God transcends time. The theological terms for this are “infinite” and “eternal”, that God existed in Eternity Past and will always exist in Eternity Future.
When God tells us about the future, He neither guesses nor grants full disclosure. God’s foretold prophecies never spell out how all events will occur; they prepare us for the time when they will occur—to remind us that God knew it all along from the Beginning.
Time is a thing God looks at like a piece of paper. How specifically the time continuum works is not so important a question as the fact that God even holds Time in His hands.
In some ways, history unfolds so as to explain God’s methods as well as our own choices. Our childhood shows our youth, innocence, and honestly. Our adult years show our maturity, skill, and strength. Our old age shows our wisdom, insight, and experience. From God’s perspective in Eternity, we exist as all the same to Him just as He has all of the same in Himself. Those stages of life express parts of God’s character.
God’s eternal nature is connected to His infinite nature; they are arguably one in the same. When Jesus suffered on the Cross, because he was the Word of God in the flesh, all of God suffered. Because God is eternal, His suffering had eternal qualities, both past and future. Because God is infinite, His suffering was infinite in size and severity. So, because God exists beyond all Time and Space, those few hours on the Cross were more than an Eternity where God is concerned. God’s eternal nature is one more reason why Jesus’s work at the Cross is sufficient to cover all sin for all people for always and always.
The fact of God’s presence throughout all time explains His perspective, why He says many things He says, why He knows many things He knows, and why He does many things He does. But, this also brings us some comfort. Whatever situation we find ourselves in, it didn’t surprise God. Through joy and sorrow, consider every moment of life through the eyes of the God who already saw everything before the Beginning.