HEBREW WORD STUDY – INHABIT ETERNITY – SHAKAK ‘AD שׁככ עד
Isaiah 57:15: “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabited eternity…”
I was reading an article published by Vanderbilt University regarding the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland. The Hadron Collider is the world’s largest atom smasher and this article said that it could be the first machine capable of causing matter to travel backward in time. If this collider succeeds in producing the Higgs bosom some scientist predict that it will create a second particle, call the Higgs singlet, at the same time. According to these scientists, these singlets should have the ability to jump into an extra, fifth dimension where they can move either forward or backward in time and reappear in the future or past. In other words, these particles can travel back in time to appear before the collisions that produced them.
Scientists have now given us the ability to talk about this word ‘ad in realistic terms. We render the word as eternity. What fascinated me was this is not the usual word for eternity or forever, That word is ‘olam. ‘Ad comes from the root word ‘adah which means to advance, past by or come. It means past time, present time and future time. Jewish scholars say it is related to the word hadah which means to stretch or manipulate. God is literally stretching time or manipulating time. This verse is actually telling us that God exists in the past, present, and future simultaneously except, of course, that is impossible, right? But if a scientist can make a particle do it, why not God? Can it be that God lives in the past, present, and future simultaneously like the Higgs singlet? Well if the Higgs singlet can do it, why can’t God, He created it?
My father used to tell the story of his grandfather who used to always invite him over for beans and cornbread when he was just a child. After the meal, his grandfather would pull out his Bible and read to him and then he would look over his Bible and say: “Floyd, I am praying for you, someday you will feel those prayers.”
Many years later after my great-grandfather passed away my father was on a ship traveling overseas to England during World War II. There were rumors of enemy activity which had destroyed another troop ship. My father went on deck fearful of what might happen then suddenly felt a calm. He knew and recognized it was his grandfather’s prayers.
The point of all this is to say we should pray as we feel led, even if it is for some past, present or future event, we should pay ‘adah. For God is ‘adah, He lives in the past, present, and future simultaneously. Science is about to prove that it is possible for something to exist in the past, present, and future all at the same time. Meditate on that in your relationship to God. This is how He can be a personal God. He is not living in time so He can spend 24/7 with you, every moment every second with you and you alone and then move through time and spend 24/7 with me, every moment, every second. You are never out of his sight and you have his full complete attention. He has plenty of time to take care of the universe and the other six billion people because, in his dimension, there is no time. On September 23, 2015, scientist proved the existence of the Higgs particle. They are only a step away to proving can be you 24/7 companion who will never leave your side. He is with you every moment and every fraction of a second.
Very good.
Dr. Hugh Ross of Reasons To Believe provided a great illustration in his book CREATOR and the COSMOS of how God works outside of time. TIME is just another dimension like height, width (2D) and depth (3D).
Ross lays out evidence there may be AT LEAST 100+ dimensions. But no dimension can work outside of it self. A sheet of paper (theoretically forgetting the width of the paper) is only 2 dimensional of height and width – it can’t see into a 3rd dimension, only along the flat plane of it’s surface. However scissors, operating in the 3rd dimension of depth can see both dimensions and cut out a paper doll that the paper itself can’t perceive. Time (and ensuing dimensions of a supernatural God are no different). God easily can see beginning from the end as the scissors can easily perceive the dimension of the paper.