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Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V Part VI |
Part I: Time and Eternity:Creation and the Theory of Relativity
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| Oppressor | Period in Years | Reference |
| Chushan of Mesopotamia |
8 |
Judges 3:8 |
| Eglon of Moab |
18 |
Judges 3:14 |
| Jabin of Canaan |
20 |
Judges4:2,3 |
| Midian |
7 |
Judges 6:1 |
| Ammon |
18 |
Judges 10:7,8 |
| Philistines |
40 |
Judges 13:1 |
| Sub Total |
111 years |
|
Abimelech |
3 |
Judges 9:1-57 |
| Total |
114 years |
To these must
be added the usurpation of Abimelech (Judges 9-1-57), for a period
of 3 years. These two totals therefore account for the missing
114 years, which added to the 480 years of 1 Kings 6:1 provide
the total of 594 years.
These figures are treated in some
detail in Martin Anstey's classic work on biblical chronology,
and some of his comments are worth repeating. He wrote: (25)
Why, then, are these 114 years of servitude and usurpation omitted? Because the author is computing the years of the Theocracy, of the government of God, � and during those years Israel was not Israel, not "governed of God," but under the heel of the oppressor and the usurper. Hence they are not included in the Theocratic years of the reckoning of God, though they are reckoned in the computation of the years of the age of the World.
The method appears strange and almost impossible to the modern mind, with its highly developed historical sense, its keen scent for fact, and its pantheistic indifference to distinctions of good and evil. Nevertheless, there are days in the history of individuals and years in the history of the nations which we would fain blot out of the calendar of time. Job desired for the day of his birth that it might perish, that it might "not be joined to the days of the year, nor come into the number of the months."
It is a first principle of Statistical Science that no list of figures compiled for one purpose, should be used for another purpose.
25. Anstey, Martin, The Romance of Bible Chronology, Marshall Brothers, New York, 1913, vol.1, p.159.
pg.2
of 5 
There
is another interesting example of the obliteration of time, in
this case not from the nation's history, but from the history
of one individual, David. And it was noted by the Rabbis. For
six months David was, in their view, a leper. They concluded
this by comparing 2 Samuel 5:5 and 1 Kings 2:11. The first tells
us that David reigned in Judah for seven years and six months,
but the second that he reigned only seven years. The latter could
be a kind of abbreviated statement. But we know from Jewish custom
that such an abbreviation would be quite exceptional, since any
part of a year is credited as a whole year, not merely
discounted entirely: seven and a half years would certainly be
abbreviated to read eight years, not seven years.
This is a habitual mode of reckoning
and was adopted by Jewish writers as a standard practice. By
noting this principle, Edwin Thiele was recently able to establish
complete harmony between the records of the reigns of the kings
of Judah and of Israel respectively, thereby solving a problem
that had bothered biblical chronologists for centuries. (26)
The same principle seems to have
been applied to the period of three nights and three days during
which the Lord was in the grave. (27) This principle is, for the most part, foreign to
our way of thinking, but not entirely so � we do allow a
man married on December 31 to claim married status for that whole
year when he makes out his income tax return. But the Rabbis
went to extremes and counted a reign of one year plus one
day as being equal to a reign of two years. (28) So the Rabbis themselves
were led to comment on the apparent contradiction between 2 Samuel
5:5 and 1 Kings 2:11 by saying that God struck from the official
record of David's reign that period of time during which he was
in disfavour with God. This disfavour they took to have been
leprosy, brought upon him by his treatment of Uriah. The Rabbis
ferreted this out in the following way (29): Psalm 51:7 says, "Purge me with hyssop and
I shall be clean." This, they held, was the specific treatment
for leprosy. During that time the shekinah departed from him,
for it is said (verse 12), "Restore unto me the joy of thy
salvation." The time period they then calculated on the
basis of the difference between the figures given in 2 Samuel
5:5 and 1 Kings 2:11. It seems a little fragile as
26. Thiele, Edwin, The Mysterious Numbers
of the Hebrew Kings, University of Chicago Press,
1951, xix and 298 pp.
