A MEASURE OF FOREVER

HEBREW HONEYCOMB

William Andrew Dillard
A MEASURE OF FOREVER

“And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:” Gen. 1:14.
We keep calendars of times and seasons dictated by created bodies in the universe. Does that seem to take the control stick away from us? If so, good! Think about this with me!
“Time” picks the curiosity of arts and science. Men fancifully envision being time travelers, etc. yet no one has ever broken its barriers except the super natural beings of the universe. So what is this presence that moves the universe and all in it in one direction? It is a dimension in which all created entities are inexorably locked to the fulfillment of their determined destiny. Think of it as “measured forever” which is an oxymoron because forever cannot be measured. Still it is as close as we can come to understanding it. Moreover, a measure by its very definition must have a beginning and an end to qualify as a measure. Are you still with me?
Time had its beginning in Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning…” God created the universe with specific design, and predestined longevity. He created the means to calculate time, and He supplies the wisdom to know that everything in the universe is destined to end, concluding the “measure.” That is the big picture. There are thousands of subsets of all things and their relationship to time.
For men, the mean measure of time is threescore and ten years. For some reptiles and plants, it is much higher. For some life forms it is a matter of hours. But men are given the ability to reason, to calculate, to understand. Consequently, as we turn the calendar, we calculate that one more grain of sand (a year) has passed through the cosmic hourglass, and another is on its way through it. A thousand years may equal a thousand grains of sand, and how many grains have already passed through it? Logic implies that the hourglass is almost full. Is this making any sense at all to you? Ephemeron will live but a night, but it says, “It has just begun. It is such a long, long time till morning!” But, morning comes and with it the end of its time. For us, seventy years seems a very long way in the springtime of life, but it grows so short in November. What does all this mean?
Calendars mark completed measures of time. It comes, it endures for a while, and it ends. It is a measure! Your life started; it has endured; and it is surely coming to an end. It is a measure! But the bright prospect is that before it ends here, a new life may begin in Christ Jesus, the eternal Son of God. His life that He extends to you through repentance and faith is not a measure of forever. It is forever!