In the Creation, God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also.  God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good.  There was evening and morning, a fourth day” (Genesis 1:14-19). 

As God set in order, man keeps time based upon the movement of the earth in relation to God’s greater light, the Sun.  Man measures the time of the rotation of the earth on its axis (which gives us day and night) in units of seconds.  We have been taught from elementary school that the time of the earth’s rotation, what we call a “day”, is 86,400 seconds or 1440 minutes or 24 hours.  In our age our second is very precisely kept by around 200 atomic clocks.  One article I read in fact pronounced the atomic clocks, “too accurate”.  Atomic clocks are programmed to tick away at the same speed, second after second, day after day, year after year.  However the rotation of the earth on its axis actually varies just a tiny, tiny, tiny bit.  And, a day is actually milliseconds longer than 86,400 seconds.  So International Atomic Time (man’s way of measuring time) has to be adjusted periodically to agree with Astronomical Time (God’s way of measuring time).  By the time this was realized, man’s clock was already 10 seconds behind God’s time.  Since 1972, 26 adjustments called “leap seconds” have been made, so there is now a total of 36 seconds difference between God’s way of measuring time and man’s very, very, very slightly inaccurate way of measuring it.   

It is not only fascinating but faith building to see that men today keep time by the way that God prescribed at the Creation.  And, we see that man’s methods, brilliant and atomic as they are, cannot exactly duplicate God’s way.  In fact, very, very, very slight variations are always occurring in the speed of the earth’s rotation on its axis so that the order for leap seconds can only be given six months in advance.  The fact that man does correct his very slight inaccuracies in time-keeping to align himself with God’s method shows that he views God’s method as a standard- the very thing that God said that he would do at Creation and wrote that he would do around 3,500 years ago through Moses in the book of Genesis.  The “leap second” points us to an awesome Creator and His wisdom and to the inspiration of His Scriptures.  May we think of this when we check our clocks, our watches, or our phones to find out the time. 

 “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!  For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?  Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to Him again?  For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.  To Him be the glory forever.  Amen” (Romans 11:33-36).