Matthew 24:42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. 43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. 44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
This passage of scripture gives us one of the reasons for watching the signs that are transpiring on the earth, and it has to do with being prepared and living in readiness so that the second coming of Christ would not take us unawares. When last day events are spoken about, some people tend to get all riled up over the fulfillment of the prophecies, without surrendering their hearts and lives to God so that they may be conformed to His image. This is not why we are admonished to watch.
Jesus repeatedly emphasized the need for us to be mindful of that which is passing on the earth, in the greater context of His second coming, and one of His reasons for doing so is because of what took place with the Jewish nation at the time of His incarnation, when the Hebrews were to be eagerly expecting Him. The Jews were blessed with all of the prophecies pointing to His arrival, and yet when He came upon the scene of action, beginning with His birth, most of them, including the priest who dedicated Him, had no clue that He was born, and thus the door was left wide open for satan to hammer them with deceptions and temptations pertaining to the validity of His claims to be the Messiah, The Son of God. Their utter surprise can be observed in the attitudes manifested towards the questions then asked by the three wise men, and Herod too. Let's read:
Matthew 2:1 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, 2 Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. 3 When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
Now, we can understand why Herod was troubled, for he was not privy to the prophecies which had been written pointing to the advent of Christ, but what we are at a loss to figure out, is why the people who had been made the depositories of the law and prophecies were also in consternation. Certainly they should have known that the time of his incarnation had come, since very specific information pertaining to the event had been written by the prophet Daniel. But as the sacred record shows they were just as startled as Herod, as if they had never seen or heard of those prophetic writings.
The result was that they were ripe for the deceptions that satan had studiously planned and executed, and as a result many of them never accepted Christ as The One sent from God, even up to this present day. Their many questions and haggling over His birth, and His claim to oneness with God the Father, reflects the skepticism and doubt which were planted by the father of lies, and bore fruit in alienation and violence against His person, culminating in His death. Let's read:
Mark 6:2 And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? 3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. 4 But Jesus, said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. 6 And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching.
This is the very same scenario that Christ and the other Bible writers are warning us against, because history often repeats itself, and we are in very grave danger of receiving a Jesus who is in fact the antichrist. There is a very good reason why The Lord began His answer to the disciples with a warning, because the Jesus that is now being paraded in places high and low, is neither endorsed nor recognized by God, and therefore the elect of God need to be especially careful lest we are carried away by the tide of popular sentiment, pertaining to the synthesis of love and lawlessness, as is being manifested currently in the world's most prominent religious leader.
The doctrine of all-inclusiveness that is now being peddled by the world's most recognized religious leaders, in which all people are welcomed into the church without any intention on their part of submitting to the laws and truths of God's word, may sound good and pleasing to the carnal ear at the outset, but as it progresses, we will see all kinds of errors, vices, and falsehoods taking root in Christendom, until it is watered down to a mere subjective figment of our imagination.
Hence the reason why we are admonished to "Watch" and watch well, for the downward trajectory of morality and lawlessness is indeed cause for alarm, and as infidelity increases, the true soldiers of the cross are called upon by God to lift high His royal banner, with the unadulterated truths of His word being dispensed to the hungering multitudes. It all has to do with that one word "Watch". We therefore end with a passage of scripture that reiterates this sacred truth, and it is the will of God that we be not idle in these closing days of earth's history, but that we should step up to the plate by fulfilling our part of the great commission, in our portion of the vineyard. Let's read:
Mark 13:34 For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. 35 Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: 36 Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. 37 And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.
He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what The Spirit saith unto the churches, for the time is at hand. "Good night" and God bless!