GOD’S TIMETABLE
By Pastor Jim May
While most of the Psalms were songs and poems of worship written by David, the sweet singer of Israel, this Psalm is attributed to Moses, and was a prayer that Moses prayed unto God as he led the Children of Israel from Egypt to the Promised Land. Let’s read the first four verses tonight, for I believe that God has something to say to all of us in these words.
We can also see in the New Testament, in Book of 2 Peter, where Peter is inspired by the Holy Spirit to say these same words, perhaps quoting, or remembering what Moses had prayed many years earlier.
2 Peter 3:8, "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."
I want you to keep those two scriptures in mind as we continue now to the Book of Genesis. In the first chapter of Genesis, the Word of God begins with the story of God’s creation of the universe and all that is in it. I want us to look at the six days of creation and project them, compare them, and type them as the passage of time over man’s 6000 plus, years of history upon this earth, and hopefully you will see with me, just where we are in God’s prophetic timetable.
God just didn’t helter-skelter throw together the course of history with no thought of its length and all of the things that would take place through the millennia of time to come. Every part of history; everything that has transpired and everything that will transpire is all according to God’s master plan to fulfill His Word.
If you remember in the Book of Daniel that we studied a year or so ago, that Daniel’s vision of future events in the political history of the world were right on target. God knew in advance of what would happen and He set the powers in place, raised up rulers and kings at the proper time and place, even naming several of the kings that would rule and the empires that they would rule over sometimes hundreds and even thousands of years before they came upon the scene. Through it all God’s plan was working. Through it all, time was marching ever onward to that day when all shall be fulfilled. God’s Word cannot fail. God is faithful and He will see that everything works to His will and purpose.
So when God began that first day of Creation, here is what we see.
Genesis 1:1-5, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day."
Now if we were to type this first day of Creation in relationship to the history of mankind, we must say that this represents the beginning of God’s revelation to all of creation, and to man himself, that God is God and that He is.
For the first day of man’s history, the first 1000 years and more, mankind was learning of the existence of God and that man’s existence on the earth, and even the earth itself, was no mere accident in some unknown eon of time. It was the time when God revealed himself not only to Adam, but also to Seth, Enoch, and Methuselah and down to Noah. Noah was born approximately 1000 years after Adam, and though Enoch was a man who walked with God and went on to Heaven without dying, Moses is the first man of the Bible that “found grace in the eyes of the Lord”.
Mankind began by walking with the Lord in the Garden and by the end of the first 1000 years; he had severed his relationship with God and lost his immortality through sin. For a thousand years and more, mankind fell further and further into the depravity of sin. There were only a few, a very few people who lived in that time period that would give God a second thought.
It became so bad that demons were co-habiting with women and men and their offspring were giants in the land, bent on the destruction of all that was good. Mankind was on the very brink of self-destruction when God finally brought the end of that first long day of darkness. There was light, but it was not enough for fallen man to see. He needed something more than just the knowledge that God existed, he needed a relationship with God, but sin prevented that from being possible.
And so, with God the first Day of Creation, when light was spoken into existence, can be compared to that first millennium when mankind had a limited understanding of who God is, limited enough to know that God existed, but with no real knowledge of God at all.
Then begins the 2nd Day of Creation.
Genesis 1:6-8, "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."
This second thousand years of history is marked by the single most cataclysmic event in the history of mankind after the fall in the Garden. Mankind had become so depraved and evil that God had to put a stop to it. That’s when Noah came upon the scene.
Noah and his family, 8 people in all, were all that would go on into the future. God wiped out the entire human race except for those 8 people, to begin again new millennia with a new purpose.
Notice that the 2nd day of Creation speaks of waters dividing waters. It is no coincidence that this second 1000-year period of history begins with a flood that covered the entire earth. God separated the Heavens above, the sky with the earth beneath by bringing in a layer of water to cleanse the earth.
And so the events of the flood and the judgment of mankind mark the 2nd “day” of history. During this period of man’s history, God revealed His holiness and His hatred for sin and proved to mankind that He was God and that He would maintain control in the face of evil.
Now let us look at the 3rd Day of Creation.
Remember, a thousand years with God is as a day, and a day as a thousand years, so don’t get hung up on one time period being longer than another in God’s prophetic calendar. I am convinced that God deliberately changed the time frames and historical events, giving them varying times, just to keep mankind from knowing exactly when Jesus would come at the end of days. If God’s time frames were all equal, and his pre-determined events were spaced perfectly accordingly, then we could all get out a calculator and figure out the date that Jesus would return to take away His Bride. But that would carry a great danger of man presuming upon God to sin until the last possible moment and God wasn’t going to let any man know that much.
Genesis 1:9-13, "And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day."
After the Flood had subsided, there were no more cities, no more civilized world existed. Noah and his family walked off of that ark with only the seed of what had once been over the whole earth.
