is, pay attention. The Greek word for “watch” in this passage comes from the word greguru, and it means “to keep awake, to be watchful, to be vigilant.” Interestingly, the Bible calls us to watch in several different
ways. Let’s take a few moments for a Bible study that should help wake all of us up.
SPIRITUAL VIGILANCE
The first way to watch is to simply remain spiritually awake. Jesus said that many people will be sleeping when
He came back a few moments later grinning. He announced,
“I got the job.” The others wondered, “How did you get the job before we
BY PASTOR DOUG BATCHELOR Many years ago, when telegraph
even got a chance?” He said, “You were so preoccupied with visiting
service using Morse code was still common, a number of young men had gathered to apply for a job at the local telegraph office. While they were all waiting in a reception area to be interviewed and chatting with one another, the faint sound of the “dot, dot, dash, dash, dash, dot, dot” from a nearby telegraph machine drifted into the room. Suddenly, one of the men jumped to his feet and ran through the door into the adjoining office.
6 Inside Report | 2Q 2012
that you weren’t paying attention to the code.” He explained, “I was listening to the message, and it said, ‘I am looking for somebody who is alert, and the first person who hears this message and comes into the office will get the job.’ ” He was paying attention! I think this is a timely parable to the
members of the Christian church, who seem to be deeply distracted from the message God is trying to send us today. In Mark 13, where Jesus highlights the astounding
signs of the second coming, four times He says, “Watch.” That
the bridegroom comes, rather than watching. “While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept” (Matthew 25:5). The wedding party was to be watching for the bridegroom, but at that critical moment they all dozed off. Notice it says “they all”—100 percent, both the wise and the foolish—fell asleep. Paul admonishes, “You are all sons of light and sons of the
day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober” (1 Thessalonians 5:5, 6 NKJV). This kind of watching is more than just watching, as if you’re gazing listlessly at the television. It requires being attentive and alert and clear about the happenings around us.
WATCH AND PRAY Not only are we to be awake and watching,
Jesus said we are to watch and pray. Have you ever been in a hospital keeping vigil because someone you love was going through a critical surgery? You kept praying for your loved one and nervously watched the operating room doors
because the doctor could have come out at any moment with pivotal news. Your heart was really in it because you were