Before you created the hills or brought the world into being, you were eternally God, and will be God for ever. Psalm 90:2, GNT

 

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying, "The power to rule over the world belongs now to our Lord and his Messiah, and he will rule for ever and ever!" Revelation 11:15, GNT

 

There is a story that I heard as a child. I cannot remember the details, but it was about a bird that sharpened its beak on a colossal Diamond Mountain in Lower Pomerania once every 100 years. When the mountain was completely worn away by the bird’s action, only then had the first second of eternity passed.

 

Even this effort to help us understand the concept of eternity is, unfortunately, flawed. It does not make sense to ask how long eternity will last. Such a question implies that eternity will come to an end some or other time, but if this is true, then it is not eternity. Stephen Hawking said: “How can our finite minds comprehend an infinite universe?” I want to echo his sentiment, asking instead, how can our finite minds comprehend eternity?

 

We struggle with the concept of eternity and with the idea of a God who exists for ever and ever. The problem with our way of thinking is that we think in terms of time, but eternity is not bound to time or location.

 

To speak the truth, we actually do not have the slightest idea what eternity really means. All we can know is what the Bible tells us about eternity. Fortunately, our inability to comprehend this idea does not make any difference to the fact that God does exist outside of time – from before time began, and he will exist for ever. In Romans 1:23, Paul uses the word ‘immortal’ when describing God. This helps us to understand the idea of the eternal God a bit better.

 

In Revelation 11:15, the emphasis is on the fact that God is the king who will rule over the world for ever and ever. As is stated in Psalm 90:2, he is: “eternally God and will be God for ever.”

 

Although I do not really understand the concept of eternity, the fact that God will be there gives me a wonderful feeling of security.

 

Prayer: Dear God, we thank you that you will be the king for ever and ever. We thank you that we will not be mere subjects in your everlasting kingdom, but your children. Amen.