Oil in our Lamps

Matthew 25 contains the revelation of Jesus as a Bridegroom God.

This is right before Jesus went to the cross. His public ministry is over; He’s talking to His disciples in private now. He says a very key word in verse 1. He says, “Then” —what is then? In its context, it’s Matthew 24. Matthew 24 and 25 is one teaching; Matthew 24 is the grand teaching of Jesus on the end-times. He’s in the same flow; just forget the chapter divisions. He’s in the same conversation. He’s talking about the end-times, the second coming, the Great Tribulation, signs and wonders, power.

“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet” —to encounter—“the bridegroom” (Mt. 25:1).

There is coming a time, Jesus was saying, where the kingdom of God would be like people encountering a bridegroom. Though it’s been true throughout history that a few have encountered Jesus as a bridegroom, in the generation the Lord returns, the whole Body of Christ is going to encounter Jesus as a bridegroom. It’s the only time in history, in the final generation, that it’s going to happen—in the generation that He returns.

“Those who were foolish took their lamps, but took no oil with them” (Mt. 25:3).  In verse 4, the wise people took oil in their lamps. The oil speaks heart encounter with God.

GO BUY OIL BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE

Verse 5. “The Bridegroom was delayed.” The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil’ (v. 8).

Here’s one of the really negative statements of this parable: A lot of lamps are going out. Our heart, our ministry, the lamp, the light of God could be going out in our hearts and in our ministries, because of the turbulence of the end- times. If we don’t have friendship with God, our lamps will go out. You can think of lamps in terms of our ministries; you can think of it in terms of our personal relationship with the Lord.

It won’t be sufficient to have the business-as-usual relationship with the Lord that the church in the West is so familiar with today, where you have Jesus on the run, even though your friends say you’re really on fire for God. Jesus on the run—it’s more about getting more power, more money, and more honor; where we endure prayer meetings so we finally get power to have fun meetings.

There is more to God than this. The kingdom of God is going to be like people encountering a bridegroom. The wise people in that generation will have oil in their lamps. The unwise aren’t believers; they’re ministries. They’re virgins with lamps with ministries. They’re foolish because they pursued their ministries more than they pursued heart-encounter with the Lord. They had no oil in their ministries; their lamps were going out.  I believe this parable is crucial wisdom for the hour we are in, to learn in the early days how to prioritize oil in our lamps above all else, save family.