The dry land appeared but there was no vegetation. Water had destroyed everything. Just look at what happened in New Orleans and other places with the passing of a tidal wave or a storm surge and then multiply that millions of times over. Nothing was left; everything was wiped out.
During this time Noah and his family, along with the animals, and the seed of plants and the fish in the sea that remained became the seed of Creation once again and God said to replenish and multiply and fill the earth. Every seed brought forth after its kind. Mankind began to fill the earth once more as generations passed and children were born. Animals multiplied and roamed the earth to find a home once again.
Most Bible scholars and creation scientists agree that the period of the Flood was the source of the fossil record and bones, even of dinosaurs and every other creature that has been found. Before creation there was no death, therefore no fossils of dead creatures could have existed before that time. Evolutionists would argue that the world is millions and millions of years old, while the Bible and Creationists believe that the world and all it holds can be no more than 6000 to 7000 years old. Who are we to believe; Evolutionist Scientists who have their own religious agenda against God; or the God of the Bible and His Word? I would rather stand with the Creation story than evolutionist theories that have never been proven.
During this 4th “day” that we can say lasted for 1000 years and more of man’s history, God allowed mankind to replenish the earth and for civilizations to be built again. But mankind still lived in a dim “light”, not fully knowing, understanding, or being able to build a close relationship with the Lord. He was still separated from God by sin.
That sin reigned in the hearts of men until there came a time that mankind determined to build a tower to reach into Heaven itself. The Tower of Babel became the symbol of man trying to be god instead of bowing his head to the true God. God once again stepped in to stop the devices of man, fueled by Satan, to thwart God’s plan. He confounded their language so that they could no longer communicate and work together. Mankind scattered to the four corners of the world, forming the nations and bringing the political divisions that separated peoples of the world according to their common language and ability to understand one another.
Also, during this time, God began to raise up a people for His own. Abraham heard the call of God and began to walk by faith. It was with him that God established His first covenant with humanity, committing Himself to the creation, protection and building of a nation and a people that would worship Him in the earth, a people who were to bear the name of Yahweh, Jehovah, the Lord God of Heaven throughout all the earth as a witness that God was still in control. Through Abraham, the nation of Israel was born.
Through many years God brought a greater knowledge of who He is. He established His law in the land through prophets, judges and kings to bring Israel into a right relationship with God. Though they faltered and failed and grieved the heart of God, it was God who had made the covenant and He would see it through because His Word cannot fail.
Then came the 4th Day of Creation
Genesis 1:14-19, "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: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day."
To what events and time period in the history of mankind can this 4th “day” represent? It’s not hard to figure it out if you think about it. That 4th great division of time where a day came to mark a vast change was the “day” that Jesus came into this world as the “Light of the World”.
Jesus is that Greater light. It is the light of the Savior that opened the understanding of men to the true Love of God. It is the revelation of who Jesus is, very God and yet very man at the same time; God, who of His own choice, came down from His place of holiness, power, righteousness and perfection, to a world filled with sin, to die upon the cross and bring a “Great Light” to the hearts of men.
What about the lesser light; what could that be? In the original creation story we understand that the sun in the sky became the great light to rule by day, but it was the moon that ruled by night as the lesser light. The moon has no light of its own. It must have the light of the sun to reflect upon the earth.
It is the Church of Jesus Christ, the Body of Christ, in the world who reflects the light of the Savior to a lost and dying world. Our light isn’t as great as Jesus’ light but we are a reflection of Him to the world. How much light are you reflecting? How much of Jesus does the world see in you?
The Church Age can be likened to that 4th Day of Creation. Jesus rules over the darkness of Satan. Even though Satan may appear as an angel of light, he is still under the controlling authority of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Through his power the church has power over the devil and his demonic spirits as well.
“Greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world.” Jesus has given us power to tread on the devil, power to cast out demons, and spiritual weapons to wage war against the powers of darkness to keep the devil’s power to destroy limited. Once the church is removed in the rapture, then Satan will have free reign to do his worst among men. I don’t want to be here when that happens. It’s bad enough right now.
After this long period of time, this “day” of man’s history, there came a 5th Day.
Genesis 1:20-23, "And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day."
Out of nothing but confusion and darkness there came light and order during the first four days of Creation it was easy to see what God was doing. On the second day God created the earth as a ball of water, out of the deep “waters” of the vastness of outer space and separated it with an atmosphere. On the third day God made dry land appear out of the water of the earth and brought forth plants, grass and trees. On the fourth day God created the sun and moon and the stars to rule over the day and the night.
But on the fifth day, God’s creative power might not have appeared so drastically. Under the waters of sea, where no one could see, fish and whales appeared. In the skies above, partially obscured by the trees and vegetation, birds began to fly around. They were there but maybe they didn’t seem to be such a “big thing” as all that had happened before.
