8 But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. 9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:8–9

You’ll not find a reference to billions and billions of years in the Bible. Not even millions and millions. You’ll find eternity though. God’s been on the clock for a relatively short time compared to forever. So this explanation is not to free up evolutionists everywhere, but to make a point that God has time on his side.

Further, he respects it only when he has committed to it. First, he got his creative work done in six days. That’s debated by some, but the word in Genesis 1 (yom) is the term for a physical day. I say, why not six days and a rest day, he’s God! When he placed the Southern Kingdom into captivity for 70 years, the sentence was served. When he talks about a future millennium, we can bank on it happening. Same goes for the preceding seven years of wrath. What about the three days before his resurrection?

There’s also a date certain when that final person is saved, and when Jesus comes back to earth a truiumphant king. Perhaps he keeps pushing that date out to allow just one more soul to enter his kingdom, before hope springs eternal! (3:9)

We get ansy when time seems to be standing still or when it’s waning. God doesn’t. He is the author of time. One last thing, whatever time we have on this earth, it is in His hands.

“But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord, I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in Your hand.” Psalm 31:14-15