The prophets and the apostles had foretold of the world’s ultimate destruction, and since everything looked the same to them in their day, as it did centuries ago before the fathers/prophets died, they took it for granted that there is nothing to those predictions.

Continued tomorrow