Today the Watchman discusses God's time and how God measures and works in His time. Time is measured in endings and beginnings, not beginnings and endings. Follow along as the Watchman navigates the Scriptures and opens new perspectives on God's Time.
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Today the Watchman discusses God's time and how God measures and works in His time. Time is measured in endings and beginnings, not beginnings and endings. Follow along as the Watchman navigates the Scriptures and opens new perspectives on God's Time.
The Old Watchman Website
The Old Watchman - Facebook
The Watchman Speaks - Facebook
The Old Watchman - Twitter
006 The Essence of Time
Welcome to The Watchman Speaks. I’m your host, Lonnie Richardson
Today I’m going to begin a discussion about a topic that is prevalent throughout the Bible, but you don’t hear very much mentioned about it. Fact is, I don’t know that I’ve ever heard it mentioned or preached for that matter. Yet, it is a topic that I believe is very important in understanding the Bible. To be honest, it is a topic that I believe is paramount to Bible study.
What might this topic be?
I’m talking about time. I’m talking about God’s time. I’m talking about how God created and measures time and how we have lost our way in disregarding God’s time.
Have you ever known anyone who was down on their luck, experiencing difficulty and heart ache? Have you or someone you know ever said, “Don’t worry. It’ll all work out in God’s time?”
I have. I’ve heard it said and I’m guilty of having said it many times. I don’t say that anymore and I cringe every time I hear the phrase mentioned, “It’ll work out in God’s time.”
Why? Because I’ve come to realize that it is about as ambiguous a statement that can be conveyed. What does that even mean? In God’s time? Does it mean that if or when God decides to act within the current situation? Maybe. Maybe not. The truth is that the statement, “It’ll work out in God’s time.” Is too open ended. It leaves the meaning of “God’s time” open to the receiving person’s perception of what God’s time is. The statement left on these terms is far too subjective. Subjective thinking in regard to God and how God acts is a dangerous path leading to chaos and confusion. God is not a God of chaos or confusion.
The statement, “It’ll work out in God’s time.” Without any understanding of how God’s time works is, at best, courting with uncertainty. That simply will not do. In God’s Word, we are given certainty in how God’s time works and how God works in His time. There is nothing uncertain about it.
I’ve heard it said that the Christian is in one of three stages of life at any given moment. 1. You are going into a storm. 2. You are in the storm. Or 3. You are coming out of the storm. Now, there may be a great deal of truth in that. However, this cliché’ does not mention the fact that God is greater than the storm nor does it concede that the storm has no authority over the believer. Let’s be honest. Storms are going to come. But it is not merely how we react to the storm but when we react to the storm that has a part of the outcome.
I know that sounds foreign to many of you, but I’ll do my best to explain and break it down for you. But to do so, I have to start with the barest essence of time and how God created time. So, let’s begin.
But before we begin, I’m going to say that I’m not going to address time from within the realm of physics. I’ll not be discussing the time/space continuum or how matter reacts within the time/space continuum. I’ll be addressing time from a biblical perspective.
And just so that we are all on the same page, I’ll define time as the measurement of events and intervals between events that repeat in a cyclical fashion.
Now I’m going to make some statements and I want you to think about these statements for a few moments before I delve into the Scriptures to reveal how I have come to these conclusions.
1. Before something can begin, something has to come to an end. A beginning cannot be initiated without an ending of some kind preceding it.
2. Time was birthed out of an ending that had no beginning and will expire with a beginning that has no end.
3. God’s time is measured in endings and beginnings. Not beginnings and endings.
Sounds ludicrous doesn’t it?
Please, pay very close attention and I will go into Scripture to support those statements.
Let’s begin at the very beginning, shall we?
Genesis 1:1-2
1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.
Let’s stop and camp out right here for a few minutes. First, “In the beginning God….” Gives us a whole truck load of information. It tells us that “in the beginning” God created. What about before the beginning? There were no heavens or earth. There was only God. God exists in an ETERNAL state of being. God existed before the beginning. He exists now. He will exist after time, as we perceive time, ends. Before the beginning God existed in the eternal state with no time, no space, and no matter. It should be noted that when God did create the heavens and the earth that there was only darkness and that the Spirit of God was over the darkness.
Genesis 1:3-5
3. Then God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light.
4. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.
5. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
What just happened? Well, actually quite a lot!
Well, first thing is that an Eternal state in which no time existed came to an end and the Eternal state in which time does exist began. There was an ending and a beginning. Remember when I said that time was birthed out of an ending that had no beginning? This is what I was talking about. There was no beginning in the Eternal state in which God exists. The Eternal state where there was no time, or no beginning, ended when time as we know and perceive time, began. However, the Eternal state continues intact unaffected by time.
