Self-Portraits of God

Studies in the Life and Work of Jesus

Lesson 2: Pictures from the Parables

Parable 4

Then the Kingdom of Heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.

And at midnight a cry was heard: Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him! Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. But the wise answered, saying, no, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but grow rather to those who sell and buy for yourselves. And the while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us! But He answered and said, assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you. Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

Jesus had been doing interactive teaching with a variety of groups of people, including leaders of the people.

Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. (This was a time when there was much building being done on the temple complex.) And the Jesus said to them, do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down… (Matthew 24:1,2).

Having said these things, Jesus and the disciples left the temple and the temple grounds and went to the Mount of Olives, which was but a short distance away.

Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, tell us when will these things be? And what will be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age? (Matthew 24:3)

In response to their questions Jesus makes some interesting comments, and tell some great stories- one of which is the parable of the 10 young women.

Through Matthew’s record of this story there runs a timeline. The story just preceding it ends with a prediction of coming judgment (Matthew 24:45-51). The parable following our story of the 10 young women, adds to the prediction of a coming judgment the element of personal accountability; with the accountability in the predicted judgment being based on the use made by the lord’s servants of that which was his, and which he had given to them in trust to be used for good. (See Matthew 25:14-30) That story, the parable of the talents, is followed by a descriptive story of the judgment itself (See Matthew 25:31-46), often referred to as The Sheep and Goats Judgment.

The fascinating point of our story, the story of the 10 virgins, is that it is used by Jesus to reveal the way to be able to pass the coming judgment! This parables seems to be almost one in a class by its self, for while there are many elements to the story, as we will soon see, there is only one element of the story to study; all of its other elements are understood. This is one of the most fascinating of the parables!

1. People
2. Lamps
3. A wedding
4. A bridegroom
5. 10 Girls
6. Lamps to light the darkness
7. Oil in the lamps
8. Vessels for extra oil
9. A tardy bridegroom
10. All the girls were sleeping
11. All the girls were invited
12. All the girls believed there was going to be a wedding
13. All the girls were properly dressed
14. All the girls awoke when the bridal party finally came
15. All the girls’ lamps had been giving light to the darkness
16. All the girls’ lamps were now going out

The story is running so smoothly that one could almost go to sleep in church when Jesus suddenly introduces an unexpected element- some of the girls have failed to bring extra oil for their lamps! Their plea to their companions to be allowed to borrow some of their extra oil from their personal vessels is as expected as is the polite refusal of those who have great desire to go with the bridegroom and his group; which group is already moving on.

The story ends with those who have stayed with the bridegroom going into the house with the bridegroom and the rest of his guests, while those who have gone to buy oil arrive too late to receive admittance; the door having been shut. The rejection of the late-arrivers would perhaps be more surprising if it were not for the nature of the wedding party; those who made up the bridegroom’s accepted guests were those who were ready at the time he came for them.

This element of time, introduced here as being ready on time, is continually present in all the stories making up this group of parables. They all cluster around the timeline-theme of readiness for the judgment; this readiness being based always on the preparations having been made before the arrival of the judgment. As we noted earlier, there is only one unexpected element in our story of the 10 girls; the oil in the vessels for extra oil which is carried by only 5 of the waiting girls; which oil is additional to the oil all 10 girls are presented as having in their lamps. (Each of the actors in the story having in their possession a vessel for extra oil, as is indicated by the direct statement of that fact by the storyteller.) The fascinating question that comes to us from this particular story is different from any of the other questions associated with the other parables we have looked at; question—what is missing in the story? What is it that is not there for some of the girls?

This question would seem to parallel the issue of the unfaithful steward in the story of the talents, when condemnation came for not improving that which belongs to the master and which was given to the steward as a trust, except that in our story of the 10 girls there is no record of any improvement having been made by any of those girls who were accepted into the bridegroom’s home. Neither is there a failure of desire, as in the parable of the father with two sons, where one chooses to stay outside the father’s home; these girls wanted to be allowed into the house, even though the door had already been closed. At this point one thing is clear. The girls in the story all have the capacity for carrying extra oil. The central question from the parable is therefore two-sided; what is it which is represented by the oil, and how does one by it?

A second issue is also quite easy to formulate. What is the appropriate time for buying the oil? The parable answers the question of the appropriate time for buying the oil which makes one an accepted member of the accepted guests: while one is making preparations for going out to meet the bridegroom; before he comes. The question as to what the oil represents is not answered in the story as told by Jesus while sitting on the Mount of Olives- maybe because nobody asked! But maybe because everybody already knew.

There is a fascinating story in the Old Testament that deals with oil in a particularly interesting context from the viewpoint of our story. (Oil appears in the Old Testament approximately 170 times; often in connection with directions regarding acceptable worship practices.) This story is found in the book of Zachariah, chapter’s 3 and 4; we are particularly interested in that portion of the story which speaks of a lampstand and its oil. We are equally interested, however, in the accompanying dialogue. In this story the prophet sees a lampstand of solid gold with the bowl on top of it, and seven lamps with seven pipes to the seven lamps. Two trees are by the lampstand, one on the right and one on the left of the lampstand. Whereas the context is the Lord’s work on behalf of His people, Zachariah asked the question we want him to ask, “what are these?” The answer is twofold; the first answer is, “this is the word of the Lord.”

The second half of the answer is in regard to how that work described in the passage will be accomplished. The prophet is told it will not be by might nor by power, but by the Lord’s Spirit. What makes this passage so interesting to our parable is the fact that this lampstand only functions with oil. The oil in this story is explicitly stated to come from the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth (4:13,14). Therefore the message in this passage in Zechariah is very clear; when the prophet was told that the work would be accomplished by the Lord’s Spirit we learned that the oil which makes things function is the power of the Spirit of God.

Now back to our story of the 10 girls. In this story the central element is the oil which is carried by some of the girls in their vessels for extra oil, as extra oil. We also notice that as in the story of the lampstand, the lamps only function when they are supplied with oil. We can now understand the parable. All the girls heard the invitation and went out to meet the bridegroom, having planned to go with the bridegroom to the wedding. But some lacked the Spirit of the Lord in their personal lives- represented in the parable as the vessel for extra oil.