End
Time begins and ends in God
In 2012, Spain hosted athletics competitions. A considerable amount of money was designated for the winner. The running race featured the strongest athletes of the world, including Abel Mutai from Kenya, the bronze medalist of the London Olympics. And this time Mutai was confidently leading the tournament. But about ten meters before the end of the race, the Kenyan runner stopped mistakenly thinking that he had already crossed the finish line.
Mutai stopped and started waving and clapping to the fans, while they were trying to tell him in Spanish (which he didn’t understand) that the end of the race is still a few meters ahead!
Ivan Fernandez Anaya of Spain ran second, he caught up with the Kenyan runner and could have easily finished the race as the winner.
QUESTION: What do you think had happened after that?
The Spanish runner began… to push the Kenyan in the back pointing with his hand where the finish line was. He let Mutai take the first place! After the race, Fernandez was asked if he didn’t want to win, and he answered, “Of course, I really wanted to win. But I didn’t deserve that victory: the gap was huge, and I had no chance to catch up with my opponent if he hadn’t made a mistake. It’s more important for me to maintain my dignity than to have won the gold medal.”[1]
The Bible says that God is the Beginning and the End, He is the First and He is the Last (see Revelation 22:13). What do these words mean? That all time is within God, He has it all. And “the end of the world” is also in God’s hands. The Spanish runner acted honorably and nobly when he allowed the Kenyan to finish first. God does the same with the end of the world. He is not in a hurry to finish with our world, though He could do so any moment!
“Now by that same word, the present heavens and earth have been reserved for fire and are being kept for the day when ungodly people will be judged and destroyed. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some people understand slowness, but is being patient with you. He does not want anyone to perish, but everyone to find room for repentance” (2 Peter 3:7-9)
The Lord is patient so that more people could finish their life race towards Him.
ILLUSTRATION
Take a sheet of paper and draw a line in the center. The beginning of that line would symbolize the beginning of time — creation of angels and our world. The end of the line would symbolize the end of time — God’s Judgment before the White Throne. The sheet, if it were infinite, would symbolize the eternal God in whom time begins and ends. This how A. W. Tozer describes it, “God dwells in eternity but time dwells in God… …think of a sheet of paper infinitely extended. That would be eternity. Then on that paper draw a short line to represent time. As the line begins and ends on that infinite expanse, so time began in God and will end in Him.”[2]
PRAYER: Worship God meditating on His power over the end of the world. Thank Him for His patience that compels Him to wait for more and more people to be saved.
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[1] Based on a story by A. Vishnevsky from the website http://sports.ru
[2] TOZER, A. W. Knowledge Of The Holy. Chapter 7, “The Eternity of God.”
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