When the people of Israel forsook their covenant and turned their backs on the Lord God, allowing sin to cover their hearts and minds with darkness, God declared through His prophets that He would send them into captivity, but they would not heed the warnings. And so, they were taken to Babylon for seventy years and their Temple and holy city of Jerusalem were destroyed. And during this period of punishment, the Lord hid, as it were, His face from them and allowed their just due to come to them. In spite of this, He did not abandon them nor forsake them for long.
Isaiah prophesied a message of comfort for the people,
“‘For a mere moment I have forsaken you, but with great mercies I will gather you. With a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you,’ says the Lord, your Redeemer.” (Isaiah 54:7-8)
Measuring a Mere Moment
For us, seventy years is almost a lifetime. It seems a long time to be under the punishment of the Lord. So I wondered, how long would seventy years of banishment be on God’s scale of time to be considered a mere moment? And how would that measurement of time be relatable to us today? Psalm 90:3-4 tells us that, “You turn man to destruction, and say, ‘Return, O children of men.’ For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night.”
So, if a thousand years is as a day to God, I made a few calculations. Sixty minutes per hour times twenty-four hours equals 1,440 minutes in a day. And if you divide that by a thousand, it comes out to about 1.44 years per minute. Therefore, seventy years divided by 1.44 comes out to approximately 48 minutes and 37 seconds. That is equivalent to God putting His children in timeout for less than an hour on His timeline!
Our Temporal Troubles
Many of us often go through difficult times when we wonder how we are going to make a breakthrough. You may be struggling with a challenge or obstacle right now that you can’t yet see even a light at the end of the long, dark tunnel. But don’t worry. God hasn’t taken His eyes off of you. He knows just where you are and what you are going through. These hard experiences often serve to help strengthen our character and draw us closer to God. And in the grand scheme of things, they really last for merely a moment on the scale of eternity. In 2 Corinthians 4:17, we are reminded that,
“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”
I like how the New Living Translation phrases this verse, “For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!”
The Greater Picture
Don’t give up. Be encouraged! Allow God to turn these mere moments of trials into glorious victories for you. Let go of your natural desire to be in control of your circumstances and release them to the Lord’s capable hand. He has your best interest at His heart. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
Let us take our eyes off the miniscule negative afflictions and look instead at the greater picture—the grand scale of the timeless ages we will share in our Lord’s presence forever and ever that will replace those mere moments of temporal troubles. May you revel in the glorious embrace of your heavenly Father’s arms today.