Almost 3:30 on this Saturday afternoon. My granddaughter, Brandi, was here overnight. Her father picked her up about 12:30. A couple of things we did this time were slightly "off brand", although still based off YouTube videos. First of all, one of the first things we saw was these people doing "Blind Karaoke". One person chooses the song and the other has to sing it without knowing what it is. We tried that for about 4 songs before moving on to other videos... LOL This afternoon, one of the last things we saw was these 2 girls using this app that provides random words. The point is that one person has to sing a song with that word in the title or be hit with something soft, like a pillow. We tried it on our own after the video finished. While I came up with songs almost immediately, on my own, she had to go onto her Spotify playlist. But I suppose I have to give her a break, she IS only 13... 🤪🥰

No other news this week except that my aunt took my father out for the afternoon on Thursday. She bought him some slip on shoes, went to visit my mother in the Nursing Home, and had supper on the way home. It was nice.

As the theme of today's message is watching, I thought of my maternal grandfather. My parents and I lived with him for 13 years*. He had been a Watchman on Craney Hill Fire Tower in Henniker, NH for 13 seasons, most of which took place prior to our living there. As I've mentioned before, he's also locally famous for having built the road between Craney Hill Rd. and the tower BY HIMSELF. (With the brief exception of State loaned equipment for the toughest part) You can find articles in the Aug. 1971 issue of Yankee Magazine and the Summer 1973 issue of NH Roads and Highways. The picture posted below is from the Concord Monitor in either 1981 or 82.*

Turn with me to Mark 13 for today's passage --

Mark 13:32-37

New International Version

The Day and Hour Unknown

³² “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³³ Be on guard! Be alert^[a]! You do not know when that time will come. ³⁴ It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.

³⁵ “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. ³⁶ If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. ³⁷ What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”

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Pastor Joe opened his message of Oct. 26 with the words, "Remain faithful because Jesus is coming to make all things new." He also clarified for us the fact that the "Day of the Lord" refers to God's climactic intervention in history, not just the 2nd Coming.

He brought out the pattern of the Bible in terms of how times of judgement are always followed by God's rescue. For example, the Exodus led to New People* in a New Land. From that time on, they were instructed to watch for the coming of Messiah.

As we read our passage above, we notice that Jesus repeats the idea of watchfulness no fewer than 5x!! He uses the words "ready", "guard", "alert", and "watch", which is used twice.

The aforementioned warning to watch for Messiah, even from the time of Moses, comes from Exodus 12:42. The context of this verse is that God has instructed Moses to have the Israelites prepare the first Passover meal on the night that the Angel of Death was assigned as the final plague on Egypt. The sacrifice of the lamb for the Passover meal foreshadowed Jesus Sacrifice on the Cross This verse reads, "Because the Lord kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the Lord for the generations to come." This brings with it the idea of "out with old, in with the new".

Jesus was acting in the role of the prophet here. Another passage Pastor Joe had us looking at here was Ezekiel 33:1-6 --

Ezekiel 33:1-6

New International Version

Renewal of Ezekiel’s Call as Watchman

33 The word of the Lord came to me: ² “Son of man, speak to your people and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman, ³ and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people, ⁴ then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not heed the warning and the sword comes and takes their life, their blood will be on their own head. ⁵ Since they heard the sound of the trumpet but did not heed the warning, their blood will be on their own head. If they had heeded the warning, they would have saved themselves. ⁶ But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes someone’s life, that person’s life will be taken because of their sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for their blood.’

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As you can see, this is a strong warning from God to Ezekiel, and then to God's People, Israel, both for the watchman to sound the warning and for the people to heed it. Pastor Joe equated the roles of watchman and rescuer here, at the same time showing that, in our Scripture from Mark, Jesus is effectively setting up a New Exodus scenario. This speaks to both current and future fulfillments of prophecy in the Bible, as all ultimately have.*

He further expounded on this with the analogy of a mountain range and how the fulfillments of prophecies are the peaks while the waiting is done in the valleys. (See image below) He also spoke about the difference, indicated by his opening statement, that there's a "day of the Lord" and then "The Day of the Lord". While the first refers to the Church Age, which we are currently in, the second specifically indicates the 2nd Coming of Christ.

In verse 36 of Mark 13, we see that Jesus is warning people not to be found "sleeping" ahead of His 2nd Coming. Now, obviously, He's not talking about night time rest. He's speaking to the point of not waiting to accept Salvation until it's too late.* Pastor Joe then called our attention to Isaiah 19 where God has proclaimed judgement on Egypt and Assyria. I'm thinking this was meant to show that God does a new work in every generation, as he went on to mention about WW2 and the personal experiences he's heard about directly from survivors of that time.

We all go through trials in our lives, accidents, illness, divorce, death, etc... we try to fix what we can (or think we can). But we fail, don't we?? We may even come to a point where we're asking if we are even seen or loved. We may question our purpose, our safety, and our belonging. We come to places of deep despair. Each of us reacts to these moments in one of 3 ways, escape, denial, or anger. (As we all know, anger is really just an outward expression of another feeling. In this case, I would have to say fear)

The truth is that these places are Holy Ground where God crashes and brings new life, as we allow Him. His presence can anchor us in the midst of our chaos. It can stabilize our lives now, giving us hope.

I can't find the source right now, but Pastor Joe quoted from someone who said, "We are not called to look up for signs of the End, we are called to look around and see what God is doing today." (As you can see, this relates to the previous message or 2 on here. Eschatology is too imprecise a thing to bother about, considering all the "pre-Trib", "mid-Trib", and "post- Trib" Rapture theories. Not to mention that group that I brought up the other day... the Preterists.)

In closing, Pastor Joe shared about a woman he heard about from his old neighborhood in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania and what she did during 2020. She put signs in her yard, on 2 sides, as she lived on a corner. She listed her phone number and simply invited people to call or text if they wanted to talk. As a result, she received tons of both, along with outdoor gatherings in her front yard. As the newscaster said who did a story on her, "Nothing stopped her from loving people." Imagine if we all embraced this!!?? Verse 34 of our passage above, invites us to join Jesus in doing just that. Amen!!

-- God Bless!!

Footnotes:

1. This 13 year timeline is almost exact. A quick search reveals that Easter Weekend of 1973 covered April 22nd. We moved the previous week. My grandfather passed on April 5th of 1987. Just one day before my parent's 19th anniversary.

2. I'm not precisely sure of the date on the newspaper clipping because my mother didn't write it down as she usually would have. (or maybe it was me who didn't, now that I think of it) Anyway, my estimate comes from the partial article on the back side. It talks about a budget dispute during former Governor Gallen's administration involving a raise for State Workers. The best estimate I could find was the 1981-82 date.

3. While I realize that the Israelites began with Abraham over 400 years prior to the Exodus, the fact that they would finally be entering the Promised Land as an established Nation is what makes them "new" here.

4. The fact that Scripture is full of double fulfillments is something many people miss. I encounter them on Quora constantly.

5. Another thing I've seen on Quora are people who ask about waiting until they are old before they repent. The fact that myself and others respond with is that we never know what's going to happen in the future. What if this guy were to be hit by a car the following day and dies instantly?? The bottom line is there is no time like the present to repent, because that may be all we have.

6. Although I didn't mark it, the idea of only the Father knowing the day and the hour is something non-Trinitarians struggle with in trying to see how the rest of us Believers reconcile Jesus being part of God. If any of you are reading this, I would call your attention to my Trinity article on the Reflections page.

7. As always, be sure to tune into the podcast, "Dive in With Matt and Joe" wherever you watch.

Music -- Never any rights, I promise!!

Not a Fire Tower, but it works --