33 Take heed, watch and pray, for ye have not known when the time is;
And this, knowing the time, that for us, the hour already `is' to be aroused out of sleep, for now nearer `is' our salvation than when we did believe; the night did advance, and the day came nigh; let us lay aside, therefore, the works of the darkness, and let us put on the armour of the light;
`And take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts may be weighed down with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and anxieties of life, and suddenly that day may come on you, for as a snare it shall come on all those dwelling on the face of all the land, watch ye, then, in every season, praying that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that are about to come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.'
all ye are sons of light, and sons of day; we are not of night, nor of darkness, so, then, we may not sleep as also the others, but watch and be sober, for those sleeping, by night do sleep, and those making themselves drunk, by night are drunken, and we, being of the day -- let us be sober, putting on a breastplate of faith and love, and an helmet -- a hope of salvation,
watch ye, therefore, for ye have not known when the lord of the house doth come, at even, or at midnight, or at cock-crowing, or at the morning; lest, having come suddenly, he may find you sleeping; and what I say to you, I say to all, Watch.'
`Watch ye therefore, because ye have not known in what hour your Lord doth come; and this know, that if the master of the house had known in what watch the thief doth come, he had watched, and not suffered his house to be broken through; because of this also ye, become ye ready, because in what hour ye do not think, the Son of Man doth come.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Mark 13
Commentary on Mark 13 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 13
We have here the substance of that prophetical sermon which our Lord Jesus preached, pointing at the destruction of Jerusalem, and the consummation of all things; it was one of the last of his sermons, and not ad populum-to the people, but ad clerum-to the clergy; it was private, preached only to four of his disciples, with whom his secret was. Here is,
Mar 13:1-4
We may here see,
Mar 13:5-13
Our Lord Jesus, in reply to their question, sets himself, not so much to satisfy their curiosity as to direct their consciences; leaves them still in the dark concerning the times and seasons, which the father has kept in his own power, and which it was not for them to know; but gives them the cautions which were needful, with reference to the events that should now shortly come to pass.
Mar 13:14-23
The Jews, in rebelling against the Romans, and in persecuting the Christians, were hastening to their own ruin apace, both efficiently and meritoriously, were setting both God and man against them; see 1 Th. 2:15. Now here we have a prediction of that ruin which came upon them within less than forty years after this: we had it before, Mt. 24:15, etc. Observe,
Mar 13:24-27
These verses seem to point at Christ's second coming, to judge the world; the disciples, in their question, had confounded the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world (Mt. 24:3), which was built upon a mistake, as if the temple must needs stand as long as the world stands; this mistake Christ rectifies, and shows that the end of the world in those days, those other days you enquire about, the day of Christ's coming, and the day of judgment, shall be after that tribulation, and not coincident with it. Let those who live to see the Jewish nation destroyed, take heed of thinking that, because the Son of man doth not visibly come in the clouds then, he will never so come; no, he will come after that. And here he foretels,
Mar 13:28-37
We have here the application of this prophetical sermon; now learn to look forward in a right manner.