Listen:  109.2

To get a proper perspective of that verse, let’s read 2 Peter 3:3-9, “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:  Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

We are certainly living in the last days of the church period.  We should not be surprised that there are many who ridicule the idea that the Lord will one day return for His church to take us to be with Himself in the Glory and then He will judge the world in righteousness.  These people are willingly ignorant of how the Lord judged the world by water in the days of Noah.  Because of the wickedness of man, we read in Genesis 6:7, “And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.”  Have people forgotten that the Lord has already judged the world once by water, or do they just simply refuse to believe that the flood ever occurred?  While the Lord has promised that He will not judge the world by water again, He will judge the world by fire the next time as we read in 2 Peter 3:10, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”

With all this in proper context, what does 2 Peter 3:8 mean when it says, “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”?  Those who scoffed at the teaching of the Lord’s return were reacting to the long delay in the Lord’s return.  If He said He would return, where then is He?  Why is there such a long delay?  Peter is telling us here that the Lord is timeless.  He is not held captive to the ticking of the clock as we are.  He moves and operates outside time so that he can expand a day into a thousand years, or compress a thousand years into one day.  He is not bound by time, so we cannot predict the time of His return.

King David was also ridiculed about his belief in the coming of the Lord.  We read in Psalms 115:1-3, “Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.”  What a blessed thought and answer to those who scoff, “our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.”  We are assured in Hebrews 10:37, “For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.”  How long is that ‘little while’?  That is entirely up to the Lord, but we know that He will come and He will not tarry when the time is right.  (109.2)