WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5, 2023
“Be Ready”
Matthew 25:1-13
Mary Jo Braddock
The Parable of the Ten Virgins tells us what it will be like at the Second Coming. It is illustrated as a marriage observance.
It was a custom among the Jews that the bridegroom came with his friends late in the night to the house of the bride where she expected him, attended by her bridesmaids. The bridesmaids, when he approached, were to go out with lamps in their hands, to show him with lights into the house with ceremony.
The bridegroom is Jesus; His spouse is the church. The virgins are the members of the church but represented as her bridesmaids. Their chief concern is to have lights in their hands to do him honor and service.
Five of them were wise and five were foolish. The foolish had just enough oil for the present, to make a show as if they intended to meet the bridegroom. They did not provide for hereafter. The bridegroom tarried; he did not come out so soon as they expected. Christ’s coming will be when we least expect Him.
The foolish, in distress, implored, “Give us some of your oil.” The wise answered, “Go to them that sell and buy for yourself.”
They that were ready went in with Him to the marriage. The door was shut and bolted. The virgins who were foolish came when it was too late.
Prayer: Dear Father, may we seek the Lord while he may be found. Watch and wait for we neither know the day nor hour He is coming. Be ready! In Your Holy Name, Amen.