Foolish Virgins

“She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp does not go out at night. She puts her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle. She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy.” Proverbs 31:18-20

What was Jesus trying to convey with His parable of the ten virgins? It appears to be a theme throughout scripture that there are always people that appear to be part of what Yahweh is doing, yet they somehow have failed to follow the instructions to be at the right place at the right time. The parable of the ten virgins tells a similar story.

There were ten virgins who were all waiting for the bridegroom. It is my understanding that it is tradition for the husband to go prepare a place for the bride, then at some point unknown to the bride, the husband comes to the bride’s home to take her to the place he has prepared.

Mat 25:1 “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.
Mat 25:2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.
Mat 25:3 For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them,
Mat 25:4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.
Mat 25:5 As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept.
Mat 25:6 But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’
Mat 25:7 Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps.
Mat 25:8 And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’
Mat 25:9 But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’
Mat 25:10 And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut.
Mat 25:11 Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’
Mat 25:12 But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’
Mat 25:13 Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

The wise virgins took extra oil with them, but the foolish virgins did not. What does this oil represent? The foolish virgins wanted to borrow some of the oil from the wise. Why wouldn’t this have been a solution? It appears there was responsibility placed on the virgins to do something to stay prepared, and they could not just “call on the name of the bridegroom” to fix the dilemma they were in at the time of his coming. Jesus had a similar message about people He would say He did not know at his coming.

For those who prophesied in His name and did mighty works in His name, He told them He never knew them, much like the five foolish virgins who ran out of oil. Jesus also indicated these people did not do the work of His Father, but were workers of lawlessness.

Mat 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Mat 7:22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’
Mat 7:23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Lawlessness and iniquity are used for the Greek word anomia, which is Strong’s G458.

G458
ἀνομία
anomia
an-om-ee’-ah
From G459; illegality, that is, violation of law or (generally) wickedness: – iniquity, X transgress (-ion of) the law, unrighteousness.

This law that is being spoken of is not referring to civil law, or traditions that throughout history religious organizations have placed on the backs of their followers. It is referring to the work of the Father. Jesus clarifies the difference between the traditions of men verses the commandments of Yahweh:

Mar 7:6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
Mar 7:7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
Mar 7:8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”
Mar 7:9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!

The theme is continuous throughout scripture. There is a group of people who think they are pleasing Yahweh, but they are just following their own imaginations. The opposite of “workers of unrighteousness” is “workers of righteousness”.

We see that the churches of Sardis and Philadelphia were in a similar situation as the ten virgins. They were both part of the same group, yet some were doing the right things and some were not.

Rev 3:1 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. “‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
Rev 3:2 Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.
Rev 3:3 Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.
Rev 3:4 Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.
Rev 3:5 The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.
Rev 3:6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

The church of Sardis had a similar plight as the five foolish virgins. They were waiting for the bridegroom, yet they fell asleep. Their works were not complete. They needed to repent and “keep it”. The church of Philadelphia, on the other hand, was more likened to the five wise virgins.

Rev 3:7 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.
Rev 3:8 “‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.
Rev 3:9 Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you.
Rev 3:10 Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth.
Rev 3:11 I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.
Rev 3:12 The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.

Jesus indicates in Philadelphia they have “kept His word”, and to “hold on to what they have”, similar to the wise virgins not giving their oil to the foolish virgins, blending themselves with the slothful ways of the foolish virgins. Keeping His word is doing what He said.

Joh 14:8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”
Joh 14:9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Joh 14:10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
Joh 14:11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
Joh 14:12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.
Joh 14:13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
Joh 14:14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
Joh 14:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
Joh 14:16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
Joh 14:17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
Joh 14:18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
Joh 14:19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.
Joh 14:20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
Joh 14:21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

Some will try to say that the commandments of Jesus are different then the commandments of Yahweh. I do not understand this reasoning. Do we serve a different God than Yahweh?

Joh 14:22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?”
Joh 14:23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
Joh 14:24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
Joh 14:25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.
Joh 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

Is a different gospel being preached to us?

2Co 11:1 I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me!
2Co 11:2 For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
2Co 11:3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
2Co 11:4 For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.
2Co 11:5 Indeed, I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles.
2Co 11:6 Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not so in knowledge; indeed, in every way we have made this plain to you in all things.

We have been lied to for hundreds of years by these “super apostles” that came in and took over. They have led people away from the teachings of Jesus, who taught the same things His Father in heaven taught us from the beginning. This false paradigm, that Old Testament God is somehow different than the God of the New Testament, is an old heresy from someone in the first century named Marcion. Paul continues addressing the church at Corinth.

2Co 11:12 And what I am doing I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do.
2Co 11:13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
2Co 11:14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
2Co 11:15 So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.

The work of deceiving the people of Yahweh was masterly done hundreds of years ago, and although these entities exist today and continue to deceive, most are just innocently perpetuating the lie they were taught. However, this does not excuse the lack of study and asking the Spirit of Truth to teach the scriptures. The Word is the lamp and the Spirit is the oil.

Zec 4:1 And the angel who was talking with me returned, and he wakened me as one who is wakened from his sleep.
Zec 4:2 And he said to me, “What do you see?” And I said, “I see, and look, a lampstand all of gold, and a bowl was on its top, and its seven lamps on it, and seven lips on each of the lamps that are on its top.
Zec 4:3 And there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.”
Zec 4:4 And I answered and said to the angel who was talking to me, “What are these, my lord?”
Zec 4:5 And the angel who was talking with me answered and said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” And I said, “No, my lord.”
Zec 4:6 And he answered and said to me, “This is the word of Yahweh to Zerubbabel, saying, ‘Not by strength and not by power, but only by my Spirit,’ says Yahweh of hosts.

One must read the whole book of Zechariah to understand who Joshua (morphed to the name Jesus) the high priest is, the seven lips on the bowl, the righteous branch, the seven eyes of Yahweh and the two witnesses. Consider these verses:

Psa 18:28 For you light my lamp; Yahweh, my God, lights up my darkness.

Psa 119:98 Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, because they are ever with me.
Psa 119:99 I have more insight than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation.
Psa 119:100 I understand more than the elders, for I keep your precepts.
Psa 119:101 I have restrained my feet from every evil way, so that I may heed your word.
Psa 119:102 I have not turned aside from your ordinances, for you have taught me.
Psa 119:103 How smooth are your words to my palate, more than honey in my mouth.
Psa 119:104 From your precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way.
Psa 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Psa 119:106 I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to heed your righteous ordinances.

Do not be like the foolish virgins and run out of oil for your lamp. Do not be deceived into thinking that it is acceptable to live contrary to scripture. Yahweh God does not change, and neither Jesus or Paul came preaching a different gospel.