Waiting, Watching and Gazing

2 Thess. 3:5. “And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.” Luke 12:37. “Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching…”

We as a people of God have a lot to say about “the waiting and watching time.” We often talk about it in our sermons, and exhortations; advice, warnings, preparations, and trying to do what we think is proper or required in our earnest, yet wavering minds. Furthermore, we even sing about it in our hymns and spiritual songs and music. Then, too, we see it often written in the Gospel, testimonies, and periodicals.

Our Prayer Week has greater emphasis on it year-byyear.
Our ordinary conversation seems to point to heavenly and eternal things… watching and waiting. We profess to believe we are actually living in that time and have been for many years. Our labouring pioneers and hardy forefathers have been “waiting, and watching” also… and we are in the same position today.

Well, this is all, as a matter of fact, very well and fine; but, what is it to watch? Is it just to stand passively and squarely and look up to the clouds of heaven? Is it to sit with our uncertain gaze directed outward, as one would follow the hands around the dial of his vigilant clock or watch? Is it to sit at the window and searchingly gaze at passersby as the pass by your house, as is the custom in many countries?

No! No! it is more than this! In Matthew 24:42, we are admonished to watch in reference to the Lord’s coming… “Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour you Lord doth come.” In the very next verse, we have the illustration of the careless “goodman”, allowing the thief to break into his house. He should have watched, but failed. But, this means more, or that we can comprehend, than simply keeping a “sharp lookout” for the thief.

It means “advance work”… doing something “before” the thief comes, making preparation beforehand. So it is in watching for the coming of the Lord. It is doing something in reference to that coming “before” it takes place. It is giving the preparatory warning and heeding it; the warning of the third angel’s message, and the two preceding, and accessory or additional messages. Rev. 14: 7-11; Rev. 18:1, 2, 4; Luke 12:37, in speaking of this time, it says, “blessed are those servants whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching.”

An illustration is used here in Luke also. It is a circumstance attaching to an Oriental wedding, Lk 12:37. “I tell you the truth, He will dress himself to serve, and make them to recline at the table, and will come forth to serve them.” Peter, always asking questions, wanted to know of Jesus, the scope of the parable, to whom it referred… unto “us”, the twelve, or “even to all”? (v. 41). The Lord applied it to those servants of His who shall be present at His coming; “It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready…” (v. 38). He said, further, “Blessed is that servant when His Lord when He cometh shall find so ‘doing’.” (v. 43), i.e. giving the “household meat in due season.” (v. 42).

Watchfulness is essential to accomplish what God would have His people do.” (CH 560).

So, we find the warning, or admonition to “watch” in Matthew, and the “blessing of watching”. In Luke we have reference to “doing something”. What, then, is this “watching-doing”? Watching is the “gathering out” from the family of Adam, the “household” of the kingdom, and warning, instructing, and disciplining it for the coming of its King! To watch, then, is to “work”; and to such as “look” (watch), for him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

(Heb. 9:28). A little period of watching remains. (2T 192).
So, it seems very clear from the scriptures that to those only who watch, (work) for Him, will the Saviour appear, as a Saviour to bring them salvation. My brother, my sister… myself, what are we doing?

Are we looking for the Lord in the right way? Are we giving meat (soul food), substance, meaning, gist to the true “household of the kingdom”, or just dreamily gazing into the sun-sweetened air?

“The Christian’s watch-word is, “Watch, pray, and work.” (GW 257). Watchfulness is the true life of faith. (5T235).
AMEN.

John Theodorou
Athens, Greece