One day is as… ten thousand years?

On the website of GoedBericht, attention has for many years been drawn to the expiring period of “two days” referred to in the book of Hosea. At the end of chapter 5 and the first verses of chapter 6 we read how the LORD returns to His place UNTIL Israel acknowledges guilt and seeks Him in their distress. Then we read that Israel would repent “after two days” and that the LORD would revive them. “… on the third day He will raise us up.” And “… as certain as the dawn is His going forth. Then He comes to us…”

Cryptic

What is remarkable about this Scripture is that on the one hand, there is clearly a long period in which the LORD is absent and Israel as a people is reckoned as dead, and on the other hand, this period is counted as only “two days.” The LORD returns to His people “after two days.” But what does that time designation mean? What are “two days” to Him? Why this cryptic reference?

Thinking in millennia

It is the apostle Peter who, at the end of his life, answers this pressing question. Peter, who at an earlier stage expected the coming of the LORD in his generation. His fellow apostle John was even expected to witness it before his death (see end of John 21), so was the overall expectation. In Acts 3, Peter had preached to his fellow countrymen that Israel needed to repent and that the Lord would then return to reveal His Kingdom on Earth (Acts 3:19–21). But years later, at the end of his life, Peter must conclude that Israel as a nation has not repented and that the Lord (therefore) has not yet returned. And yet, Peter teaches, the Lord is not delaying His promise. It remains true that He comes soon. BUT… we must not lose sight of the fact that we must think in terms of millennia. Peter speaks twice of “a thousand years” and twice of “one day,” and notes that this is the same for the Lord.

Twice “a thousand years”

In the common explanation of 2 Peter 3:8, it is usually said that time does not count for the Lord. The period of “a thousand years” that Peter mentions would be arbitrary. It could just as well have been a hundred, ten thousand or a million years. But if that were Peter’s intention, why does he repeat the comparison with a thousand years? Then he could have said that one day with the LORD is as a thousand years and a hundred years (or ten thousand or a million years) as one day. By repeating the period of “one day” and “a thousand years,” he emphasizes that the mentioned time span is not coincidental.

Peter provides the key

Moreover, when we know from prophecy that the Lord would return “after two days,” we only gain insight if we also know what “one day” is for the Lord. How does He reckon? Psalm 90:4 gives a hint in the direction of one day as a thousand years, but it is nothing more than that. Only Peter explicitly gives us the key (were they not also entrusted to him? Matt. 16:19) to understanding the reference to the hidden time. That is what we need to understand the prophecy in which the Lord speaks of the time He would hide Himself from Israel.

More relevant than ever!

How difficult Peter’s statement must have been for many generations of Bible readers! Looking forward to an event that would still take nearly two thousand years… that seems endless. That this was hard to digest for many generations before us is understandable. But now that the period is almost over, Peter’s words are becoming extremely relevant again! Two days… two thousand years. Now it is no longer credible to say that this means nothing. Or that Peter just as well could have written a hundred or ten thousand years instead of “a thousand years.” Those who teach such things today are like the Sandman who throws sand in people’s eyes. Because now the time (even in human terms!) is very near, and therefore it is more important than ever to be awake!

Delen: