The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins
1 “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. 3 Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, 4 but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. 5 But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.6 “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ 7 Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. 8 And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 9 But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ 10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.
11 “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ 12 But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’
13 “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.
I have visited this passage a lot these last few months. Every time I read it I feel a more intense urgency to be prepared, for all of us to be prepared. What I get from this is that all of us will slumber to some extent before Jesus, our Bridegroom, comes back. The problem is that we are in danger of being without oil before we do nod off, and then being unprepared for the Bridegroom's return.
The oil here is representative of the Spirit. There will come a time when it will be too late to get oil, or the oil will be too costly. We need to prepare our hearts now for the coming storm. We cannot get it from others; we must purchase it ourselves. Do not be lulled into thinking all is well, and that we have time to spare. We need to fill ourselves now in order to have light tomorrow.
We cannot keep watch without the Light.
1 comment:
Good Word Chuck!
In many of the churches of today so much is said about grace and mercy and so little about accountability. The Lord had me prophesy to a church once upon a time of how we the "body" prostitute His grace and mercy. As you can imagine that went over in a big way!
We must prepare ourselves. If we want to walk as Jesus did we need to take on His personage. And we can only do that by spending time in the Word,and spending time in His presence!
What it boils down to is this, "what has more priority in our lives," our idols or do we truly want what we let everyone at church think we have!
Again, good Word straight from the Father Chuck!
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