But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
Be not ignorant - as those scoffers (2 Peter 3:5). Besides the refutation (2 Peter 3:5-7) drawn from the deluge, he adds another (addressed more to believers) - God's delay in fulfilling His promise is not, like men's delays, owing to inability or fickleness in keeping His word, but through "long-suffering."
This one thing - as the consideration of chief importance (Luke 10:42). One day ... thousand years. Psalms 90:4, Moses says, Thy eternity, knowing no distinction between a thousand years and a day, is the refuge of us creatures of a day. Peter views God's eternity in relation to the last day. It seems to us short-lived beings long in coming; but with the Lord the interval is irrespective of the idea of long or short. His eternity exceeds all measures of time. To His divine knowledge future things are present. His power requires not long delays for performing His work. His long-suffering excludes men's impatient expectation. He can do the work of a thousand years in one day: so in 2 Peter 3:9, He has always the power to fulfill His "promise."
Thousand years as one day. No delay is long to God: as to a man of countless riches a thousand guineas are as a single penny. God's oeonologe (eternal-ages-measurer) differs wholly from man's horologe (hour-glass). His gnoomon (dial-pointer) shows all the hours at once in the greatest activity and in perfect repose. To Him the hours pass neither more slowly nor more quickly than befits His economy. There is nothing to make Him need to hasten or delay the end. "With the Lord" (Psalms 90:4) silences all objections, on the ground of man's incapability of understanding this (Bengel).