“Watch and pray that you do not enter into temptation”  Matthew 26:41

Watch – Jesus knows that we are weak, but willing.  We want to serve and be of service, but we struggle mightily with disciplining the body.  We are often our own worst enemies, relinquishing ground to those appetites that we so enthusiastically fed when we were without godly direction and purpose.  The disciples, who are no different than us mere mortals, are just as vulnerable to their own weaknesses.  So, Jesus tells them to watch and pray.  Now, what do you imagine He meant by such an odd statement?  Watch what?  They are sitting in the middle of an olive tree grove in the dead of the night.  How are they supposed to watch anything?  They can’t see.  It’s black.  There are no handy light switches or flashlights.  What is Jesus talking about?

We’ll have a much better appreciation for this word if we recognize that Jesus is using the Hebrew verb shamar.  With that in mind, we discover some rather amazing context.  Adam and Havvah were to watch over the garden. Laban was instructed to watch over Jacob.  The priests were to watch over the implements of the Tabernacle. Moses tells Israel to watch and obey the Torah.  Eli watched Hannah’s lips while she prayed. God watches over the hearts of men.  But perhaps Jesus had one particular passage in mind – 1 Samuel 26:15-16.  The phrase is nearly identical and the circumstances are contextually the same.

David confronts Abner with the accusation, “Why have you not watched over your lord the king?”  Abner has failed in his duty to protect the king in a time of threat.  What we should notice are David’s next words.  “This thing that you have done is not good.  As YHWH lives, you also are the sons of death because you have not watched over your lord, over the anointed of YHWH.”  An assignment to watch over the anointed of YHWH is a weighty one.  Those who are asked to carry out a task like this carry a special responsibility.  Failure to perform their duty leaves God’s anointed at great risk.  In the moment of crisis, the watchmen must be vigilant.

Certainly Jesus saw Himself as the Lord’s anointed, the future King of all the earth.  His request to the chosen three is not spur of the moment.  The words themselves point back to another king and a history of crucial mistakes.  Perhaps Peter, James and John didn’t remember the same circumstances and the same vocabulary from the prophet Samuel.  Perhaps.  But Jesus certainly must have.  He was a remarkable Biblical scholar, demonstrating full command of the Scriptures time and time again.  “Watch and pray” are not randomly chosen words in this most-difficult time.  The Lord’s anointed confronts His greatest threat and He calls His companions to stand with Him.  But they are unable.

We may be called to watch and pray in a dark hour.  The story of David and Abner, and of Peter, James and John should warn us.  Let us not be lax when that moment arrives.

Topical Index:  watch, shamar, David, Abner, Matthew 26:41, anointed, King

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