182 - Ten Tiki Torches

You pick up your Bible and wonder, is there more here than meets the eye?

Is there anything here for me? I mean, it's just words printed on paper, right? Well, it may look like just print on a page, but it's more than ink. Join us for the next half hour as we explore God's Word together, as we learn how to explore it on our own, as we ask God to meet us there in its pages.

Welcome to More Than Ink. Hey, have you ever been camping and you were dependent on your flashlight and you went to flip the switch and the battery was dead? Hmm, I hate that. So I guess maybe what we should do is, I don't know, carry batteries with us? Have an extra battery in your pocket?

Yeah, because you don't have an option. Well, today we're going to look at a similar problem in an episode I call 10 Tiki Torches, today on More Than Ink. Well, you've joined us here at More Than Ink. I'm Jim.

And I'm Dorothy. And we're so glad you're with us. I hope you're getting as much out of our look into Matthew and especially this section on the end of the age. Yeah.

Yeah. So this is actually, today we're doing part four of six part series on the end of the age. We took the last, well, not the last, but the two chapters of Matthew where Jesus really focuses on the end of the ages, his return, which is in chapters 24 and 25. And we're getting straight from the mouth of Jesus.

What will happen at the end of the age? Yeah. And it's really interesting to me and always has been what he says and what he doesn't say, right? And how we over the years have kind of filled in those unsaid gaps with all kinds of imaginative things. Or all those questions that really don't really hit the nail on the head at all.

They're peripheral. We work really hard to zero in on the main point. What did he actually say and what was the point of saying it? Yeah, exactly. So that's why this is really sort of fun when you get into disputes about end of age stuff, which are actually, they're not really disputes.

They're just alternate kind of guesses in a way. Or very active conversations about what that might mean. There's nothing wrong about them. There's nothing wrong about that.

It's actually really fun to talk about some of these things. Okay, but the wrong creeps in when we hold our imagined position so definitively that we begin to devalue the thinking and the insight of others. And that happens on all kinds of topics biblically, not just this one. But this one is kind of historically one of the most easily inflamed arguments.

Yeah, people will divide over this. So hold loosely what you understand, understanding that our brains are not perfect. Seek for the main point. We're looking at the second of a series of parables that Jesus told in this context today. And when we come to talk about parables, there's some basic guidelines, some general rules that should be observed. And we probably need to remember that it's just a simple, a parable is a simple comparison story. Something is said, this is like this. So we need to just practice our observation when we come to parables.

Tell us some of those rules then really quickly, because I know we can get to get carried away with parables. Right. Okay. So, again, the simple comparison, what's the story about? We look for what's the contrast? Is there a problem?

What's the tension? Because with a parable, the main point is the main point. So let's pay attention to how did Jesus begin it? And what is his last word about it?

And in between those two things, what elements are repeated? Because that tells us what the story is about. Right. And at the end, he usually gives us a moral of the story. He often does. So he tells us what the main point is. And then people and objects in the story, they do represent something, but we need to avoid the tendency to over-spiritualize those things. Because he's just using them as an object lesson. Or in a way to over-connect them, say, well, this figure is this, but that means maybe this figure is... Right.

Yeah, you got to watch out. It's usually pretty clear who's who and what are the relationships between the people in the story. And then what's the context in which the story was told? Who was listening?

What prompted it? Because there's a whole... Most of the parables actually begin, the kingdom of heaven is like this.

And so he's telling us something about the kingdom, the place where the king reigns, what the king's reign is like or what it's like living under his reign. So those are just some important kind of ground rules when we come to looking at the parables in general that are very helpful and it kind of keeps us between the rails. And you would think then, well, why put the complication of parables, but they give us a story that we can attach ourselves to in human existence. I mean, we get it. We get it. And so when he says, so this thing that you don't get is like this, which you do get, make some connections.

Right, because the pictures Jesus uses are common everyday things, common everyday relationships, things that people understood. Now today we're going to come to a parable and is talking about the end of the age that we may not connect to in our experience. So let's just read it.

What do you say? We read it and we'll come back after we read it and then ask ourselves, so now what do we do if it's not a story that we easily connect with? So we're in Matthew chapter 25 at the beginning of the chapter and we're going into verse one. So let's just read the whole thing and then we'll come back and scratch our heads together. Okay, and we're going to circle back to the context of this particular parable a little bit. Yeah. Let's just read it. You want me to read the whole thing? Yeah.

Okay. Then the kingdom of heaven will be like 10 virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept, but at midnight there was a cry, here's the bridegroom, come out to meet him. Then all those virgins rose 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, since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves. 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.

Afterward, the other virgins came also saying, Lord, Lord open to us. But he answered, truly, I say to you, I do not know you. Watch therefore for you know neither the day nor the hour. Let me say that again. Watch therefore for you know neither the day nor the hour.

Okay. Well, there's the entire parable in this discussion about the end of the age. And so our context is that is very much that. Remember early on in Matthew 24, near the end of 23, the apostle said, you know, give us a sign when you're going to come back, give it, tell us something about the end of the age. And so he launches into Matthew 24 and continues here in 25 and decides to use what is for them a well-known experience. Sets up a circumstance they're familiar with. Right. So and then this is going to apply to our end of the age stuff.

