One day as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day

The reality of a faith-filled life is a beautiful thing. Jesus' sweet intercessions, His providential care, the magnanimity of His salvation, the ongoing gratitude we feel during increased sanctification, are all wonderful buttresses to the daily grind we experience. It's wonderful to have Him to focus upon as the object of our adoration and awe.

Just as pondering His love and kindness is an encouragement, His wrath and judgment are weighty topics that should be mulled over as well. The fact is, many human beings will populate the Lake of Fire for all eternity, a devastating thought if you really chew on it for a while.

I'll be posting a three-part series on the verse from Romans 9:22 about the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. I'd found a wonderful sermon from Robert Murray M'Cheyne, his last sermon in fact. He raised three important points about God's electing people to be His 'vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,' and I intend to post them piecemeal over the next 3 days.

Meanwhile, I've been thinking about the reality of hell for the lost. One of the verses I studied today was this from 2 Peter 3:8.

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. (2 Peter 3:8).

In context, Peter is assuring his readers that the Lord's final plan regarding His return and the judgment WILL come to pass. God is not slack concerning His promise, Peter goes onto state. The point of the verse was to remind the audience that God is outside of time and in control of everything. We read a parallel to the time thing in Psalm 90:4,

For a thousand years in your sight
    are but as yesterday when it is past,
    or as a watch in the night

The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary explained the thousand year/day v. day/thousand year part of the 2 Peter verse.

No delay which occurs is long to God: as to a man of countless riches, a thousand guineas are as a single penny. God's œonologe (eternal-ages measurer) differs wholly from man's horologe (hour-glass). His gnomon (dial-pointer) shows all the hours at once in the greatest activity and in perfect repose. To Him the hours pass away, neither more slowly, nor more quickly, than befits His economy. There is nothing to make Him need either to hasten or delay the end. The words, "with the Lord" (Ps 90:4, "In Thy sight"), silence all man's objections on the ground of his incapability of understanding this

When reading the J-F-B about the gnomon, œonologe, and horologe, I got pretty excited! More stuff to study. But for today's thought, back to the beginning of thinking over the fate of the lost in the Lake of Fire for all eternity, it might be helpful to see the thousand year part of the verse this way. Though there is not a literal 'day' in heaven or in hell,

--Those who are with the Lord in heaven experience such post-life joy that a thousand years passes as one day.
--Those who are with the Lord in hell (He is not there but His wrath is), experience such post-life torment that one day is as a thousand years.

It is a sobering thought.