Morning: July 21, 1981 Reports of Mail Officials say the guarantee of mail service is only hour by hour. The scheduled strike is not settled — it still is impending. Students of the Word that we are, we see a message for us in this warning. Scripturally applied, then, the ‘hour warning’ that comes to mind is “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.” (Matt. 24:36, repeated almost exactly in 25 :13) . . . We do not know what hour — hour is an exact, undefined time frame. However, it is not a coming that involves several hours, days (so as to allow time to ‘better prepare oneself’) for the Greek word Hora is literally an hour; figuratively, in an instant.
Let us look now at where the word HOUR appears in our Bible. We were amazed that there are only 5 occurrences in the Old Testament and all of those are in the prophecy of Daniel. The Hebrew word SHAAH means ‘a quick look’ — a moment. Hour appears 89 times in the New Testament; 87 of those have the definition given above for Hora, the 2 remaining are found (1) in I Corinthians 8:7 which means ‘until now’ and (2) in Rev. 8-1 “space of half an hour,” the Greek Hemiorian, lit, half an hour. It is to the 87 other usages of Hora that our attention is drawn . Can we draw anything significant for our learning from these appearances? Come with us and see.
75 of the 87 Hora’s are in the 4 Gospels and the Acts where the Apostle records continue; 10 are found in Revelation. That leaves only 4 other usage times: 3 in I Corinthians and 1 in Galatians. Reviewing these verses it appears that the majority of the 75 times has either Christ speaking of Himself or His Apostles speaking of Him. Ten are in the book that is given by Christ’s angel to John for the initiated, or unto those who have a direct bearing (being in-Christ) on the urgency of this specific ‘instant’ of time.
Now the book of Daniel, we are told, is the Revelation (Apocalypse) of the Old Testament. In each of the 5 times Hour is ‘unveiled,’ it speaks of a major occurrence that will happen quick as ‘a moment.’ The first 4 which concern Nebuchadnezzar vary from the King saying that all who do not worship him, the image he made, will be cast the same hour into a fiery furnace — to the ‘same hour’ when all prophecies were fulfilled against him and he was driven from men to eat grass as oxen. All of these speak of immediate, foreboding action . . . The last example in Daniel (5:5) is concerning Belshazzar who became the successor of Nebuchadnezzar as King. He had made an ‘impious feast’ to his lords, and ‘in the same hour’ he saw a man’s hand writing on the wall. This message, revealed by Daniel told him that his kingdom was doomed. Again, an impending decree ‘in an hour.’
Of the many times hour appears in the New Testament — in the Gospels, the Acts, the Revelation — hour mostly has to do with Jesus, the son of man. The Gospel of John which depicts the ‘son of God’ points to the instant, the hour of His death unto Jesus. Examples are:
John 2:2 “. . . mine hour is not yet come.” Jesus speaking to His mother.
12:47 “Father, save me from this hour — but for this cause came I unto this hour.”
17:1 “Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son.”
From the other Gospels and the Revelation the main warning is to us. Hour speaks of His immediate gathering of the responsibility; a most stern warning ‘to be ready’ for the very next instant may be “the hour his judgement has come,” (Rev. 14:7).
All of our considerations of ‘hour’ have shown a corresponding element of action, of apprehension and of finality. The Mail Carriers may strike; if so (and if the Lord’s hour has not arrived) the ‘hour by hour’ tension of possible interruption of a needed regular service will become a reality.
Brethren, there should be a greater ‘tension’ yet— as we await the unspecified ‘hour’ of the Master’s return. His coming will bring about in that hour an immediate gathering of “the quick and the dead” for judgement . . . How many minutes are left in the time that proceeds that very hour into which we have all been born ?
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One