A Day and a Thousand Years

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.

How Peter says what he says

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.

God is unlimited by our restraints

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.

Things can happen in one day of greater significance than some that take a thousand years

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.

This article originally appeared in Grace Magazine. See also this one.

A thousand years and a day

For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. Psalm 90:4

This is a verse worth pondering. Think how long a thousand years is – from before William I, say, through Elizabeth I to Elizabeth II. As far as God is concerned, says Moses, it is like a day that has just gone by.

Different perspectives

It is worth observing a thing from another angle. Fresh perspectives are good. From one angle, something looks hard, from another, easy. One vantage point makes a place seem near; another, far. Think of optical illusions like the young woman, old woman. Pride refuses to accept another perspective. Humility recognises other ways of seeing. Not all views are equally valid and we dare not deny objective truth but there are several ways to skin a cat.

Certainly, time has different perspectives. Shakespeare observed that ‘Time travels in divers paces with divers persons’, ambling with a woman waiting to be married and galloping with a thief to the gallows. Also, the older we get the faster time goes.

There are different perspectives to be had on time and life. Some say there is no God and refuse any other perspective. It is like someone getting excited about a pot of weeds and not seeing the beautiful flower garden outside.

God’s perspective

More specifically, we must recognise how different is God’s perspective on time. Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For man, a thousand years is long. Think of what has happened over a millennium – 1066, the Armada, two world wars; scholasticism, the Reformation, global mission. It is interesting that although Adam’s ante-diluvian descendants lived extraordinarily long, none attained a thousand years. Today, the length of our days is 70 years - or 80, if we have the strength. Even Moses only reached 120. Perhaps someone reading this will see the next century but none of us will see the next millennium. For man, a thousand years is more than a lifetime – for God it is like a day. Some days seem longer than others, but even the longest is nothing looking back. A watch in the night is three or four hours. Night and day were once divided into three or four watches each. Watching from midnight until four may be tedious, but looking back, it is nothing.

How different God to man. How far back can you remember? Ten years; fifty? None of us remember a hundred years ago. We cannot imagine living for centuries. But for God, a thousand years is like a day. Think of the view from a skyscraper or an aeroplane. Things are different when we see them from God’s perspective too. We need to get that perspective. It is good to hear the opinions of others – but best to know how God sees it. We must consider past and future millennia in this perspective.

God’s character

How is it that a thousand years is so brief to God? The answer lies in his character.

• All time is equally present with him. We can think of the near future and the recent past easily but to think of something that might happen a thousand years hence or even a thousand years past is not easy. It seems so far off. God is not like that. He is not a creature of time but the I AM who lives in an eternal today. He is everywhere and always, filling every place and every time.
• He sees the end from the beginning. Part of what makes time long to us is ignorance. We cannot know what will happen next. Think how journeys to new places always seem longer going than coming. Time seems to pass slowly in childhood as there is little thought of the future and little idea of what may happen next. God always knows the end from the beginning.
• He sees everything in terms of eternity. As creatures of time, we tend to forget that God has no beginning or end and is unbound by time. When we compare a day with a thousand years, the latter seems an eternity. God, however, compares a thousand years with eternity, so it seems like a day. For God the last 200 years are like two days or two watches for the angels of heaven! Moses uses these terms to help us. We talk of dog or cat years. A cat aged 13 is notionally 7 X 13 years – 91! Similarly we can say, one of our years equals 365,000 of God’s. Seventy years is 25,550,000. Or think of a man for whom £1 is a lot and another for whom £1000 is nothing. Of course, these are pictures; the reality is that God is the eternal God. We need to get this divine perspective, then we will see time as we ought. We will see how brief a millennium is. Though hundreds of years passed from Abraham to Moses to David to Jesus, yet in God’s eyes it was no time at all. We will see it is so too, if we seek the divine perspective.

Lessons

• The long time with no resurrection is no reason for doubts. Psalm 90:3 speaks of men returning to dust. The Bible teaches this and the resurrection of that dust. The world may have turned six or seven thousand years or more and may turn for as many again, nevertheless the resurrection day will come. It is but a week or two, as it were, that those in their graves longest have been dead. Expect the resurrection.
• The long time without Christ returning is no reason for doubts. Peter (1 Peter 3:7) quotes scoffers saying Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation. He warns, however, that as God sent the flood, so he will judge this world again by fire. He quotes Psalm 90:4 adding The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. God’s patience delays Christ’s return. As sure as this new millennium has arrived so in due time the Lord will return as and when God purposes. There is no delay. A 2000 year wait may seem long to us but not to the Lord. Meanwhile, be patient. The day of the Lord will come like a thief.
• Remember the brevity of life. Time hurtles by. As a child I remember how far off the next century seemed. Yet how quickly it has come. Soon the 22nd Century will dawn and we will all be in our graves.
• Take the long-term view. Many have written off Christianity. There is decline in Britain but that must not cloud the fact that worldwide the gospel advances and will continue to. Communism may engulf it for a season; Islam may stay longer; but truth marches on.
• Look to the eternal God. The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms (Deuteronomy 33:27). He has upheld his people for 2000 years. He will in any coming millennia. Look to him.

This article first appeared in Grace Magazine