The Kingdom of God, Then: Session 6 – Don’t Be Smart…Be Wise

Notes:

Don’t Be Smart…Be Wise    See Session Slides Here

Matt.25:1. In a Jewish marriage, the bridegroom accompanied by his close friends went to fetch the bride from her father’s house and bring her back in a procession to his own house where the marriage feast was held. At various stages along the route friends would join the procession. Everyone brought their own torch because of the unlit streets. The lamps were oil-fed. The wise would bring a flask of additional oil.

This parable has been subjected to many interpretations. Let the Bible interpret itself:

  • Virgins are never represented in Scripture as being anything other than believers. The Church collective is the Bride; but the virgins individually are believers invited to be part of the Bride, 2 Cor.11:2.
  • Virgins signify believers from the aspect of life (wise or foolish) rather than stewardship (faithful or unfaithful)
  • All had lamps that are lit and burning. They all had gone out in faith to meet the bridegroom.
  • Lamps represent the spirit of man, Prov.20:27. A lamp is created, not to produce light but to bear it, i.e. to make it possible for the potential in the oil to be released.
  • We are called to let His light shine in the world, Matt.5:14-16; Eph.5:8; Phil.2:15.
  • Oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, Isa.61:1; Zech.4:6;  1 Sam.16:13.
  • The oil in the vessels refers to the life of the Spirit in the soul of a Christian. The Holy Spirit in the human spirit gives divine life access to the human soul making it possible for moral image of God to be manifested in humans.
  • Jesus came into the world to function as the perfect man. He offered His humanity to God by the Holy Spirit, (Heb.9:14). The Father gave Himself to the Son by the Spirit.
  • It is through the same Holy Spirit that we offer our humanity to God and He offers His deity to us.
  • But looking within we see much that is contrary to the nature of God, i.e. flesh. But as genuine oil is distinguished from counterfeits by its properties, so grace in the soul is known by its characteristics. Oil and water will not mix. They will preserve their distinct properties even when placed together in the same vessel. So the flesh and spirit will not combine in the Christian—but remain in opposition. The spirit will always war against the flesh. It will never be comfortable with the flesh-life.
  • Vessels primarily refer to man’s soul, the center of his personality. Wise believers allow Christ, as the life-giving Spirit, to flow from their spirit into their soul to saturate and transform them, 2 Cor.3:18.
  • Eph.5:18. Paul makes a comparison in this verse between being filled with the Spirit and being drunk with wine. One who is drunk with wine is under its control. In like manner we are exhorted to come under the Spirit’s leading.
  • ‘Sleep’ is only used for believers at death, 1 Thes.4:14; John 11:11. It continues till the resurrection.
  • Matt.25:6. Midnight is the point between one day and another. It is midnight on earth yet the saints awake to the bridal feast.
  • The first going forth is separation from the world. The second is from the grave, John 5:28-29; 1 Thes.4:17.
  • Wise and foolish. Believers are sometimes addressed as being foolish, or are cautioned against it, Gal. 3:3. We are all the children of light, but in the parable we see that five were wise and five foolish. Their taking the vessel of oil is the single point which characterizes them as wise or foolish to His eye.

The exhortation of this parable is: ‘Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming’ (Matt.25:13). Let’s be filled with the Spirit and walk in the Spirit.

Don’t be smart…be wise! ‘Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ’ (2 Pet.1:10-11).