Sometimes we can look around and we just don’t see what God is doing. Has He stopped working in mankind? Has He let us alone for a while? Sometimes I wonder, “God, just what are you doing in my life now? I can’t see where you are doing much at all.” But God is still at work in you all the time. He doesn’t do the same thing every day. He doesn’t always operate the same way in every instance. Sometimes He chooses to work openly and sometimes He chooses to work behind the scene. We can’t put God in a box. He won’t conform to our image, our way of doing things or what we think He should do. He is a sovereign Lord and He works in His own way at His own time to accomplish His will.
Job 9:10-11, "Which doeth great things past finding out; yea, and wonders without number. Lo, he goeth by me, and I see him not: he passeth on also, but I perceive him not."
Romans 11:33, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!"
So what “day” of man’s history can this 5th Day of Creation be compared? Not many years after the birth of the Church at Calvary and its establishment as the Body of Christ to carry the gospel into the world there came a long period of history where it seemed that the church would nearly disappear. For hundreds of years it operated mostly in underground churches and in caves. There was no freedom to preach the truth because Satan was doing his best, even using religious people to persecute the true church.
This period of time was called the “Dark Ages”. In this time many Christians were forced to either renounce the Lord as their Savior, or be martyred in all sorts of horrible deaths and tortures for their faith.
When it seems that God has left you for a while, that’s when the devil will attack you the hardest. He knows when you are weak or down spiritually, and he will target you with the biggest guns he can bring to bear. He will force you to either hold on to your faith at all costs, or he will cause you to fall away, back into a life of sin.
But God wasn’t about to let His plan be stopped by the devil’s attacks against the church. Through it all God had a remnant of people who would serve him. Many of them died while burning at the stake, beheaded by the executioners, fed to the lions, torn apart by wild animals, and every conceivable manner of death. “Foxes Book of Martyrs” is filled with many of their testimonies. The Book of Hebrews lists some of those who died for their faith. But through it all – the gospel has continued. Through it all, the Old Ship of Zion has sailed on. Through it all – we shall overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of our Testimony.
God was, and still is working, even when we can’t see what He is doing.
Then came the 6th Day of Creation.
Genesis 1:24-31, " And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day."
We are now living in that sixth “day” of God’s timetable. In fact, we are very near the end of that “day”.
The earth has multiplied many times over in all of the creatures that live upon it. God has created man, in His own image, and given him dominion over all of creation. But mankind has not treated the creation that God has given him with reverence and respect.
Our own nation, indeed all of mankind, has grown more sinful than ever before. The depths of depravity that man can go to are yet to be seen. As we draw ever closer to the end of this period of time before the coming of the Lord, the world is spinning out of control. After the church is gone, that spin will become even faster.
Mankind has taken on the nature of a beast because of his rejection of God. He thinks like a beast, acts like a beast and has the heart of a beast.
It’s not the heart of a man, made in the image of God, that will sexually abuse his own little daughter. It’s the heart of a beast.
It’s not the heart of a man, with a heart designed after God’s own heart, that will lie in wait to murder his brother over a pair of shoes. It’s the heart of a beast.
It’s not the heart of a man, who is meant to have the Love of God in him, that will fly jetliners into skyscrapers to kill other people.
It’s not the heart of a man that will attack students and teachers and kill them for no reason at all.
It’s not the heart of a man that removes every vestige of God, every mention of God’s name, and anything that reminds man of God’s holiness and righteousness, from our halls of government. It’s the heart of a beast.
Beasts have multiplies and filled the earth, and only the judgment of God and the cleansing fire of God can remove the powers of hell that rule in this world right now.
We are coming down to the end of this final “6th day” of man’s history and God is about to step on the scene one more time as this day comes to its end and man’s eternal destiny is forever sealed, and God’s plan comes to it full age.
What happened on the 7th Day of Creation? What did God do then?
Genesis 2:1-3, "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made."
This 7th day of man’s history will be much longer than 1000 years. In fact, it will last for eternity.
This 7th period of time marks the beginning of the New Heavens and the New Earth, rebuilt by God out of the ashes of the old earth that was burned by fire to rid it of the disease, pestilence and death of sin once and for all.
What a day this will be! It won’t be long until the 7th “Day” begins. Are you ready for that day?
While there is yet time, we can make ourselves ready. Once that day begins, there will be no changing our eternal destiny then. We must come to Jesus now and prepare ourselves.
When will Jesus come? NO ONE KNOWS, AND NO ONE CAN KNOW! We cannot know the day, nor the hour, but we can know the season and watch for the signs of His coming. Those signs are everywhere and it won’t be long until Jesus comes again.
Another 1000 years of man’s history will be fulfilled in the Millennial Reign of Christ. That will be an extension of the “day” in which we live right now. Even then, under the perfect and righteous rule of the very Son of God, man will yet rebel against God. In that final battle, called Armageddon, God will finally put down every enemy and destroy sin forever. Then will begin the eternal day.
We are nearing the coming of the Lord, marking the major point in the 6th day of Creation. We are preparing ourselves to rule and reign with Jesus for the remainder of man’s history.
In the final day, we shall all rest from our labors forevermore. What a great day that 7th day will be!
