From Issachar, men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.
1 Chronicles 12:32a
If you are an adult, you know how to tell time. You can read your watch as surely as you can read these words. We have clocks everywhere: on our walls, TVs, radios, cell phones, and computers.
When it comes to time, the most important question of all is this: Do you know what time it is from God’s perspective? You see, the Bible is God’s clock. It is His timepiece. The Scriptures, especially the prophetic passages, are His revelation about time. Since God created time and exists outside of our human time capsule, the Bible reveals time from the vantage point of eternity. It tells eternal time and not just temporal time.
Obviously, then, it is only when we understand what time it is from God’s perspective that we will be able to be like the men of Issachar. It is only when we properly understand the times that we will know the proper course of action to take. If we wrongly interpret time, we will wrongly invest our lives.
In the Bible there are two primary words used to describe time. The first biblical word is chronos. It primarily means a period of time, duration of time, segment of time, or moment in time, whether short or long. Chronos time is measured by clocks and calendars.
From the human perspective, there can be no more important word than chronos. It represents the very essence of our lives. In one real sense, it is what will one day define each of our lives. Therefore, chronos has both temporal and eternal significance.
But there is another word for time in the Bible that is even more important than chronos. It is kairos. While chronos refers to a quantity of time, kairos refers to a quality of time. It usually means a particular point of time, the right moment, a special time, or a special season. You might think of it as the divine time measured by the watch that God wears on His arm—a significant timepiece indeed! It is God’s sovereign kairos that determines our chronos. That’s why the Bible reminds us: “My times are in Your hands” (Psalm 31:15).
What time is it? It is time to synchronize your watch with God’s! It is time to adjust your chronos to His kairos! I’ll leave with you a challenging, anonymous poem entitled “God’s Minute”:
I’ve only just a minute, only sixty seconds in it.
Forced upon me, I can’t refuse it,
I didn’t seek it, I didn’t choose it.
I must suffer if I lose it;
Give an account if I abuse it.
Just a tiny little minute,
But eternity is in it.
So, saint of God, it is the time for salvation, sanctification, service, and stewardship! It is time to wake up, get up, stand up, lift up, look up, speak up, and give up—all for His Kingdom and glory!