The problem is we don't know what he's talking about in our experience. In our experience, we don't have 10 virgins with lamps on their stands and what is this bridegroom marching around in the dark and what is that all about? So we should probably set the cultural context of this and then go back and apply it to what he's talking about on the end of the age. So as my understanding, and you correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding was that traditionally what they would do for marriage, they wouldn't go to the temple, they wouldn't go to a synagogue, they wouldn't go to a religious building to have the wedding ceremony. And you see this, you see this in some movies where they show Jewish weddings, they go to someone's house. So from my understanding in the first century, what they would do is the bridegroom and the bridegroom's, what do you want to say, family, procession, right? They would wait until dark and they would go over to the bride's house and they would have the wedding ceremony at the bride's house, the wedding ceremony itself.

And then to celebrate, they'd all come out of that house and then go over to the bridegroom's house or the house that he either intends for them or his family and then they would have a big celebrating feast at that point. And this is all done at dark. The ceremony would always happen after it was dark. So it's sort of signified since dark is the beginning of the next day, it would signify the beginning of the day.

So that's what would go on. These things would go on at night. So it's dark outside.

So clearly without street lights in Israel, you had to figure out how to get from one house to the other house and this is for a lot of people. I mean we're not just talking the bride and groom and mom and dad, we're talking about a lot of people, a wedding party are traipsing around in the middle of the night. And so the tradition was is to have some of the younger girls have these torches that they can light. The torches are fueled with olive oil and they would light these torches. These are not tiny candles, these are on the end of sticks. These are like torches you see in Raiders of the Lost Ark where you got wrapped up cloth that are soaked in something flammable.

It's that kind of a thing. And so they would be there waiting for the procession to come from one house to the other house or to have the bridegroom just come at all to visit the bride's house. So there's a lot of traipsing around in the dark. And so these gals, these gals in order to make the day work, had to make sure that they had lamps that had oil in them that afforded them the ability to light the path for everybody. Now that's my understanding.

Do you have a different? That's pretty consistent with what I have read or understood. But you know back to circling back to this staying place after dark, that whole imagery is really quite lovely, right? If you're waiting for someone at night, that first glimmer of their headlights in the distance is very exciting.

And then you watch and watch and watch as the lights get closer and closer closer until suddenly they're here and it's suddenly bright as daylight when the light arrives. So that's kind of the picture. And that just sets the whole stage for the picture of the bridegroom coming.

Mm hmm. So great anticipation. Yeah, lots of unknown about the exact time that was always kind of one of the fun aspects of it. So you can already see some connections with the return of Jesus if you think of Jesus as being the bridegroom. Okay well and in the previous parable when Jesus was talking about the servants who needed to be doing what the master had left them doing when he came back, this theme is recurring.

Be ready, be on the alert, stay on target because you don't know exactly when he's coming. And that previous parable back in the end of chapter 24 ended, blessed are the ones who are found doing what the master left them doing when he comes. And that idea of being blessed is being fully satisfied in the master, fully taken up with his purposes and your relationship with him. Yeah, and in this whole scene with this bridal scene, this marriage scene, everybody is waiting for the bridegroom, for this groom to come. I mean everyone's focused on that. You can't have a wedding without a groom.

Yeah, so this anticipation is just wonderful. Now all the things I just told you, culture that goes on, the question a lot of people would ask, well what if I'm just reading my Bible and I got to this chapter 25 Matthew and I went, what in the world is this all about? I cannot relate to this. So what do Bible students do when it doesn't look familiar at all?

They don't get the connection. One of the things we can do and we do this with any parable is just look for the relationships that are described because everybody knows what a bridegroom is. Now we may not understand all that's packed into being a virgin, but that just indicates for a young unmarried woman who is waiting anxiously. We know what a lamp or a torch is. We know that in those days you needed oil to keep the lamp burning. So if you look for the repeated and imported elements in the story, it will give you a clue into what actually is happening.

So in that way it's kind of timeless. So we find the bridegroom repeatedly. We find the virgins, those who are waiting for the bridegroom repeatedly. The lamps, lamps, lamps, lamps, lamps.

It's all about the lamps and whether they have the fuel to keep them burning. So those are things you can deduce just by looking at what is repeated in the story. So you can put together what is really a pretty foreign cultural thing for you and put together the pieces saying, well, this must be how they do weddings there.

And you can be like 90% where you need to be just by observing what you're observing. Okay. But the point is not how culturally how first century Jews did weddings. The point is the anticipation.

Everybody understands what a wedding is. But there was a special kind of anticipation here that if you don't know the story, the culture of how they do it, you miss it. You sort of miss it.

That's what I'm saying. Okay. I appreciate that. So sometimes this is, we'd often say, don't go looking at commentaries early, but sometimes some commentaries will help you historically with just what the, what the natural scene is.

Well, okay. And it adds a richness to understanding here, but then there is a major contrast set up in this story and we need to kind of recognize that right off. He says of these young women who are anxiously waiting and they're all waiting for the bridegroom, five were foolish and five were wise. And again, that's going to be repeated in the story. So we need to be watching for what, what qualifies them as foolish or wise.

