2 Peter 3:8
What is written? (ESV)
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
What does it say?
Remember that to God one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as one day.
What is its immediate context?
Peter’s letters have been of encouragement to the saints to remain strong during persecution and false prophets (vs 1). God has not forgotten them or His promises (vs 9); the “day of the Lord” will come as a “thief in the night” (vs 10).
How 2 Peter 3:8 is applied across Bible answers
Was the end of all things at hand (1 Peter 4:7)?
Peter states a truth about the great disparity between God's time and man's.
All of chapter three seems to be a clarification from his first letter about the end being "at hand"1. Indeed, some were expecting Jesus' return to be imminent (vs 4). Yet, Peter illustrates the vastness of God's time by pointing all the way back to the creation and flood (vss 5,6) - thousands of years earlier. What? Thousands of years, Peter? "The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness," Peter retorts (vs 9), and goes on as if to clarify, now describing Jesus' return as a "thief in the night" (vs 10).
What is God’s time in relation to man’s?
Christians are implored to "not overlook this one fact" - that what to man may seem like a figurative thousand years (many times more than any one person's lifetime), is just a single day to God.
In the very next verse, Peter goes on to point out that God is "not slow to fulfill" (vs 9). The same point from Haggai[no repeater], and the same contrast of what indeed would appear to be "slow" if judging by man's time.
Will Jesus reign 1000 years (Revelation 20:5-6)?
Peter uses a thousand years to represent, from the human perspective, a long, long time - or, as we might say, "an eternity."
Will there be a literal one thousand year reign (Revelation 20:6)?
Peter uses a thousand years to represent - from the human perspective - a long, long time - or, we might say now, "an eternity."
