DIVINE MEASUREMENT
DIVINE MEASUREMENT
Genesis 1: 14 - 19; Revelation 20: 1 - 8
There is one attribute of God that I have enjoyed in recent times, namely, that He is “the God of measure,” 2 Corinthians 10: 13. His ability to measure things is one of His attributes. He has many other attributes, all contributing to His glory. He is the God of glory, the God of patience, the God of hope, the God of recompenses. He is also the God of measure, and we cannot challenge His measurements. He measures by distance, He measures by weight, He measures by time. His ability to measure distances baffles the human mind, as seen in the physical universe, and all such measurements are perfect. His ability to measure by weight is perfect. He is said to have weighed the mountains, and to have measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, Isaiah 40: 12; He measured how much water would be suitable on this globe. He weighs actions on His balances, 1 Samuel 2: 3. He even weighs the spirits of men, Proverbs 16: 2, so perfect are His balances.
I refer now to God’s ability to measure time, for I believe, if we receive this feature of His glory into our hearts, we shall be calm in view of what confronts us. God’s glory is seen, amongst many other ways, in His wonderful ability to measure time. These scriptures begin the subject and end it, but I want to draw upon our knowledge of the Scriptures to refer to others as we proceed.
The first scripture indicates that God measures the seasons and the days and the years. In establishing the great luminaries that rule above, God said, “Let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.” God has determined how long a day will be, how long a night will be, how long a month will be, how long a season will be, and how long a year will be. All are fixed from heaven and are outside man’s range to alter. God measured them and no one could challenge the perfection of such measurements. The ordinances of the heavens whereby they rule over the earth have fixed the day. We cannot shorten or lengthen it. They have fixed the month — the moon determining the month — they have fixed the seasons and they have fixed the year.
I mention this to show that God has power and uses it to control time and measure it. Now if He has done that in the physical universe, will He stand aside and ignore time in the working out of things here on earth? Never! If He has controlled time in establishing the creation as we now have it, do you think He stands back and has no say in the times that pass over us? He took account of the times that passed over David and the times that passed over Israel, 1 Chronicles 29: 30, and He controls and takes cognisance of the times that pass over His people now. We see this in relation to man in his departure from God in the days of Noah. There was a world in defiance of God, filled with corruption and violence. God fixes the time for that world at 120 years. He says to Noah, “My spirit shall not always strive with man ... but his days shall be an hundred and twenty years,” Genesis 6: 3. God measures the time that He will allow such a world to continue, one hundred and twenty years. Will He not do that now?
He certainly will. Let us not think that things will go on and on. God has fixed the time for the end. Here in Genesis He fixed, not only the year, but the day. The day Noah went into the ark was the seventeenth of the second month of the six hundredth year of Noah’s life. It was fixed, and on that same day the windows of heaven were opened and the fountains of the great deep broken up. It is all so determined from heaven.
We see that working out again in another way; the period of the persecution of God’s people in Egypt is fixed. God told Abraham that his seed would go down into a land not theirs and be persecuted four hundred years, Genesis 15: 13. The period that He would permit His people to be afflicted in the world was fixed by God. He determined that. Will He not do that now? He certainly will. He will fix the time He will permit the world to afflict His people, as He did then. Four hundred years, He says, and you can trace it out. When the four hundred years are up, the power of Egypt is broken and His people are delivered. All is in His hands as to time. The same principle operates as to the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine in Joseph’s day. God in His wisdom measures the time of plenty; and then He measures the time of famine. All is controlled by Him. The dreams that Pharaoh received indicate what God is doing. God makes known to Pharaoh what He is doing during a defined period of plenty and then a defined period of famine. I do not touch what these things represent, but I point them out to help us to see how time is controlled by God.
I pass on to Numbers, and we find there that the period allotted in the wilderness is fixed by God — forty years, a year for a day, Numbers 14: 33. Forty days were spent spying out the land; now they were to be in the wilderness forty years. It is clear that the period in which His people are in wilderness conditions, with all it brings upon them, is fixed by God. It is not accidental; it is not casual. It is defined from heaven. Another matter that God fixes as to time is the space for repentance — a very grave matter for every heart. I refer to Jezebel. Scripture says, “that woman Jezebel,” Revelation 2: 20 — the most wicked queen that has reigned. But the Lord says, “I gave her time that she should repent,” Revelation 2: 21. The Lord allotted to her a period for repentance, known to Him as to its length, but defined. She repented not. This matter has tested me and I hope it will come home to all, that heaven allots a period for repentance. We cannot say on our side exactly how long it is, but heaven fixes it. If repentance is reached within that period, thank God; but if it is not, the period is passed over to our loss. I am not speaking primarily to unbelievers. I am including each one of us in relation to any matters that need adjusting, that need repentance. There is a period in the mind of God, and if we miss it, then we may miss it for the rest of the journey. The Lord controls the time for it to be done. It is in His hands. Even be we such as Jezebel, there is space for repentance. If we pass that space, the matter is settled.