Secondly, we are given the first glimpse of God’s redemptive plan in that at first there was only darkness. Then came light. We constantly move from darkness into the light. When we are born we are born from darkness and come into the light. By man’s nature we move from life into old age and into darkness of death. However, as believers in Jesus Christ we grow in the light and move through death into a greater light. Darkness precedes the light and the light obliterates the darkness.
Thirdly, the time when the length of a day had not been established ended and the time when the length of a day was established began. There was an ending and a beginning. Biblically speaking, the day begins at sunset and concludes at the next sunset. In mainstream culture, the new day begins at midnight. But God started the day at sunset because the nature of things of the world is darkness just as the heavens and the earth were dark before God spoke light into being. No matter how dark is the night, the dawn is but hours away. The time when the redemptive process was unknown ended and the dark to light redemptive process began. There was an ending and beginning.
Six more times in Genesis Chapter 1, in verses 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, and 24, it is written, “Then God Said,” and what ever God said came into being. Here’s the ticker. Every time “God Said” and created something, there was an ending and a beginning. A time when something did not exist ended and the time when those things did exist began. There were endings and beginnings.
Then we get to verse 26 of Genesis Chapter 1.
26. Then God said, “Let us make man in Our image according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Here, God has changed His mode of creation. Until now, He has merely spoken creation into existence. Here, God said, “Let us make man.” As in being fashioned by God’s own hand. Genesis 2:7 reads.
Then the Lord God formed man of the dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. The time when man did not exist ended and the time when man existed began. There was an ending and a beginning.
God measures time in endings and beginnings, not beginnings and endings.
Why am I so big on time being measured in endings and beginnings? It’s really quite simple. If we can identify endings and beginnings in God’s word, and they are prevalent throughout the Bible, we will see cyclical patterns emerging and repeating. That means something. But what does it mean? Please bear with me. I really am going somewhere with all this.
Genesis 2:2-3
2. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.
3. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
What just happened? The time when the length of a week had not been established ended and the time when the length of a week had been established began. There was an ending and beginning. More importantly, the time when the Sabbath had not been established ended and the time when the Sabbath was established began. There was an ending and a beginning. I think that it is important to note that the Sabbath was established very early on just after the creation of man.
If you will look at verses 14 and 15 in Genesis Chapter one you will see that the heavenly lights that dictate the months, seasons, and years were put into place. In this instance, the time that the ruling factors that determine the months, seasons, and years did not exist came to an end and the time that those ruling factors were in place began. There was an ending and beginning.
It is in endings and beginnings that we have time as God created time and that time is cyclical or operates in repeating cycles. Days. Weeks/Sabbaths, months, seasons, years, and ages. Each one of those things begins with the ending of the partition of time preceding it. This is how we identify time, God’s time, in the Bible.
You may say, “So?” Thought you might say that.
The truth is that time is very important to God. He created time in a very precise manner. As far as humanity is concerned, God got real serious about time just before He brought the people of Israel out of Egyptian bondage. Mind you, that the days, weeks/sabbaths, months, seasons, and years had already been established. But how God uses time was established in Exodus Chapter 12.
Exodus 12:1-2
1. Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,
2. “This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is the first month of the year for you.”
What is this leading to? It’s leading to the plagues on Eygpt but, more importantly, thePassover. On the tenth day of the month, a lamb was selected as a sacrifice and the fourteenth day, just before sunset, blood was placed on the lentil and door posts of each dwelling. It was the first Passover Feast.
You may be saying, “Now hold on Lonnie. The Feasts are Jewish Holidays. They are over and done away with.”
I say, “Don’t you believe it!” I would also add, “We’d better hope and pray that it is not so!” Why?
First, the Passover Feast, in fact all the feasts, were initiated by God before there were Jews, before Israel was brought out of Egypt and made a nation. There were no “Jews” prior to 975 B.C. when the nation of Israel split into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. The inhabitants of Judah were the tribes of Judah, the Levites, and part of the tribe of Benjamin. They became known as “Jews”. Until then, there was only the nation of Israel.
Without getting into a deep discussion of mathematics and calculations let me disclose something to you. Israel coming out from under the bondage of Egypt during Passover has greater meaning for us today than it did for Israel then.
Exodus 6:5-8
“Furthermore I have heard the groaning of the sons of Israel, because of the Egyptians are holding them in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant.
“Say therefore, to the sons of Israel, ‘I am the LORD and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with and outstretched arm and with great judgments. Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you to the land which I swore to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession; I am the LORD.”
