BURKITT: | Mr 13:1-2 | Mr 13:3-4 | Mr 13:5-10 | Mr 13:11-13 | Mr 13:14 | Mr 13:15-18 | Mr 13:19-20 | Mr 13:21-23 | Mr 13v24-27 | Mr 13:28-32 | Mr 13:33-37 | KJV
Reference
28 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near: 29 So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors. 30 Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done. 31 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. 32 But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. (Mark 13:28-32 KJV)
William Burkitt’s Commentary
Here our blessed Saviour declares two things with reference to his coming.
1. The certainty of the thing itself.
2. The uncertainty of the time. The certainty of his coming he sets forth by tihs similitude of the fig-tree, whose beginning to bud declares the summer at hand.
Thus our Saviour tells them, that when they should see the forementioned signs, they might conclude the destruction of their city and temple to be nigh at hand; and accordingly, some then living did see these predictions fulfilled.
Observe, 2. The uncertainty as to the precise time when this judgment should come; no angels in heaven, nor creature upon earth, could determine the time; only the glorious persons in the Godhead, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Learn hence, That all things are not revealed to the angels themselves; but such things only as it concerns them to know, and the time of the day of judgment is kept by God as a secret to himself; we are not to know the hour, to the intent we may be upon our watch every hour; Christ himself did not know it as a man, but as God only. The knowledge and revelation of this, was no part of Christ’s prophetic office! it being one of those times and seasons which the Father has put in his own power, Ac 1:7. Consider Christ as God, or the second person in the Trinity, and to affirm that there is anything which he does not know, is blasphemy; but consider him as the Messias, and to say there were some things which Christ, as such, did not know, is not blasphemy. For though Christ as God was equal with the Father, yet as Messias, or God-man, he was inferior to the Father, his servant, or messenger, and could do nothing of himself, and did not know all things.