We've gone past the inglorious month remaining till we move from the parsonage in Covington, La, to the one in Eunice, La. We're awaiting this move with the glorious breathlessness of spring's pollen. The days are moving as slowly as water freezing; oh, oh, so slowly do they move.
The Bible says of this time in a bottle: "But do not forget one thing, my dear friends! There is no difference in the Lord's sight between one day and a thousand years; to him the two are the same. The Lord is not slow to do what he has promised, as some think. Instead, he is patient with you, because he does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants all to turn away from their sins." 2 Peter 3: 8-9.
‘But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 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.’
The first thing to note is that the context has nothing to do with the days of creation. Also, it is not defining a day because it doesn’t say ‘a day is a thousand years’. The correct understanding is derived from the context—the Apostle Peter’s readers should not lose heart because God seems slow at fulfilling His promises because He is patient, and also because He is not bound by time as we are.
Time is such a difficult thing to measure that we are given this bit of work here to help us. A day like a thousand years. That's a long, long day. Long enough to be a thousand years, a day is quite long enough. Somehow, the measuring stick is long enough. I've had a couple days like that in the past, long enough that they seemed very, very long. In the end, the seconds passed so slowly I could feel the hair on my head growing, piercing scalp like the sharpest of knives.
Long, long, long enough to sense the point, er, end of the scalpel.
Genesis 1:11 reads, "Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so."
Genesis 1:12 reads, "And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good."
Genesis 1:13 reads, "So the evening and the morning were the third day."
Remember that the day of the Lord is not 24 hours as mistakenly thought by other religious groups like the 7th day Adventist. So when God rested on the 7th day, so they are.
2 Peter 3:8 reads, "But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day."
The second day when God said let the earth bring forth grass, herbs and trees, can not be construed that the bringing forth of the fruit or a seed only happens in 24 hours.
By nature, a mango, for example, bear fruits between 3 - 5 years and although some bamboos flower every year, most species flower infrequently. In fact, many bamboos only flower at intervals as long as 60 or 120 years. The longest mass flowering interval known is 130 years, and is found for all the species Phyllostachys bambusoides. In this species, all plants of the same stock flower at the same time, regardless of differences in geographic locations or climatic conditions, then the bamboo dies.
The world is highlighted in red to stress that such series of event happens in a season of time not 24 hours.
John 5:28 reads, "Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice."
John 5:29 reads, "and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation."
Revelation 20:4 reads, "And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years."
The point is that God is a very, very patient being, and we are often not. That being said, we need to be more patient. We need to wait. We need to accept what God has done. We need to accept his reign. We need to let the days pass as slowly as God would allow them to. Even a 1,000 year day is better than no day at all, huh?
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