27. See "The Resurrection of Jesus Christ," Part
VIII in The Virgin Birth and the Incarnation, vol.5 in The
Doorway Papers Series, especially chapter
2.
28. Eighth Tractate of the Mishnah B. Rosh Hasshanah, p. 2a and
b, in the Babylonian Talmud.
29. See Paul Isaac Hershon, Genesis with a Talmudic
Commentary, Bagster, London, 1883, p.25.
pg.3
of 5 a proof of leprosy, but
it does show that they felt it necessary to account for these
missing six months and did so by using as a key the basic principle
that God does not reckon time when His chosen are under His displeasure.
The principle itself was clearly recognized, even if it was sometimes
abused.
There is a lesson in all this.
God strikes from the record those occasions of failure and disobedience
and judgment which eternity might have otherwise recorded to
the discredit of each one of us, that even the times which occupied
them are eliminated also, as though they had never been. It is
as though God would never give to our enemies or to Satan the
opportunity of asking what were we then doing. There will be
no "thens" except those which have been redeemed and
for which we will gladly render an account. The wasted times
will not be on record to bear witness against us; they will have
ceased to exist. But they will not merely have been removed out
of hand � they will have been purchased. There are times
which we can redeem (Ephesians 5:16), but those which we cannot
redeem, the Lord will have redeemed for us. And this brings us
to the final and most solemn aspect of time and eternity in Scripture.
The Lord Jesus Christ was both
the Son of God and the Son of Man. As such He lived in time and
eternity at one and the same moment. He also lived both in heaven
and on earth at once: on earth as the Son of God, while as the
Son of Man being in heaven. This is clearly revealed in John
3:13, where He said of Himself, "No man has ascended up
to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of
man which is in heaven." Notice two things here: first,
that He uses the title "Son of man" though speaking
of being in heaven; and He uses the present tense "is in
Heaven" though He was on earth.
It will be found that the great
majority of passages referring to the eternality of the Lord
appear in John's Gospel. Because of the fact that Matthew, Mark,
and Luke give a picture of the Lord from a single "point
of view," their Gospels are termed Synoptic. There is a
real sense in which they deal, by analogy, with the three dimensions
of space, while John deals with the fourth dimension;
only John substitutes eternity for time. In the light of this,
a remarkable fact is revealed with reference to the events of
the last hours of the Crucifixion.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke all refer
to the circumstance that there was darkness over the earth for
a period of three hours by our clocks, (30) during which God laid
upon Jesus Christ the iniquity of us
30. Matthew 27:45; Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44.
pg.4
of 5 all. In John's Gospel,
no mention whatever is made of this. God had turned away, and
time in the record books of eternity was eclipsed.
But this does not mean that it
was eclipsed in the experience of the Lord Jesus Christ. For
Him, it stretched out interminably. When the end cannot be seen,
suffering is endless while it is endured. That God might strike
from the record every moment of sin, of defeat, of envy, of faithlessness,
of sheer wickedness, in the lives of all who are to be redeemed,
Jesus' suffering was added together in one great total of time,
the length of which, while it was experienced in utter shame,
must have been beyond comprehension.
For this ghastly interval
of inconceivable length � which our clocks mistakenly marked
off in history as three hours -- the Lord Jesus assumed personal
responsibility, consciously and with the frightful intensity
which only a perfectly innocent Man could experience, for the
total guilt of all who believe. Christ became actually responsible,
as though the dreadful catalog of wickedness was His very own
doing. And God turned away from the One who had become so wicked,
for our sakes. For how long? We shall probably never know. But
for long enough that at last God said, "It is enough!"
And Jesus, in His moment of victory, cried out in triumph
"It is finished!" (John 19:30).
And it was, and it is.
But who is adequate for such thoughts,
and where shall we find words? It is sufficient to believe, and
to find forgiveness, because of the Lamb "slain from the
foundation of the world."
pg.5
of 5
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