Let’s look at that for a moment. God is making some monumental promises here. 1. I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. That’s sanctification. 2. I will deliver you from their bondage. That’s deliverance. 3. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. That’s redemption. And 4. I will take you for My people and I will be your God. That’s joy!
These four promises are the four cups of blessings that the Jews drink to at every Passover. Sanctification. Deliverance. Redemption. Joy. However, if we continue on to verse 8 we find another promise that is being missed. It is a promise that God fulfilled to Israel but in that promise is a promise that we are still yet to receive. “I will bring you to the land which I swore to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession.”
Why is all that important? Because when you stop and think about it, isn’t that what Jesus did for us when He sacrificed Himself during the Passover Feast? He provided for our sanctification, our deliverance, our redemption and He is our Joy. But if we go even further, through Jesus we have an inheritance in His kingdom to come. That is yet to be fulfilled! How beautiful is that? The entire process is re-playing before our eyes!
Jesus has delivered us and redeemed us thereby sanctifying us. In Him we have an inheritance in a kingdom that has yet to come.
King David tells us in Psalm 81:3-4
“Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on your feast day.
For it is a statute for Israel, An ordinance of the God of Jacob.
The trumpet is sounded at the new moon or the beginning of each new month in the Bible. The trumpet closes the month ending and ushers in a new, beginning of a new month. There are endings and beginnings. Also, the trumpet sounds at the full moon. Who died on the full moon? Jesus did. Each full moon is a reminder that Jesus died on a cross, in our rightful place, for our benefit. Now notice two words in these two verses. They are “statute” and “ordinance”. What is the difference in statute and ordinance. Both are ancient legal terms. A statute is a law. It says that the sounding of the trumpet is a statute for Israel. But it goes on to say that it is an ordinance of the God of Jacob. An ordinance is a final judgment. It cannot be amended, repealed, or altered. An ordinance is forever. Just like communion, the Lord’s Supper, is an ordinance. Just like marriage between one man and one woman is an ordinance. The time in the Bible and it’s use is an ordinance. It cannot change.
Something else you might want to think about while we’re considering God’s time that in Genesis 22 Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac when God provided a ram, a male sheep, to substitute in the place of Abraham’s son Isaac. It was a lamb that provided the sacrificial blood that protected the sons of Israel during the Passover. I find it particularly interesting that a sheep was sacrificed for the son of Abraham and the sons of Israel. I find it particularly interesting that the Son of God would be sacrificed for the sheep. You guessed it on Passover. And while we’re thinking about time, God’s time, consider this. That day that Abraham was to sacrifice Isaac? That day when Israel was brought out of Egypt? That day when our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was sacrificed on the cross? All those things occurred on the same date, the fourteenth day of the first month of that Calendar that God established in Exodus 12.
Only God can orchestrate such things. That’s how God’s time works and how God works in His time.
If you go to the plagues that God struck Egypt with and count backwards from Passover you will arrive at the 14th day of Adar, which would become known as Purim when Queen Esther saved the Jews while in exile. Only thing is that would not take place to become Purim for approximately another 650 years.
Passover is a time of remembrance. The Jews remember the Exodus out of Egypt. For Christians, it is a reminder of our Lord and Savior’s Death that accomplished the same things God accomplished for Israel in the original Passover. It is also a reminder that we have not arrived at our inheritance in God’s kingdom that is yet to come. It gives us something to look forward to and reminds us of what we have to look forward to.
Although I don’t have time to delve into it during this episode, I’ll tell you that the other Feasts have some significance to modern day Christians as well. Do I advocate that we, as Christians, observe the Feasts in strict Jewish Fashion? No, I don’t. However, I believe that it is important that we remember them for what they meant and, in some instances, remember them for what is to come. The Feasts were God’s appointed times to meet with Israel. The Feasts had specific meanings for the Jews, and still do. Likewise, as Christians, the Feasts have specific meanings for us as well. There are things on God’s timeline that are repeating and we should be aware of those things. There are covenants, prophecies, and promises that are, as yet, unfulfilled that are associated with the Feasts. The Feast of Trumpets and the Feasts of Tabernacles are two feasts that hold particular importance for the end time believer as they will bring about and ending that ushers in a new beginning that will never have an end.
The Feasts are God’s appointed times. They are not merely Jewish holidays. They are holy days that should be remembered for what they were and for what they are. Why? Because the Feasts are centered around HARVESTS. We would do well to know and understand God’s harvest times.
I am The Old Watchman, Ezekiel. You have been warned.
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