1 Peter 3:8 reads With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
With God, not only is a thousand years like a day, but a day is like a thousand years.
What Peter does not say
wo ideas attached to this verse are wide of the mark.
- Peter does not say how long the world will last. In the past Irenaeus and others argued from this verse that if a day is like a thousand years then the six days of creation argue for a creation lasting six thousand years. The so called Epistle of Barnabas says 'The Lord will make an end of everything in six thousand years, for a day with him means a thousand years.' There are many things against this idea. The chief is that it has nothing to do with what Peter says. Further, a day is like a thousand years is only half the story. Equally, a thousand years are like a day. This must be a metaphor. Peter is against trying to guess when the Lord will return. Even if we could demonstrate this as Peter's meaning we cannot be sure when the world's six thousandth year falls.
- Peter is not telling us how long it took to make the world either. A more recent idea is that if a day is like a thousand years, Genesis 1 really means that God made the world in six thousand years. If the first view panders to advocates of a young earth, this panders to friends of evolutionary theory. However, a thousand years is nowhere near the time that evolutionists require. Such theories usually demand vast aeons of time; millions of years. Some, however, like the idea that God made the world in thousands of years rather than days. Again, it is not what Peter is talking about. There is no reason to suppose (certainly not on the basis of this verse) that Genesis 1 has room for a creation that takes thousands of years.
It is worth noting the way Peter says what he says.
- He speaks in love. He speaks to dear friends, dearly beloved fellow Christians. He writes out of love for them as a pastor. This reminds us that whenever we speak of Christ's return or of judgement we must do so in love.
- He focuses on the most important thing. Again, when it comes to the Second Coming we have many questions. It is important that in all this we remember what is here - and not only when it comes to this subject. If we fail to understand the relativity of time set out here we will understand nothing. Too easily v/e forget the important things. We must not. The wicked deliberately forget creation and the flood, preferring to believe everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation. Believers must never fail to see things through God's eyes.
He can do in one day what we might expect to take a thousand years. The focus is not so much on God's eternal nature as his almighty power. Many things, as far as we are concerned, take hundreds or thousands of years. Isaiah 66:8 reads Who has ever heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen such things? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Nations do not come to exist in a day. It takes time - many years. Think of Israel or many other nations. Yet here the prophecy is Yet no sooner is Zion in labour than she gives birth to her children. Isaiah directs us forward to the amazing things that happened when God sent his Son into the world and he died and rose and was preached so that thousands came to know him in a short space of time. Suddenly the church was born as if from nothing. Many times since God has done similar things when through the preaching of the Word, families, communities and whole nations have been transformed in ways that would have taken hundreds of years in the normal run of things. We need to plan ahead as best we can but it is important that as we do so we do not forget God who can do things in a moment.
- Here is an alcoholic. His life is a mess. How long to put him right? 'Well' you say 'if you get him into therapy he could be on the road to recovery in months. In a year he might be back to normal and ready to begin to rebuild his life. In a few years maybe he'd begin to get back to normality.' The gospel can change people in a flash. A touch from Jesus transforms.
- There are problems in your life and you think 'it's going to take some time to sort things out.' Certainly it is often God's way to work slowly, step by step - but never forget he can transform situations in a moment.
- How long would it take to see your chapel full again? Sometimes we feel it will never happen. On better days we imagine the place being filled in ten years or something. God could fill it in a day!
- Think of this nation with all its problems. How long would it take to get it back to the way it was in the time of the Puritans? We seem so far gone, it hardly bears thinking about. Yet think what God could do if he should choose to act. This nation could be transformed overnight.
We tend to think that the really big, significant things take a long time. It is probably right to think like that but we must not be bound by such thinking. Certainly things like friendship or raising children do not happen overnight. They take time. We need to beware of the idea of instant success. On the other hand, we must never forget that with God a day can be like a thousand years. Things can happen in a day, an hour, that have ramifications for a millennium. Think of Bible examples:
- The Fall. It happened on a particular day. What ramifications followed. One action has affected not just the next millennium but the complete history of the world.
- More positively, think of Good Friday when Jesus hung on the cross for sinners. By his death he has provided salvation for all who trust in him. It was the work of one day yet it has an effect for thousands and thousands of years.
- Or think of the day the Spirit was poured out in the Day of Pentecost and all that has flowed from it.
- Think of the day you were converted - if you know it. It was just one day, yet that day has had ramifications until now and will continue to do so into eternity. Today can affect the next millennium and beyond. Decisions made today can have ramifications through eternity.
