Time

Re:Verse passage – 2 Peter 3:8-9 (day four)

There is a roughly 400 year gap between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament. Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, ends with a promise that sounds a lot like Peter’s words,

“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze…But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. ³ You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing,” says the Lord of hosts.”

I’m sure this promise filled the Israelites with hope in the middle of the trying times they lived in. But 400 years later, many generations had passed without seeing this promise fulfilled.

The Greek language uses two different words for time. The time that we think about most is time that can be measured in seconds, hours, weeks, and years. This is “chronos.” The Greek language has another word for time, though, that represents something much deeper – “kairos” indicates the fullness of time, the right time, a divinely appointed time. When Jesus comes on the scene, he says “the time (kairos) has come for the Kingdom of God to be near.”

While there was a great deal of time (chronos) between the delivery of the promise in Malachi and its satisfaction, Christ fulfilled it at the exact right time (kairos). In the same way, though the time (chronos) is long and slow as we wait for Christ’s return, he will come again at the exact right time (kairos) to restore all things. He is not slow, he simply operates in the fullness of time.