To understand the parable of the ten virgins given in Matthew
25 one must appreciate the fact that the parable does not stand out on its own.
The eschatological discourse would be seen when you read in context from
Matthew 22.
Jesus gives his audience important information that they
needed to embrace as it would to events that were to happen in their time and
age. These events would totally reshape their entire Jewish world and scope of
life. These events when it occurred would make undeniable impact on their state
of affairs. The route to things being fulfilled would involve the judgment of
the Jewish religious leadership, Roman-Jewish conflict, persecution of Christ
followers and subsequent destruction of the temple and land.
Matthew 24 is recognized as the Olivet discourse that unveils
the greatest prophecy given by Jesus that signaled the end of that (Jewish) age
though it is wrongly translated as “world” in the KJV. This has caused many to
make predictions of forever coming Antichrists, raptures, global tribulations
etc. As I would like to call it, Matthew 24 is the obituary of the Old covenant
world.
As Matthew 24 transitions in 25 it is very important to take
note of the first verse;
“THEN the
kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps and
went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them
were foolish, and five were prudent. 3 For
when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them,4 but
the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps.”
Notice the word “Then”?
This suggests that the events given in the parable would
follow that of the previous chapter.
After the destruction of the city in judgment comes the
wedding feast.
The motif is not only common the place in Matthew’s gospel.
I will also share 2 other instance where the
judgment/Marriage motif can be seen in eschatological perspective.
The first one comes in Matthew 21:1-10
Jesus spoke1 to them again in parables, saying: 2 “The
kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his
son. 3 He
sent his slaves1 to
summon those who had been invited to the banquet, but they would not come. 4 Again
he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Look! The
feast I have prepared for you is ready. My oxen and fattened cattle have been
slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.”’ 5 But they were indifferent and went
away, one to his farm, another to his business. 6 The
rest seized his slaves, insolently mistreated them, and killed them. 7 The
king was furious! He sent his soldiers, and they put those murderers to death
and set their city on fire. 8 Then he said to his slaves, ‘The
wedding is ready, but the ones who had been invited were not worthy. 9 So go
into the main streets and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ 10 And
those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all they found, both bad
and good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
From the parable above we can see this wedding prepared by
God for Jesus his son, the bride. Those first invited were the Jews as Paul
would confirm that the gospel was preached to the Jews before the gentiles were
invited in.
Many of those Jews were invited but they turned down this
invitation to keep to their preoccupation. They didn’t stop there was they also
pursued the disciple beat, scourged and killed them.
This parable was fulfilled post-cross in AD30. It was a
parable with prophetic elements telling them the course of events that would
lead to the destruction of the city in AD70. Notice in the parable that after
the city was burnt down the marriage ceremony took place.
Another scripture that supports this judgment/marriage trend
can be seen in Revelation 19:1-3, 6-8
1 After these things I
heard what sounded like the loud voice of a vast throng in heaven, saying,
“Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
2 because his judgments are true and just.
For he has judged the great prostitute
who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality,
and has avenged the blood of his servants poured out by her own hands!”
2 because his judgments are true and just.
For he has judged the great prostitute
who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality,
and has avenged the blood of his servants poured out by her own hands!”
6 Then I heard what
sounded like the voice of a vast throng, like the roar of many waters and like
loud crashes of thunder. They were shouting:
“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God, the All-Powerful, reigns!
7 Let us rejoice and exult
and give him glory,
because the wedding celebration of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready.
8 She was permitted to be dressed in bright, clean, fine linen” (for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints).
For the Lord our God, the All-Powerful, reigns!
7 Let us rejoice and exult
and give him glory,
because the wedding celebration of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready.
8 She was permitted to be dressed in bright, clean, fine linen” (for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints).
The judgment of God
over Babylon was actually the destruction of the city of Jerusalem AD70.
This first confirms
what Jesus said in Matthew 23:34-38
34 “For this reason I am
sending you prophets and wise men and experts in the law, some of whom you will
kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from
town to town, 35 so that on you will come all the righteous blood shed on
earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of
Barachiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 I tell you the truth,
this generation will be held responsible for all these things!
37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill
the prophets and stone those who are sent to you! How often I have longed to
gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but
you would have none of it! 38 Look,
your house is left to you desolate!
Jerusalem was the one drunk
with the blood of the saints sent to her.
6 I saw that the woman was drunk with the
blood of the saints and the blood of those who testified to Jesus. I was
greatly astounded when I saw her. (Revelation 17:6)
24 The blood of the saints and prophets was found in her, along with the blood of all those who had been killed on the earth.” (Revelation 18:24)
John
confirms the identity of the great harlot, that great city as Jerusalem
8 Their corpses will lie
in the street of the great city that is symbolically called Sodom and Egypt,
where their Lord was also crucified.
(Revelation 11:8)
After
that judgment in Revelation what follows immediately is the marriage supper of
the Lord. I grew up believing that the marriage of the Lord would take place at
the end of time. We even sang songs of those future promises. What we didn’t
realize is that we are stating that the church and Christ have been in
courtship for the past 2,000 years. Many of us would even frown at the idea of
a 15 years courtship.
The
marriage supper was eager expectation of the church in that 1st
century. Paul knew his role in ministry to keep the bride prepared for the soon
to come marriage.
“For I
feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to
present you as a pure virgin to Christ.” (II Corinthians 11:2)
“Therefore,
my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of
Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead,
that we should bear fruit to God.” (Romans 7:4)
Interpreting
that parable of the ten virgins as a rapture theory will only seek to pull part
scripture to establish a man-made philosophy and disregard the consistency of
God’s word. The virgins simply represent those Jews who expecting the Messiah.
The door was
shut against the foolish just like the days of Noah when they refused to heed
his message and those people perished in that old world. Noah and his family
transited into the new world where he received the dominion mandate from God.
Those whose
oil finished represented those who knowledge and insight based on the Old
covenant could not carry them over into the kingdom. While those wise virgins
were those who embraced the revelation of Jesus and that insight and revelation
was enough to see them transit into the established kingdom of God on earth.
Now we are in that new covenant age where Jesus is our husband and he does a
good job taking care of his body the church. The church just needs to learn to
live as the bride. This is the very essence of the grace message.
Saints today
don’t need to be afraid of half of the church being raptured and the other half
left behind. It has always been by grace. No one can buy his salvation by good
works and no one called a “tribulation saint” would pay for his salvation
through his own blood.
We have been
redeemed by his own precious blood to live in the Father’s family. The bride is
now past the marriage ceremony and its time to enjoy the beautiful home.