We see this principle working beautifully as to Nineveh. The prophet comes there and says, “Yet forty days,” Jonah 3: 4. God granted that space for repentance. We cannot tell how long the forty days literally may be to any one of us, but there is space for adjusting matters that are wrong. If, like the king of Nineveh, we humbly face the thing in the forty days, that is our deliverance, but if we pass over the forty days then we are as Jezebel. They went out to look for her but could not find her, for the dogs had eaten her, 2 Kings 9: 35. She fell into the hands of the unclean. I commend this matter to each of us. Each knows his own history. Why not put things right while there is time? Let it come home to our consciences and hearts. Why not put it right in the, period allotted by heaven? “I gave her space for repentance,” the Lord says.
I pass on to Hezekiah, and would show that God allots us the period of our life here, a most comforting thought. The length of life of one of God’s people is not accidental; the matter is in the hands of God. God, speaking to Hezekiah says, “Set thy house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live,” 2 Kings 20: 1. The time had come in God’s mind to close this life. Hezekiah weeps and prays, and God grants him fifteen years. He fixes another period. He measures the extended period of Hezekiah’s life. That ought to quieten our spirits whatever comes. Whatever lies before us, our lives — the length of them here — are in the hands of God. Let us not be dismayed, nor filled with undue fear. Let us not fear, for our breath is in the hands of God. Paul says, “the time of my release is come.” This is a great solace to us all. The time is fixed by God. He can in His wisdom extend it, for in the working out of His ways, God takes account of the desires and prayers of His people, whether in lengthening a period of blessing, shortening a time of severe pressure, or deferring the moment of judgment. It is God, however, who measures and fixes the time.
I pass on. The period of the captivity is fixed by God seventy years. God determined the period His people would be in captivity. The end is fixed, and after seventy years God says, “I will visit you,” Jeremiah 29: 10. The period we have to go through in discipline because of our failures individually or collectively, is fixed by God. Let us humbly accept it. That is what Daniel did. He did not resist, but bowing to it accepted it humbly. He understood by books when the time was drawing near for the release of Israel. He understood what was written in Jeremiah the prophet about the seventy years.
I come now to the New Testament, where we come to this thought in a most glorious way. The day of the entrance of Christ to this earth is fixed by heaven. The angelic hosts say, “this day,” Luke 2: 11. Multitudes of the heavenly hosts join in the celebrations of that day. “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” The day and the place were designed by heaven. God’s hand overruling even the Roman census that it should be in the place, as well as on the day, of His determining — all ordered by heaven, all measured by God.
Then, referring to the public service of Christ, we read, “when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son,” Galatians 4: 4. Oh, what a time! the fulness of the time. One cannot convey much of what this means, but the great outgoing of time was the public appearance of Jesus as sent here as the Son. “God sent forth his Son.” The time for this was measured. “God, having raised up his servant, has sent him, blessing you,” Acts 3: 26. Then the duration of the Lord’s public service was measured. It was all ordered from heaven. Again and again they would terminate His life, but could not. They may take Him to the brow of the hill to cast Him down headlong, but He goes His way. They may take stones to stone Him, but His hour was not yet come. The day of the death of Jesus is also fixed by heaven — the “due time,” Romans 5: 6. I could not tell you all that enters into that word “due” — the time measured according to the divine calendar for the great Sacrifice. They say, “Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people,” Mark 14: 2. It was the day that the Passover must be killed, like the passover of which it says, “It is a night much observed,” Exodus 12: 42. The month of the passover was the beginning of months, but the “night” of the passover sacrifice was to be much remembered. So it was in due time that Christ died for the ungodly — the time due according to divine measurements. If God had His hand over the situation at Calvary, will He not have it over the situation today? There never was anything like Calvary for lawlessness in man and for the power of the devil, but God had His hand over the whole situation, and measured it.
