You Never Know

“Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.”  Matthew 25:13

Folks who believe that Jesus will come again wonder just when that will take place.  There have been those who have predicted a certain day when Jesus would return, but then that day came and went, and the world rolled right on by like always making those folks look rather silly.  Jesus said that even He didn’t know when that would be, and only His Father was privy to that information because God is the One who has already made that determination (Matthew 24:36).  So I don’t understand why Bible believing folks would even attempt to predict the date that Jesus will return.

Jesus had just finished His prophesy concerning how things will be when the end times are nearing when He cautioned His disciples to “watch”.  Even though we can’t know that day, I think He gave us some clues to look for so those of us who are believers can perhaps have an idea of the state of the world as His second coming nears.  (For those clues, read Matthew, Chapter 24).  One parable Jesus told concerning the importance of being prepared for His return was the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25:1-13).  Five of them were wise and five were foolish, or as we could also say, they were procrastinators.  The ten represented folks like you and me.  They had a date to meet the Bridegroom, that is, Jesus.  They didn’t know exactly when He would arrive so the wise virgins took extra oil for their lamps, but the five foolish didn’t think that they would need this extra oil so they didn’t bother to bring any.  The Bridegroom had still not come, and it was now dark.  The lamps of the five foolish virgins had gone out.  They needed their lamps in order to be able to see their way into the wedding feast.  They demanded that the five wise give them some of their oil, but the five wise virgins could not lend them any and told them to go buy for themselves.  While they were gone, the Bridegroom came, the five wise virgins went into the wedding feast with Him, and the door was shut.  When the five procrastinators returned and demanded that the door be opened, the Bridegroom told them that He did not know them, and thus they were not permitted to enter, all because they failed to prepare ahead of time.

We have all heard the old saying that “we don’t plan to fail, we just fail to plan”.  The five wise folks were the ones who had received Christ as Lord and Savior prior to His return.  The oil represented the Holy Spirit of whom believers receive when they repent and believe on Christ.  That’s why the five wise virgins couldn’t give any oil to the five foolish virgins.  The Holy Spirit wasn’t theirs to give away.  He can only be received when one is born again.  I suppose it was possible that the five wise virgins warned the five foolish ones that they didn’t come fully prepared to meet the Bridegroom.  If that was the case, the warning was ignored.  The five foolish virgins didn’t plan to be excluded, they just failed to do what was necessary to be included into the family of God.  The oil that they did have in their lamps before the lamps went out represented the opportunities that they had to receive Christ.  I supposed they might have thought that they could be accepted on their own terms.

I know there are a lot of folks who have trouble believing that there is only one way to be accepted by God, that is, by way of His Son, Jesus Christ.  However, it makes no sense to me to think that God would put His Son through such torture, suffering, and death, if there was any other way to be reconciled with the Father.  God takes sin very seriously.  All sin is against Him.  But He was and is so merciful and loving to make a way whereby we could be forgiven and spend eternity in heaven with Him.  For that I am eternally grateful.