Time Precision

Time is valued and calculated differently in various cultures and people groups. Just as Albert Einstein predicted, Time is Relative. In many cultures, time is relational – if you run into a friend on your way to an appointment, you’ll stop and talk and be late for the meeting. In other cultures, however, time is money, and keeping it precise is significant. When I worked at UPS, a shipping company, the 60 minutes were divided into 100 units. If I were 1 unit late (less than a minute), I was written up as “late.” Sometimes, time is calculated differently. In my Tamil culture, if I were to tell Lori, “We’ll leave for the airport at 8:30,” and a few minutes later, I ask her, “What time is it?” She will not give me the clock time, but the time left for us to depart (i.e., 8:30). If she says, “Twenty minutes still,” it is 8:10, not 7:40 (as in clock time). As you can imagine, this can be confusing.

Further, cultures look at the time chronologically (in time units) or figuratively (with hidden meanings). An example of the figurative use of time is John 2:1 – “the third day.” Three times before this phrase, he had said, “The next day” (1:29, 35, 43). This should have been “the fourth day if he spoke of chronological timing.” John was, instead, speaking of figurative time. He had structured his gospel like the original Creation story with “in the beginning” imagery (John 1:1; Gen 1:1). On the third day in the Creation story, God said, “Let the land produce vegetation, seed-bearing plants, trees, and fruit with seeds in them” (Gen 1:11). The Creation obeyed and produced everything as he said (1:12–13). Similarly, on “the third day,” Jesus produced tons of juice from grapes, a plant, showing his word’s authority over the second Creation.

Luke had referred to some “time” elements so far.

“Elizabeth, his wife, became pregnant and hid for five months.” (Luke 1:24)

“In the sixth month, the Angel, Gabriel from God, came to the city of Galilee.” (1:26)

“Elizabeth . . . is pregnant, now in her sixth month.” (1:36)

“Mariam/Mary remained with Elizabeth for three months and returned home.” (1:56)

These were chronological elements, meaning Mariam stayed with Elizabeth until Elizabeth was in her 9th month of pregnancy. The next verse speaks of her giving birth to a son. But, in that culture, a woman’s pregnancy was confirmed and “seen” when she was three months pregnant. For example, when Judah’s daughter-in-law, Tamar, with whom he committed adultery, was three months pregnant, they told him she was guilty of prostitution (Gen 38:24).

Imagine being Mariam’s parents – She left home as someone who had never been with a man and returned home pregnant. Didn’t Zechariah and Elizabeth watch over her? Did Zechariah impregnate her? Was she immoral? Think of Joseph’s predicament – his fiancée went away to a village and came back pregnant!

Mariam’s faith was strong that she wouldn’t hide her pregnancy. She stayed in Elizabeth’s house until her pregnancy was visible and walked back to her house and village as a pregnant woman, a scandal. Mariam didn’t care; she was YHWH’s slave – she’ll do what HE wanted her to do.

When God calls us to do his work, sometimes it includes humiliation. Humiliating him (for example, by not believing him) is worse than us enduring humiliation because of obedience.