Time is precious – Day 12

Weddings are joyous events. People love to share in the happiness of a bridal pair on their special day. Our Lord used a wedding in Cana to perform his first miracle. It is therefore not surprising that our Lord Jesus Christ would use a parable of ten virgins at a wedding to describe his second coming. It will be a joyous occasion and a time of great celebration.

In the parable everyone is waiting with eager anticipation for the bridegroom to arrive, his coming is delayed and the ten virgins grow tired and fall asleep. At midnight they hear the shout: “The bridegroom is coming, go out to meet him!”

They rush out in the darkness with their lamps to escort the bridegroom to the wedding feast. Suddenly there is a crisis; five of them do not have enough oil for their lamps.

They appeal in vain to the five virgins who had sufficient oil: “If we help you there will not be enough oil for all of us … buy some for yourselves,” was their reply.

The five virgins who had oil meet the bridegroom and go with him to the wedding feast and the door is shut. Later the other women arrive. “Sir, sir! Let us in!” they cry. “Certainly not! I don’t know you” the bridegroom answered.

What can we learn from this?

All ten virgins knew the bridegroom was coming and all had to be prepared for his arrival at any time. The five foolish virgins were not. All Christians are waiting to meet the bridegroom, Jesus Christ. We do not know when he will come, but when he does come, we ourselves must be fully prepared to meet him. 

Preparedness is not transferrable from one person to another. We cannot get to the kingdom of heaven on someone else’s “oil”. To be prepared for the coming of our Lord, we need our own supply and that we can only get directly from our triune God through the Holy Spirit.