The Parable of the Ten Virgins

The parable of the ten virgins is a story told by Jesus to His disciples, in response to a question they posed, reported to us in Matthew 24: ³ As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”  Jesus responds first by describing what those times will be like, and admonishing His followers that, as you see the fig leaves begin to bud out, you know that summer is coming, so you can know when the end times are upon us based on seeing what He described as the “birth pains” of those times.  He begins this section of His response to their question by saying, “At that time, the kingdom of heaven will be like…”.  This sets the stage for our understanding of this parable. 

Throughout Scripture, prophesy operates simultaneously on at least three different levels.  The most obvious level is relating something that is happening or will happen in the time of the prophesy (an example includes Isaiah prophesying the taking of Israel into captivity by the Babylonians).  In this case, in Matthew 24:34-35, Jesus tells His followers: “³³ Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door.34 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.”  In other words, the disciples (then apostles) had their own experiences of being hated because of Jesus, of being persecuted and turned over to death, of hearing of wars and rumors of wars, of having false prophets claiming to be the Christ and false teachers misleading many – and as He said, all of those things happened before that very generation passed away.  Still, it was not the “end.”

The second level of prophesy speaks to an ultimate culminating event in a future time (using the example of Isaiah again, he spoke of Messiah coming to release Israel from captivity, which happened ultimately with the coming of Jesus Christ to release us all from captivity to sin).  In Matthew 24, Jesus is responding to that question as well: what it will ultimately be like at the end of all time, when He returns: “as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”  According to Jesus and foretold in other Scripture, there will be an ultimate end, where He returns and gathers His children to Him, separating them as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  In the mean time, as we wait for that ultimate end, we each experience our own “gathering to Him” at our death, which is our personal “end time” – which leads to the description of the third level of prophesy.  Prophesy is applicable on a personal, individual level, and describes in the macrocosm what takes place within our hearts (in the microcosm).  Going back to our Isaiah example, we each have our own personal “Babylon” to face, our own captivity from which we need Jesus to be set free, and our own personal release from prison (to sin) through Christ. 

Having set the stage in Matthew 24, Jesus begins by describing what the kingdom of heaven is like “at that time” – meaning at the time the disciples would experience after His death and resurrection, at the end of all time, and at our time of personal trial.  Since I don’t believe we can separate the last two, as we experience both, I will speak about that “time” as now.  The parable goes as follows:

25 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. ² Five of them were foolish and five were wise. ³ The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. ⁴ The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. ⁵ The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

⁶ “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’

⁷ “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. ⁸ The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’

⁹ “‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’

¹⁰ “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.

¹¹ “Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’

¹² “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’

¹³ “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”

In this parable, the “oil for their lamps” refers to the presence of God’s Spirit, providing light in times of darkness.  The wedding banquet refers to the Kingdom of Heaven (which is within us now, is where we will enter at our death, and is the coming Kingdom when He returns bringing Heaven to Earth).  The five wise virgins were prepared.  They brought the Spirit of the Living God with them to fill their lamps (to light their way through the darkness or time of trial).  They had already developed that strength of relationship, by focusing on their relationship with God as the thing of primary importance – they had invested their resources wisely into that relationship, instead of spending their time, energy, and resources on other things (whatever worldly things might try to distract from the relationship with God and His presence within our hearts).  They were ready when the time of deepest darkness came, and Jesus (the Bridegroom) showed up.  The five foolish virgins, however, brought their lamps (in other words, they knew the Bridegroom was coming – they knew about Jesus) but failed to invest in the oil for their lamp (the intimate presence of the Holy Spirit). 

The Bridegroom took a long time to come, and although five were prepared and five were not, they “all” dozed off.  (This reminds me of the three disciples who could not stay awake with Jesus at His time of trial – no matter how deeply we love Jesus, we still succumb to the weakness of the flesh, and can “fall asleep” when things seem to be going along fine in our lives).  Then suddenly, the Bridegroom is approaching and the alarm is sounding – and the five foolish virgins become aware they are not prepared.  Notice that the preparation of the five wise virgins is not going to be enough to cover the five foolish virgins, it can only provide oil enough for their own lamps – their “oil” (relationship with Jesus) cannot sustain the others during that time of trial, or during the end times.  Jesus is giving us an important warning here: prepare by investing in your relationship with Me as of first importance, for when the time of trial comes (or the end time comes), you will not be able to stand in the light without that preparation to sustain you, and you cannot rely on the relationship of others with Jesus to sustain you.  I know from personal experience that, when a time of trial came (Cody’s death), if I did not already have the depth of relationship with Jesus that both Cody and I had through investment of our hearts, our focus, and our time and energy, I would not have made it through that time intact.  And that is just the trial of losing a child to death.  The trials of the end times, according to Jesus, are unequaled:  Matthew 24:^21 “For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. ²² “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.”  If at the time of great trial, or in the end times, I go out seeking to purchase “oil for my lamp”, because of the nature of the times, the strong and prevailing presence of the enemy in those times, and the distractions of my emotions and the pain of those times, I will have difficulty “making it back in time” to be with the Bridegroom in His kingdom.  The warning from Jesus is clear:  you will not “make it back”, so the door will already be closed and the way blocked, and Jesus will say “I don’t know you.”

We cannot serve two masters.  We cannot have two “gods.”  Jesus said, as reported in Matthew 6:24, “Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”  We cannot stand with one foot in the Kingdom and the other in the world, nor can we focus on our relationship with Jesus as the thing of primary importance – our first priority – while focusing on things of the worldly view as equally (or even more) important to us.  Our circumstances cannot take precedence over our relationship with Jesus.  Whatever the foolish virgins were doing with their resources, they were not investing in that connection with Jesus (the presence of the Holy Spirit within us to give us light and truth).  They were counting on what they had in the lamp already to see them through to the end.  It will not be enough.

I personally believe that we are in those end times described by Jesus in Matthew 24 and 25; I see evidence in the increasingly strong presence of evil influencing the actions of mankind, in the engulfing fear that grips the world in so many ways and determines the direction of our leaders (as well as many of us individually), in the realities of global annihilation at the fingertips of those who have no restraint from creating destruction and who are willing and even eager to do so, in the pain and suffering of children and those who are weaker at the hands of those in power, in the burgeoning upheaval in the natural realm, and in the rise of attitudes contrary to those taught by God and demonstrated by Jesus such as taking the easy path, looking out for self, and rejecting any absolute truth.  However, and I want to stress this point, even if we are NOT in those end times, the truth of this parable is still relevant to our individual experience and the warning still holds true.  For each of us, the trial will come.  If we do not have that connected presence of Jesus to hold us fast, we will lose our grip on the Kingdom and we will fall. 

What are you invested in?