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. 9
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
Over the years there have been many speculations about when Jesus would return. Some folks, in defiance of what Jesus says about no man knowing the day or the hour
of his return, boldly assert that THEY have been supernaturally given the day and the hour. Others have confidently proclaimed the specific year of Christ’s return saying, “Jesus said no man knows the day or the hour, but he didn’t say we couldn’t know the
year.” Of course, time after time they have been proven to be wrong.
The first verse of our text this morning accounted for many folks in the early days of the second century thinking that this was a signal of the timing of the second
coming. It would happen a thousand years later and so many believed that Jesus would return in the year 1000. That, of course, is not what Peter meant, but this began the misguided practice of finding in prophetic texts all manner of meanings that they were
never intended to convey!
But so that we don’t think that such speculation is only the work of “odd extremists” many of the church’s wisest men gave in to a fascination with times and seasons
and came to believe that events happening in the world of their day meant the end of the world. Jonathan Edwards, for example, for all his intellectual power, was a practitioner of so-called newspaper-exegesis, finding current events in biblical prophetic
texts. Like everyone else who has thought he could read current events as the fulfillment of prophecy he was proved wrong by the mere passage of time.
But as mentioned, it seems this lesson has never been learned and people do today the same thing Christian folk have done for two-thousand years: find ways of putting
dates to the biblical prophecies of the Second Advent. Do you have any idea how many scores of public figures have been identified as the anti-Christ whose appearance will presage the coming of the Lord? From the beginning, political figures from Roman emperors
to Napoleon to Hitler to Gorbachev, to whatever American president happens to be in office, religious figures such as various popes, and cultural icons such as Bill Gates, Hillary Clinton, (they may have a point there…just kidding) have all been identified
as the antiChrist, the figure who will usher in the last climactic struggle that will lead to the return of Christ. A 100% rate of failure, one would think, would give people pause, but never underestimate how gullible or proud we can be!
Peter is addressing a question that we have all asked and it is not what day will Jesus return. Rather;
Why does God allow the world to continue as it does, with all the wrong and all the woe we see everywhere we look. Why does God tolerate this? If he has the power, as he surely does, why does he not intervene and crush man’s rebellion against him. He has
promised that this is what he will do, so why doesn’t he do it? Another way of putting that same question is:
why hasn’t the Lord returned after all of this time? Peter answers that question by giving two reasons. Before looking at them I would remind you that when the Bible answers our questions, and God is by no means obligated to explain Himself, that doesn’t
mean we are going to like the answer or even that we will understand it. But here is what Peter says:
First, God is not bound by time. To be candid we have to admit that we hardly understand what being ‘timeless’ means. As the theologians have postulated; For God,
past, present and future are before Him as an eternal ‘now’. To say that a thousand years is but a day to God, is not to be taken literally. Rather, it is a very human way of saying that God, the Creator of all things, is not bound in or by time like we are.
Therefore, what we think of as a long time, is not so to Him. Before there was time or space…there was God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Before moving on, let me add that although the depth of this escapes us, we do, made in the image of God as we are, flirt with its edges. Many of you can say that
certain seasons of your life seemed to pass so slowly. You yearn for something that did not come to pass and the years seemed to drag. At the same time, you look at your children or grandchildren…you look at yourself in the mirror and you think, “Oh my, where
have the years gone…how time has flown by.”
So, when Jesus said He is coming quickly, what exactly is He promising? “Quickly”, according to who? Compared to what? Remember Jesus told his disciples a parable
saying that a master went on a long journey and was slow to return. This delay tempted his servants to behave poorly, thinking that the master was not coming any time soon.
The second reason Peter gives for the Lord having not returned yet is that God desires the salvation of the world and is waiting patiently for many to come to faith.
Jesus said something quite familiar in Matthew 24 that the end would not come until the gospel had been preached throughout the whole world. God is concerned about the salvation of sinners and He will not bring history to its end until every sinner who will
ever repent has done so.
Look at it this way: We may be impatient for his return, but we, of all people, should be grateful that the Lord has been patient,
or we would have been excluded from heaven. Remember, there are three different kinds of people who make up ‘the church’. There is the church
triumphant, those believers who have died and are now souls in heaven longing for the resurrection of the body. There is the church
militant, those believers who are present in the world today, fighting the good fight waiting to join the church triumphant. And there is a third division, the church
latent, those who are yet to become believers, either because they are alive in the world but not yet Christians or because they have not yet been born but will in their time become followers of Jesus Christ. For all we know, the church latent might
be far and away the largest part of the eternal church!
These things might confuse us but we must in humility, remember that we know next to nothing about the way and why God orders His world as He does. And when we are
staring into what we don’t know, let us return to what we do know: God is just. God is merciful. God is compassionate. God desires to rescue sinful humanity and set us free. He has been patient with you to the extreme, has He not? Therefore, let us rejoice
that He continues to wait, to be patient. He continues to cover the earth with mercy, for His mercy endures forever!
Prayer:
Father, help me to see, as best as humanly possible, Your purposes in this world to be covered by your love and compassion for rebellious, helpless and deeply broken men and women. I am one of those upon whom You exhibit patience that seems endless. Thank
you for bearing with me. Thank you for putting in me a desire to live my days, whether they seem to go by quickly or slowly, to Your glory and the pleasure of Your Son, my Savior, in His name I pray, Amen.
Hymn: This is My Father’s World
