"Is God Outside of Time?"

May 9

Read: 2 Peter 3:3-10, Psalm 90:4

God and Time

“Is God Outside of Time?”

“ For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.” - Psalm 90:4

“ But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” - 2 Peter 3:8

My Father In-Law recently asked me a question: “Do you believe God is outside of time?” This notion of God being “outside of time” is one that seems to have taken root with St. Augustine and gained traction ever since… but is it a biblical idea? What do the scriptures teach us about God and time? What is at stake for us as his sons and daughters?… And why does it matter?

God’s experience of time is not the same as ours. This is one of the first ideas that the scriptures make clear. “ For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.” (Psalm 90:4) God remembers the last 1000 years the same way you remember yesterday. God can look at a 1000 span (“for a thousand years in your sight”) the same way you can look back on your day once it is done. These notions help to shape our understanding of God’s wisdom and power. They show is that God’s experience of time is not the same as ours; yet it is intriguing to think that there is a correlation that can be made.

The scriptures do not seem to paint the picture that God has no sense or concept of “yesterday” or a “watch in the night”. Think of a “night watch” just for one moment. It is a time of watching, guarding, and waiting for the morning with anticipation. God can do this for 1000 years and it is like you for one evening! I believe that the scriptures paint a picture of God experiencing time radically different than us… but with a willingness to experience it nonetheless.

Can God “look forward to” something? I think he can… Psalm 90:4 points to this truth: God experiences a 1000 year span like a “night watch” eagerly awaiting the morning! God is looking forward to the great culmination of this timeline that he created. I think this is important for us when we come to the second passage of scripture where this idea is found. Peter writes to fellow Christians to encourage them as they wait for the second coming of the Lord. They were “eagerly awaiting the morn”… the people of God where on “watch”… looking for Jesus to return. They were hungry for the transformation, vindication, blessing and fulfillment of hope that would come with that day. Some had grown weary of waiting. Can you sympathize? Some people had even started the rumor that it was not EVER going to happen. Peter needed to remind them “do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” God never feels rushed… because he IS NEVER RUSHED. God never feels “behind”… because he is always “on time”. God’s plan is unfolding the way he wants it to… everything is in order!

We are impatient ad have a hard time waiting for the goodness that comes from the Lord. We need to be reminded of this when it feels like our transformation is slow or the Kingdom of God is just not coming about quick enough. We need these verses when we get sucked into our own TINY moment in time and forget that God is about the “long game”. When we begin to think God has “forgotten” about us our about this world, we need to tell ourselves that God’s experience of time is different than ours. But one other thing… what if God is willing to share this experience with us? What if God can make the best day seem like a 1000 years of best days…if he could “slow down time” so that we can soak in the beautiful moments?… “A day is like a 1000 years”. What if God cold wipe away the pain and tears of decades of time… bring us to the other side of large chunks of “hard times”… and make it feel like that decade of suffering was nothing but 10 minutes?… “A 1000 years is like a day”… so what would 10 years be… 1.44 seconds? I don’t think God is unaware or indifferent to time. I don’t think he is unable to experience the notion of looking forward to something… or remembering something. What I DO think is that his experience is different than ours… but I also think he is teaching us to share in his experience! I think God is willing to empower his people… to “slow down” the good times and help us to “savor them” and willing to enable us to look back on the bad times and “diminish” those wounds… get us through… “shrink” the suffering. Someday in eternity, this will make sense. When you are eternal - your experience of time is OBVIOUSLY different! May this cause us, as God’s children, to: 1.) Be more present in the moment 2.) Slow down and enjoy the blessings the Lord has given us 3.) Endure the hardships of life anchored in the hope that they will be shrunken down and made but a blink of the eye one day and 4.) Create in us a patience rooted in the Lord as we “eagerly stand watch” for the night looking forward to the morn. Love you guys. - JDP