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When the Lord tarries

Will the Lord tarry until the midnight hour before he calls His bride to the wedding feast? Shockingly enough, the Lord divides Christians into two categories depending on their response to this question. What is your response?

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By: Sentinel
3/6/2019 7:37:17 PM


Jesus shares a mysterious, and yet profound, parable in Matthew 25. I say "mysterious" because the deeper meaning is very much hidden without revelation of the Holy Spirit. I say "profound" because of the significant implications that immediately confront us when we truely understand the message.

As we open the pages of our Bible to the "Parable of the Ten Virgins", we discover quickly that the Lord makes an immediate pronouncement that five were foolish and five were wise. In preparation to meet the "bridegroom", the five foolish virgins took their lamps, but no oil. In contrast, the five wise virgins took oil with which to "trim their lamps." 

Now, many who seek to understand this parable immediatly begin exploring the symbology and significance of the "oil". Yet, the Spirit would lead us to take a step back and ask a very simple question: why did five virgins take their lamps, and yet not think to take any oil? It seems very strange, doesn't it? To bring a lamp and yet not bring the "fuel". Did they simply forget? Were they pre-occupied with other matters? Were they so ignorant to think that a lamp did not require the "vessels of oil" for fuel. Would they not have seen the other five virgins bring along their vessels and immediately be reminded to do the same? 

However, what if, in fact, these five virgins weren't called "fools" for being forgetful or ignorant, or a combination of both. Maybe they were called "foolish" by the Lord because they believed their lamps would not be needed - surely the "bridegroom" would call them into the wedding feast well before midnight ever came. 

The five foolish virgins were called foolish becasue they had embraced a false idea about their meeting with the "bridegroom". In contrast, the "other" five virgins are called "wise" because they did not hold the same belief as the five "foolish" virgins. The wise ones believed the "bridegroom" may, in fact, tarry a long while before calling them to the feast. And, most certainly, as they waited for him it would get very dark. It was this knowledge that motivated the five wise virgins to trouble themselves with the chore of filling their vessels with oil in preparation for a long, dark night of waiting for the bridegroom.

Simply stated, five virgins were called wise by the Lord because their right understanding led to right preparations. In contrast five virgins are called "foolish" because their wrong understanding of the "bridegroom's coming" resulted in their inaction, leaving them ill-equipped and unprepared to shine their lights in the midnight hour.  





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