Tagged: parable of the 10 virgins
You Don’t Know the Day or the Hour
This is the 19th in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon.com.
In the previous column, we looked at a first-century Galilean wedding as the context for Jesus’ parable of the 10 virgins. Jesus tells the parable to prepare his followers for what’s ahead. After his imminent suffering, death, and resurrection, Jesus returns to his Father, prepares a place in heaven for believers, and then calls his bride to meet him at his return.
Many who hold a dispensational premillennial view of the end times point to this event as the rapture, inwhich followers of Jesus are “caught up” to meet him in the air (1 Cor. 15:50-57; 1 Thess. 4:13-18).
According to this view, the seven-day honeymoon depicts seven years the church is in heaven while tribulation takes place on earth. And the departure from the father’s house after the honeymoon pictures the glorious appearing of Christ when he returns to earth with the saints, sits on the throne of David, and rules the earth with his queen.
For historical premillennialists and amillennialists, this parable foretells a general resurrection of all people at Christ’s second coming. Glorified believers go up to meet Jesus in the air – like ancient citizens going out from their city to welcome a visiting king – and accompany him in his victorious return to earth. Meanwhile, unbelievers – the foolish virgins – are denied entrance into the kingdom.
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Behold, the Bridegroom Comes!
This is the 18th in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon.com.
There are well over a hundred parables in the Bible, but the most beloved are the 30-plus parables Jesus shares with us. While he’s not the first to use this form of teaching, Jesus endows his parables with unparalleled originality and spiritual depth. In fact, more than one-third of all his recorded sayings are parables.
Several of Jesus’ parables address the suddenness of his future return in glory. One of these is the parable of the 10 virgins in Matthew 25:1-13.
The central theme of this parable is readiness for the return of Christ. Like the bridegroom in first-century Galilean society, Jesus most assuredly is coming, but he’s coming suddenly and catches the unprepared by surprise.
The central character in this parable is the bridegroom (Christ), who is delayed in coming for his bride (the church). Scripture often refers to the church as the bride and Christ as the bridegroom (Matt. 9:15; Mark 2:19-20; Luke 5:34-35; John 3:29). Believers are “betrothed” to Jesus, who promises to come one day and take them to his Father’s house (John 14:1-3).
A general understanding of first-century Jewish wedding customs is helpful in navigating this parable.
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The parable of the ten virgins
Following is chapter 14 of The Kingdom According to Jesus. You may order the entire study from a number of the nation’s leading booksellers, including Amazon. Matt. 25:1-13
1 “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like 10 virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the groom.
2 Five of them were foolish and five were sensible.
3 When the foolish took their lamps, they didn’t take oil with them.
4 But the sensible ones took oil in their flasks with their lamps.
5 Since the groom was delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
6 In the middle of the night there was a shout: ‘Here’s the groom! Come out to meet him.’
7 Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps.
8 But the foolish ones said to the sensible ones, ‘Give us some of your oil, because our lamps are going out.’
9 The sensible ones answered, ‘No, there won’t be enough for us and for you. Go instead to those who sell, and buy oil for yourselves.’
10 When they had gone to buy some, the groom arrived. Then those who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet, and the door was shut.
11 Later the rest of the virgins also came and said, ‘Master, master, open up for us!’
12 But he replied, ‘I assure you: I do not know you!’
13 Therefore be alert, because you don’t know either the day or the hour.”
The context
Jesus is on the Mount of Olives with his disciples, responding to their questions about the future destruction of the Temple and the end of the age. Just before this, in Matthew 23, Jesus pronounces woes on the Jewish leaders for their hypocrisy. Then, leaving the Temple and crossing over the Kidron Valley, He tells His disciples that the Temple, a glistening monument to Jewish nationalism (but a stale house of worship where He was rejected as Messiah), would soon be demolished. Shocked by this prediction, His disciples ask him in Matt. 24:3, “When will these things happen (the destruction of the Temple)? And what is the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” Jesus responds in the rest of Matthew 24-25 in what is known as the Olivet Discourse. The parable of the 10 virgins comes in the middle of this message.
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The Kingdom According to Jesus: A Study of His Parables on the Kingdom of Heaven
The terms “kingdom of God,” “kingdom of heaven,” and “kingdom” (with reference to the kingdom of God/heaven) appear nearly 150 times in scripture. None of these references gives a simple, straightforward definition of the kingdom, and many passages appear to be contradictory. Yet the kingdom is the primary focus of Jesus’ teaching. Many of His parables describe the kingdom. The apostles preach the “gospel of the kingdom.” And end-times prophecy points us toward the day when God’s kingdom will come in its fullness.
So, what is the kingdom of heaven? Are the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God the same thing? Is the kingdom here already, or are we to wait for it? What does it look like? Who’s in the kingdom and who’s not? And what is required to enter the kingdom? These and other questions will be explored in this 17-part study, mostly through the lens of Jesus’ parables in Matthew on the kingdom of heaven.
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