When did God have His beginning?

Who was before Him?

These common questions have but one answer: God is eternal. He has always existed. Note this revelation to Isaiah: “Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen; that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour” (Isaiah 43:10,11). Go back in time as far as you like and God is there: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

Man is tied to time. We reckon time in segments because our lives are limited to approximately threescore years and ten (see Psalm 90:10). All plans for the future must be conditioned on whether or not we will be alive.

God has no such limitation. He will always exist. His promises are forever because He will endure forever. Because He lives, we can lean on the everlasting arms and be “safe and secure from all alarms.”

F. B. Meyer explained: “The Oriental shepherd was always ahead of his sheep. He was in front. Any attempt upon them had to take him into account. Now God is in front. He is in the tomorrows. It is tomorrow that fills men with dread. But God is there already, and all tomorrows of our life have to pass before Him before they can get to us.”

As Fanny Crosby said, we are “safe in the arms of Jesus,” the everlasting arms.