Ben Fourie

“He who gives his testimony to all this says, ‘Yes indeed! I am coming soon!’”  Revelation 22:20

Shortly before Jesus died on the cross he started teaching his followers about what was going to happen in the near future as well as what would happen at the Second Coming. Central to these teachings, is the idea of being ready, not only for the Second Coming, but also for the tribulations and persecutions by the Roman rulers that would hit his followers in the near future.

In Matthew 24 and 25 Jesus used three parables with the same message to help us prepare for the future. The parable of the fig tree is important as it pointed to the persecutions that were going to happen in their own time. The parables about faithful or unfaithful servants and ten young women with their lamps were signs that the things Jesus talked about would happen without failure. In both these parables Jesus wants to warn against being overconfident as these things will happen when least expected.

The story about the ten young women with their lamps is a beautiful story and would have spoken to the listeners as it was the custom for young, unmarried girls to wait along the road for the bridegroom to arrive. With great joy they would then accompany him to the wedding feast. In the story, five of them were well prepared with surplus oil but the other five misjudged the length of time it would take for the bridegroom to arrive and were found wanting. Theirs is actually a sad story for they were forewarned of his coming but by sheer neglect were not prepared with sufficient oil to last the course. When, after a struggle to buy some oil, they finally arrived at the wedding feast, they heard these devastating words: “I don’t know you.” How close is His Second Coming? As close as the day that I die and when this will be none of us knows.

Prayer: Help me to be prepared for your Second Coming. Please let me know that you know me. Amen