Religion (2a)

I'm subdividing because this is just to establish an idea that is critical to the point.

Generally, this deals with OT allegory. See Gal. 4 Sarah/Hagar, etc.

Now look at Israel. Not the guy, but God's first son (Ex. 4:22). The chronicles of Israel over generations and millennia could just as well be the spiritual memoirs of an individual over years. That is certainly God's view of it (Hos. 11:1-4, and various other times God refers to the back-and-forth, on-again-off-again nature of Israel's spiritual life). This story of a people's spiritual life can be seen allegorically as the story of a person's spiritual life. Drawing close, then walking away, returning to find acceptance, forgiveness and intimancy. This is in holding with God's view of time: A day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as a day (Ps. 90, II Pet. 3). We see that, when dealing with God, time isn't such a fixed commodity. Peter was speaking of God's promises, elsewhere we see references to "God's time." All things happen in God's time, he does as he does when he is pleased to act. The promises we see in the Bible are generally given. That is, they are given to us as a collective, and not to me and you and you and you as individuals. If the latter were the case then God would have lied to all those who waited till death for the promises we still wait for. We have faith that all his promises will be fulfilled in his time. So about God's time, and his rules, and allegory.

God has rules for his people, those rules are aligned to his character. We can see those rules administered to the people Isreal over great lengths of time just as they are administered to a person (me, you, Bob down the street) over the course of one lifetime. (please continue to Religion 2b)