The Obedience of Watchfulness

indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

                                                                                  Proverbs 2:3-5, NIV

Solomon compares the insight and wisdom in God’s word to hidden treasure, with good reason.  To me, this treasure is akin to diamonds in the mountain—when you finally catch, after much searching, a glint of the revealed treasure, it requires more dedication, more effort to reveal even more facets from the surrounding stone.  Even when you fully extricate the gem of understanding, it requires more deep study to find the brilliant jewel of revelation within. 

My son and I were recently reading in Exodus 12, that pivotal chapter where God is instructing Moses to prepare for the final plague over Egypt and the Israelites’ coming departure from 400 years of bondage (as God prophesies to Abraham long before the birth of his grandson, Jacob, who becomes Israel). 

When we read verse 12:42, my heart skipped a beat, my eyes widened, as I realized a connection with another moment in Scripture.  First, here is the verse in the International Children’s Version (ICB):

That night the Lord kept watch to bring them out of Egypt. So on this same night the Israelites are to keep watch. They are to do this to honor the Lord from now on.                                                                     Exodus 12:42, ICB

In most of the versions that I read, the word “watch” is “keep vigil” or “observe”.  In my mind, this invokes honoring and remembering God for His miraculous acts to deliver His chosen people from slavery and lead them to His promised prosperity.  Accordingly, it is the responsibility of the Jewish people to remember the Passover every year, and to honor God with a beautiful, wholehearted seder meal on the first evening of Passover, along with a week-long observance. 

            But the word “watch” is quite active in its intention, and to me, envisions guarding, protecting, and remaining in a state of alertness.  It’s in this mindset that I remembered another Scripture, in which God asks His chosen to watch:  Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”  (Matthew 26:38).

I am, of course, referring to Jesus and His disciples in the garden of Gethsemane, on the Mount of Olives. 

That has always been a curious verse to me.  What is Jesus’ point in having a watch?  Is Jesus concerned that His communion with God will be interrupted by the approaching mob?  Surely, Jesus would have been able to see the approach of the mob, given the vantage on the higher ground.  Why does Jesus actually break away from prayer to go and try to rouse His disciples?  What could the disciples have possibly done to support Jesus in His struggle to overcome the temptation to not go to the cross?

For that matter, how could the disciples possibly sleep in a time like this?  I get that they are worn and sad from the news Jesus has just told them, but it is more than physical and mental fatigue at work here.  Jesus says as much, in response to their state: “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them.  “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.” (Luke 22:46).

From a spiritual perspective, Gethsemane is a battleground of epic proportions.  Jesus speaks of the attack: “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death…” (Matthew 26: 38)  It is the “opportune time” that the devil waited three years after his defeat in the wilderness. Jesus is fighting so fiercely in His Spirit against the temptation of sorrow that Luke records His sweat falling “like drops of blood” (Luke 22:44), even as God sends heavenly messengers to strengthen Him in His anguish.  Jesus wins this battle as well, through His complete obedience to the Father’s will. 

But, as we learn from Jesus in Matthew 26:46 above, He is not the only one under attack.  His disciples are also dealing with the onslaught of the temptation of sorrow.  Unlike Jesus, however, they are losing the battle.  This is a challenge to understand, since they are only human, after all, and we can certainly sympathize that their sorrow can be justified.  They are about to see their Master, their Rabbi, their Friend suffer and die savagely for crimes of which He is completely innocent.   The journey that changed their lives is about to come to a decisive end, looking as if in utter defeat of all they had come to know as truth.

From our vantage, we can sympathize, but it is not correct to look at Jesus’ death and burial as defeat, as loss—as a reason for sorrow.  On the contrary, as Paul tells us, Jesus is in victory over evil at the cross, invoking the imagery of the Roman spectacle of the triumphal procession: And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (Colossians 2:15). The battle was not at the cross—it was at Gethsemane.  The enemy used temptation of sorrow as a weapon, sorrow that would see the impending victory as a loss. 

Let’s go back to Exodus 12 for a moment.  God watched over the Israelites the whole night.  What was He guarding them from?  I had initially thought it was the Egyptians, who would have been devastated by their own losses of their firstborn sons. 

But the Egyptians were utterly terrified, and they “urged the people to hurry and leave the country.” (Exodus 12:33).  Moreover, God made the Egyptians “favorably disposed toward” the Israelites, showering them with gold, silver, jewelry, and clothing (Exodus 12:25-36).

Look at the wording again, and see if you don’t pick up on something different:

It was a night of watching by the Lord, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; so this same night is a night of watching kept to the Lord by all the people of Israel throughout their generations.                 Exodus 12:42, ESV

God kept watch to bring the Israelites out of slavery.  He kept watch to bring the Israelites out of sin.  He kept watch to bring the Israelites out of temptation.  The command that God’s people keep watch through the night on Passover is in the same vein.  They are to keep watch, or guard their hearts, minds, and bodies from the temptation to take their focus off of God’s victory and fall into the temptation of sorrow and despair.  Remember, within three days of leaving Egypt behind, the Israelites begin to doubt God and despair of thirst.  Within two weeks, the Israelites express sorrow and regret about leaving Egypt behind.  In remembrance of what God did on Passover, the people keeping watch recognize God’s faithfulness, and are able to ward off the sin crouching at their doors and overcome.

Almost 1500 years later, Jesus, while victorious through obedience to the Father’s will, is trying to encourage His disciples, on the first night of Passover, to leave the “Egypt” of sorrow behind—the belief that what they had was the best it would ever be, and that it would soon be stripped away from them.  Jesus is not trying to rouse them for His sake, but for theirs.  He knows that the best for the disciples is yet to come.  He knows that they are about to spread His kingdom even farther, changing the world forever.

I want to leave you with this thought—we are regularly tempted with sorrow—especially when we see things with our limited perspective and understanding—and it is too easy to forget Jesus’ words apply: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33).  He overcame the anguish of being forsaken by His Father.  He overcame the anguish of bearing sin beyond count, depth, magnitude, and time.  So let us stay awake and keep watch for the sin that crouches at our door and remember that we overcome by the Lamb’s blood and our testimony to His faithfulness.  Never count for sorrow what God sees as victory.