I now refer to several passages in the Revelation of kindred import. The Lord says to the church at Smyrna that they would have tribulation ten days. They were going to pass through a period when some would die, the Lord saying to such “be thou faithful to death, and I will give thee a crown of life ... He that overcometh, shall not be hurt of the second death,” Revelation 2: 10, 11. The Lord measures the period of tribulation, more intense perhaps than ever in Christian history, but measured by the Lord — ten days. He fixes the period. Let us face what is ahead of us, realising that He will fix the days. He will fix the ten days. He will know how long to let it go on; He will determine when it begins and when it ends. It is not in other hands. Whoever may be the instrument causing the suffering, the period is controlled by the Lord. “Ye shall have tribulation ten days.”
I refer to Revelation 9, where out of the smoke of the pit come locusts; they are like horses; they have hair like women, teeth like lions. Their noise is like many horses and chariots running to battle. They have a sting like a scorpion, and they hurt men five months. This awful scourge that comes from the pit has to be gone through, but the period is determined by God — five months. They cannot shorten it. They look for death, but cannot find it, and the five months have to be gone through.
Then in chapter 11 the prophetic period is fixed in days, not months. There are the two prophets, and it says, “they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days,” Revelation 11: 3. Nobody can touch them till they have finished their testimony. The period in which the prophetic word is available is fixed by God, even to days. That is a great matter for us to see. We cannot lend our ear to it as we like, assuming it is always to go on: The period of the prophetic word is fixed. They are slain and their bodies lie on the street of the great city three and a half days — the expression of the hatred of the then world for divine testimony. Its contempt for the witnesses is seen in that their bodies lie there three and a half days, the period is fixed. They cannot leave those bodies there indefinitely. God may permit His testimony to be under reproach and scorn for a period, but the period is fixed. Three and a half days, no longer, and after the three and a half days they stand up on their feet. I call attention to the fixing of the time of reproach and contempt of the saints. God knows how long He is going to allow it.
In chapter 13 the beast is seen arising out of the sea. It has a mouth like a lion, devouring; with feet like a bear, rending in pieces with unspeakable cruelty. It is like a leopard, another evidence of ferocity. It has authority to continue forty-two months, no more. The period of its power is defined, but this period is to be gone through in divine government. For forty-two months the Lamb of God moved amongst men in profound grace and blessing, only to be crucified. The world that refused Him must have forty-two months of the beast — the same period as that wherein Jesus moved as the Lamb. “Behold the Lamb of God,” said John when looking on Jesus as He walked — no lion-like character, no bear-like character — no leopard-like character, but the Lamb. The God of recompenses recompenses the world with forty-two months of the beast’s authority, but it is limited; that is my point. It is restricted, but it continues that period and then it terminates for ever, the beast going into the lake of fire. We see that what God may permit is not out of His control. If the beast is on earth controlling the minds and hands of man, his power is restricted by heaven, forty-two months, no more and no less.
I close with the final scripture, in which there is frequent reference to one thousand years. God controls an hour or three hours — what hours they were at Calvary, all under the divine control! He controls one hundred and twenty years; He controls four hundred years: He adds fifteen years to a man’s life; He controls ten days of tribulation; three and a half years of the beast’s kingdom is limited by Him, but He is equally able perfectly to control one thousand years. One angel comes down with a great chain. The activities of evil do not mean that God has lost control. He has His angels. One of them can bind the devil; He has His chains, eternal chains indeed, not temporary ones. The angel has a great chain and it is used to bind the devil and put him in the bottomless pit for one thousand years. Year by year, one thousand years, he cannot come out. There is no weakness in the control of that time from the first year to the last. When the thousand years are completed, he must be loosed a little by divine order. Not that he breaks through, not that he breaks the chain, but in divine wisdom he must be loosed a little.
Then the prophet sees thrones, and those who sat upon them, who lived and reigned with Christ one thousand years. Those who have part in the first resurrection will live and reign and be priests for one thousand years. The time is allotted by God and under His control. He can allot one thousand as easily as fifteen years. He can control things for one thousand years, as He can control them for one hour. It says of Babylon, “in one hour is thy judgment come,” Revelation 18: 10. God can use one hour and one thousand years.
We pass from the thousand years into a scene to which time does not apply. Time is a creature, controlled by God from a moment to one thousand years, but when what God has in mind to do during time is finished. He brings in the new heaven and the new earth and a condition that has no need of the sun or the moon, no need for the gradations of time, be they days or months or years. We shall then have part in a condition that is eternal, abiding for the divine pleasure for ever.
I do not profess to know what God is going to permit, but I am assured of this, that the length of it remains controlled by Him, whether it be hours or days or months or years, or three and a half years, or fifteen years, or one thousand years. The matter of time is measured by God to accomplish His own purpose. May the Lord help us to be so in the acceptance of it in reality and faith that we may not be overwhelmed with care at this time.