read through Matthew 25:1-12

Unless we go camping or hiking frequently, we today tend to think less about lamp oil, the sort referred to nearly 200 times in the Bible, and more about petroleum, which is obviously used to power our hustle-bustle lifestyle. But before electricity, oil lamps were crucial for educating children, working and traveling. In fact, just as people in the old days would not be able to function without oil for lamps, we would be in dire straits economically and socially without petroleum.

In this passage, Christ uses a parable about virgins wandering out to meet the bridegroom, which here represents Jesus, to make a point about the foolish versus the wise. Five virgins prepare before hand to meet the bridegroom by bringing, not only lamps to see through the night, but oil for the lamps. Bringing oil to power the lamps may seem like an obvious necessity to us, but regardless, the other five virgins chose to only bring the lamps with no oil. When the time came to meet the bridegroom, predictably, the five prudent ones were ready at midnight and the foolish ones had to go into the city and purchase oil.

There’s a lot of ground to cover here, but first, the Bible has much to say about followers who prudently navigate a world of widespread darkness, without the light of Christ in many, many people’s lives. In this passage, oil is used to represent our salvation and the wisdom we possess and should seek after because of a relationship with Him. One online commentary here notes that those who possess prudence in God: understand the ways of God, are crowned with knowledge, can identify evil and false teaching, have the ability to control anger and other destructive feelings, and many other attributes. Thus, without oil in our symbolic lamps, that is, without seeking teaching and wisdom from the word of God daily, we are left susceptible to the dangers of the dark, to the dangers of falsehood and evil and to all things void of Christ. So, it is critically important as Christians that we seek to more fully know God and his wisdom and understanding as we go about our lives. Or else, we leave ourselves open to snares. In this parable, the foolish virgins ultimately did not gain entry into the bridegroom’s house because they had not prepared and filled up their lamps. They did not wisely use the resources God had provided.

Second, and perhaps the most exciting aspect of this parable, those who are diligent, who do prepare, and who do desire God’s truth, they will be rewarded with a feast. For us, this doesn’t mean a literal feast, but an eternity with Christ, a feast of everlasting love, joy and peace in a place called heaven. It’s place with no more longing, no more suffering, thirst, hunger or pain. It’s a destiny that we can look forward to, knowing that we have lived lives fully devoted to Christ and his teaching. But, and it’s a big but, as seen in this parable, those who do not rightly prepare, that is surrendering their lives to Christ, will be turned away as were these five foolish virgins, who seemingly thought they could “borrow” someone else’s provisions to get into the bridegroom’s house. Salvation, however, is a personal decision made one soul at the time. No one else can lend you part of their salvation. Salvation comes when Christ calls a person to their knees, and it truly is an individual, personal, relationship with the most high.

This parable teaches, then, briefly gives us the spiritual decisions that we all have to make and their consequences: salvation, rejection of Christ, eternal life, and separation from Christ.

application

Read through a few or all of these verses and answer for yourself what God is teaching about wisdom and prudence in your life: Proverbs 8:12, Proverbs 12:23, Proverbs: 2:11, Proverbs 13:16, Hosea 14:9, Proverbs 14:8, Proverbs 16:21, Psalms 112:5, Ephesians 5:15, Colossians 4:5, Matthew 10:16, Ephesians 1:8.