God and time

One thing we need to realise is that we may be created in God’s image, but He does things in very different ways from us and it’s a waste of time trying to analyse His motives for doing anything. That doesn’t make our God unfeeling or erratic, it just puts us in our place and encourages us to realise that only God sees the big picture and the far-off consequences. Which brings me rather neatly into time and space.

The Bible shows us again and again that God wants us to consider time over space. Those first Christians were a people of a tradition that stretched back for centuries. They followed the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They are part of the nation forged by Moses in Sinai and led by David in the Land of Milk and Honey. They knew their history, they revered these men of old and especially those prophets, from Moses to Zechariah, who met with God at a given time, with messages for them all.

There is no such thing as “holy spaces”, places where God can be found, but there are holy times, when God has visited our lives. This is our on-going testimony, God causes us to remember, to remember and believe, it does far more to sustain and build our faith than any number of clever arguments. And that is our first big thought.

Thought #1: Remember, don’t analyse

Building on this, we realise that the very subject of time has become a commodity in today’s world. We measure it and live our lives by it with schedules and calendars. It has got to the point when meeting deadlines is more important than the task itself, as we proclaim “everything has got to be done by yesterday” and “time is money”.

Yet, biblically, it is the task or event that is important rather than the time it takes to do it. As Christians, God gives us tasks to do and completing these tasks to the best of our ability is surely more important than beating the clock to do so (as I write this I see an important lesson for myself here!).

God created time at the moment of Creation. This makes Him master of time. Any scientist that has issues with the fact that the Creator is free to break His own rules at any time, in order to interact with our world, should take this up with the Creator Himself. God has given us science, He is free to redefine it any time He wishes. This seems like a cop-out and no doubt reeks of naivete, ignorance and anti-intellectualism to some, but then people of “reason” are never going to understand people of faith. That’s the whole point and, at the risk of alienating fans of Doctor Who, God is the Lord of time, the only true Timelord (though it doesn’t bother me and I am a fan). 

This is an extract from the book, Hebraic Church, available for £10 at https://www.sppublishing.com/hebraic-church-101-p.asp

How does God work through time?