Bible TimeKeep Watch
When Moses explains that 1000 years are as a day, he also includes a watch in the night. Jesus picks up on this and uses a watch in the night story to reveal the season of his return.
Background
In a passage dealing with his own eventual return, Jesus gives us another interesting clue as to the time of his return. This one, unlike the others, is vague as to when exactly he is referring, but he is referring to our current period in history.
This time Jesus uses the other clue from Psalm 90, that with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, or a watch in the night.
43 Luke 12:35-48
35Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning;
36and be ye yourselves like unto men looking for their lord, when he shall return from the marriage feast; that, when he cometh and knocketh, they may straightway open unto him.
37Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and shall come and serve them.
38And if he shall come in the second watch, and if in the third, and find them so blessed are those servants.
39But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched, and not have left his house to be broken through.
40Be ye also ready: for in an hour that ye think not the Son of man cometh.
41And Peter said, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even unto all?
42And the Lord said, Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall set over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season?
43Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
44Of a truth I say unto you, that he will set him over all that he hath.
45But if that servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken;
46the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he expecteth not, and in an hour when he knoweth not, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint his portion with the unfaithful.
47And that servant, who knew his lord's will, and made not ready, nor did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes;
48but he that knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. And to whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required: and to whom they commit much, of him will they ask the more.
The gap between the second and third watch is the gap between the second and third sets of 1000 years, ie: around 2000 years from His first visit.
Like other passages dealing with his return, like Acts chapter 1, Jesus buries within the discourse a clue as to the exact date of his return.
Does this clue give us a specific date? No, we can only get that from other passages. This only echos what we already know from so many other places.
We’ve looked at various 1000 years stories that point at this immediate period in history. There are others, but you’ll have to find them yourselves.
We leave this style of story and turn our attention to a set of stories from the Book of Daniel. These stories are not of the same nature, they deal with a different set of math and point us at the same place. Once we’ve gotten through them we’ll be ready to look at the day for a year map.
