Yeshua concludes His end time prophecy by saying something which baffled and still puzzles many. Mark 13:22 says, “But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” And so, since the Son does not know, many concluded that He is not divine. But that is too bad for they really are missing out on a great revelation of the God of the Bible in this verse.
That Yeshua “does not know” is because He decided not to know so to give us an example and enhance the hope of His coming, and at any moment of the day as the rest of the verse will teach us. And His decision not to know speaks volumes to us.
Let me give you a similar example when the God of the Bible reveals a characteristic of Himself. When He says in Isaiah 43:25, “I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins.”
Does the fact that the Lord decides to forget our sins make Him less of a God? On the contrary, it makes Him a unique and sensitive and loving God for He resolves to forget, for our good and welfare. When He says in the book of Amos 2:13,16 “Behold, I am weighed down by you, as a cart full of sheaves is weighed down, says the LORD.”
This is God who speaks as He allowed Himself to feel the burden and weight of sin and says: I am weighed down by you.
The fact that He suffers with us and the fact that He, who is independent and who lives in eternity, decides to be disturbed by our actions because He loves us so much does not render Him any less of the sovereign God He is. On the contrary, for you will not find anyone who pretends divinity to care anywhere near as much as the One who is true divinity.
When Yeshua, who is sinless, allowed Himself to be tempted, it was to also tell us that He understands us and that He can help us grow and overcome our infirmities. When Yeshua was hungry, and thirsty, and when He allowed man to mistreat Him and to crucify Him for our sake, all these things make Him a true divine being whose nature is love. It in no way diminishes His righteousness but reinforces the mercy that comes with righteousness.
And has He not shown us His divine power in the first 12 chapters and the best is yet to come in the last 3 chapters? He showed us, and a few times, His powers over the forces of evil who themselves readily confessed and confirmed His divinity when they said, “What do we have to do with you, Yeshua, Son of the Most High God?” (Mark 5:7) This is a divine title.
He demonstrated His power over sickness, and not any sickness, but leprosy, a disease they knew only the divine Messiah could cure (chapter 1). And there were other sicknesses as well such as restoring the sight (chapter 8 & 10) and casting out demons from one who was mute and deaf. (chapter 7). He demonstrated His power over nature when He quieted the storm by just saying, “Silence, be quiet”, continuing to prove His divine nature. This is found in chapter 4.
He also showed His mighty powers over death when everyone saw the daughter of a synagogue official, dead. This was in chapter 5. He went to her and said, “Talitha kum”, and she rose from the dead. That is who Yeshua is; powerful and divine.And so, when Yeshua says, He does not know, it is because He decided not to know so to gives us an example to follow and to teach us how we ought to wait for Him: Not by calculating a date, but by expecting Him at any moment, even now.
Mark 13:32 is like a huge bump in this chapter and was surely designed so that we may pay attention to the final words of Yeshua. This verse is really in preparation for those last words of vs.33-37 where Jesus says that His coming is very imminent, and He repeats it over and over.
And this is especially for the believers today when the next prophecy to occur is the Rapture; this too is very, very imminent.