TIMES UP

We probably all agree that God’s concept of “time” and our earthly reckoning of it are quite different. We are assisted by our calendars and computers, God is not. Nevertheless, there does come a day when our “times up” here on earth and we are summoned for heaven.

David’s prayer to the Lord can help us put our life here on earth in perspective: “Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered— how fleeting my life is.” (Psalm 39.4)

Not only are our days brief and being counted, but “the very hairs on your [our] head are all numbered,” (Matthew 10.30), meaning that God knows everything about us, just as he knows that “not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it.” I am not interpreting this literally, suggesting that no bird anywhere in the world dies without God in some way being aware and concerned about it. I read the passage metaphorically, meaning that no person dies without God knowing it.

Numbers are important in every culture. In the Bible the book of Numbers reports the specific count of the tribes, clans, register troops, and so on. To know the specific number of people, a census was taken. This provided a register of those who could be taxed.

We read in 2 Samuel 24.1 that when the Lord was angry with Israel “he caused David to harm them by taking a census.” Later David regretted taking the census and asked God to forgive him (2Samuel 24.10). David had, in fact, hedged on the census and did not count those who were younger than 20 years of age, nor were the tribes of Levi and Benjamin included (1 Chronicles 21.6), although Joab was to blame. “The total number was never recorded in King David’s official records.” (1 Chronicles 27.24)

When we first lived among the Kewa people of Papua New Guinea in 1958, the government took a census. something that had never been done before. Many of the people gave an alias, not sure of why their names were wanted. A Kewa person’s identity is in their tribal or clan name, and it must be protected and preserved.

We see that numbers have not always been reliable and there are, indeed, things that cannot be counted, like the stars, the ocean sands, and the vast crowds from every nation, tribe, people, and nation who will be in heaven (Revelation 9.7)

And yet, God knows the name of every person who has been created, including those whose names are written in the Book of Life (Revelation 3.5) and those who worshipped the Beast (Revelation 13.8).

In Psalm 90.9-10, David sings that: 

“Our life is cut short by your anger;     it fades away like a whisper. Seventy years is all we have—     eighty years, if we are strong; yet all they bring us is trouble and sorrow;     life is soon over, and we are gone.”

It sounds almost like a song of lament. Of course, we should pray that our life will not be cut short by God’s anger, but that he will see us through any “trouble and sorrow” we encounter along the way.

However, “time flies,” and it was “once in a blue moon” that people lived past 100 years of age. However, now the fastest growing age bracket in the U.S. is people aged 100 or older. In 1950 (when I graduated from high school) there were only 2,300 centenarians, but by 2020 there were over 80,000. This largely due to advanced medical care for those with favorable genetic and environmental factors. But let us remember:

“Everything that happens in this world happens at the time God chooses. He sets the time for birth and the time for death….” (Ecclesiastes 3.1-2, GNT)

It is both sobering and reassuring that God has the final say about when our “times up” here on earth.

Karl Franklin