Mark 13:32-37
But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.
Count the commands to watch. I find four times our Lord tells us to watch. And this passage is one of many; over and again we are told to watch. Curiously, we sometimes have a type of Christian who belittles the job Christ has given us. Watch. I find Christians sometimes tending to sneer at the command—and I suppose Christian history has had a lot to do with that. “Of that time, no man knows” says Jesus, but how many false prophets have stood in the annals of time and told us specifically of the date and time of His coming? They have all been spectacularly wrong; but that only means that they were wrong. It certainly does not put into question the coming of our Lord. He is faithful and has told us that his coming will be “as in the days of Noah” when the humans were busy elsewhere, and not at all looking for his coming.
Watch. A simple command. Let us be found faithful. Watch.
