It’s about time! History, that is, history is about time. According to the Bible, time had a beginning, and it will have an end. The beginning was the creation with the first markers of time: light and darkness, the sun, the moon and the stars.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. (Genesis 1:1, 3-5)
When Jesus was on the earth, He pointed back to Genesis and the “beginning” (Matthew 19:4, 8; 24:21). He also pointed ahead to “the end of the age” when God will separate His saved people from all others (Matthew 13:39, 40, 49 cf. Matthew 24:3; 25:31-46; 28:20).
Think of the earth as it “hangs on nothing” in the vastness of space (Job 26:7). Time is like that, like a bubble floating in timeless, endless eternity. Time is also like the earth in this respect: The earth is not wandering randomly. Our earth and solar system are part of the Milky Way Galaxy, and it travels through space along a definite path. In the same way, time moves along a line, a road from time’s beginning to its end. History is the report of events along the road of time.
For a short while, we who are living are permitted to travel this road. Each person’s time on earth begins with conception and birth (Psalm 102:18; 139:13 cf. Isaiah 43:1). It ends at death. “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Since the creation, many generations have come and gone. When fully lived, each lifespan may last about 70 or 80 years (Psalm 90:10). Compared with such brief lives, history seems like a very long road. But God sees all of history in one glance. God is the Creator of time. Therefore, He is greater than time, above time. He is timeless and eternal.
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting You are God. You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!” For a thousand years in Your sight are but as yesterday when it is past. (Psalm 90:2-4 cf. 2 Peter 3:8)