Right, right. And I'll just push again that if you don't know what the tradition is for marriage for them, you may not even understand why there's gals there with torches. So, and what is wise is what's expected of them and that sometimes that's a cultural thing. It's a traditional thing. So now we see it.

Now we see what's going on. There's a, there's a wedding going on. It's all happening in the dark.

There are no streetlights. These people need to get from house to house and celebrations coming. Great anticipation because you don't know when the bridegroom's coming. And I always, I like that anticipation part of this with, especially with these 10 virgins, because if you think about young gals that watch either a sibling or someone else get married, you know, they go to the wedding ceremony, they're just, they're just glowing with anticipation. Full of hopes.

Yeah. They're watching closely, which is why I think in their tradition they would have these young girls doing this because they're doing just a great service here. It's like, it's like a, it's like a wedding party for the bride with these, with these young gals. The anticipation is great, especially since they're sitting somewhere, they're waiting for the bridegroom to come, they're waiting. And then when he comes, there's a ceremony and then there's a celebration and this is the best thing ever and we get to light the way for everyone.

So don't lose that sense of anticipation because that's really what's here. So let's look at these 10 gals who are there to help make the wedding happen in their torches. They were, they're in their split, like you said, into two groups. Half and half.

Yeah. Foolish ones and wise ones. Well, so what makes the foolish ones foolish and the wise ones wise? Well, what's the same about them is they're all waiting and they all have lamps. They're all waiting.

Good, good. What's different is that the foolish ones did not take any fuel for their lamps and the wise ones did. So, you know, the question then comes up, the oil is a repeated element in this, in this story. So there's something about the fuel that keeps the light burning.

So, Ooh, that opens an interesting question. And if you do not know when the bridegroom is coming back, you might want to have some oil on hand. That's right. So, but you know, the story is driving toward the fact that the foolishness and the wisdom is going to be brought to the forefront when the bridegroom arrives and the foolish ones are unprepared and they have to go and prepare because they are, they cannot rely on somebody else's preparedness.

It's very clear who was wise and who was not. So the element of being foolish is these girls took no personal responsibility for the task at hand or recognizing the waiting and they assumed something. They assumed that somebody else's oil would be enough for them. And Jesus says, you know, they, they had to go away and deal with that. And while they were gone, the party happened. They missed it.

Yeah, they missed it. There is, in this anticipation, there should also be an equal measure of, of what's the word of preparedness I guess it is. Yeah, readiness. Cause that had been a theme in the previous parable. So even in the coming of Jesus, even though you can have great anticipation, there is some issues of preparedness, of prudence about being prepared. And that's what we're talking about here is, is the fact that you may anticipate the coming of Jesus or the coming of the bridegroom, but that shouldn't mean something in your present right now about what you're doing.

And they did not do that. Well, yeah. And he says, and those were ready went into him with him to the marriage feast and the door was shut. Yeah. In other words, there is a moment which those who are ready enter in. And this idea of entering into the celebration is going to show up in the next parable that we're going to talk about next week. And it's a really important idea.

Yeah. And those who came after saying, but Lord open to us. And his answer to them is, I do not know you. I don't recognize you. I don't perceive you. You weren't ready because you didn't believe what I told you.

You didn't properly assess the weight. Right. Perhaps you undervalued what you were waiting for. Yeah.

Yeah. Even though there was anticipation on their head, almost giddy anticipation, perhaps it wasn't translated into a preparedness. Like what do I do between now and when he comes? Because since I don't know when he comes, I need to be, I just need to prepare for that being long or short.

I need to be on top of things. I need to be realistic about this, but it was not translated into that for them. They were presumptive.

Maybe I can borrow someone else's oil. I don't know. And so in that presumption, they missed the thing they were anticipating, which was the celebration of the bridegroom when he comes back. And that's the sad part. Great anticipation and then a failure to participate because you really weren't poised.

You weren't prepared for the coming of the bridegroom when you didn't expect it. Well, you didn't understand what was going to keep the light burning. Well, yeah, that's exactly right. It's interesting because we always need to pay attention to Jesus's bottom line, which he says in verse 13.

It's really clear. Watch therefore for you know neither the day nor the hour, but packed into that is the readiness of having the fuel that will light the lamp when time comes. And so that leads us into a whole kind of a thinking about the oil since that's such a big deal in this story. Now we warned at the beginning against over spiritualizing the different elements or I call it over connecting. Maybe you're connecting to something supposed to be but okay, but the elements in the story do represent something and it's very clear from what Jesus from our context here that the bridegroom is Jesus is Jesus, the girls who are waiting.

Well, those are the ones who believe him who are anticipating his coming, right? So and there's this readiness, there's some some light giving thing that is important. So I, I got to think that the oil for the lamp is an important element in the story. So what might that oil represent?

Is it just our readiness? Or is there something more? And so this is a place where you might just sit with it and meditate a little. Lord, what is the fuel that is required in order to endure this long wait an essential element essential oil? Well, essential oils are a thing, essential oils. Yeah.

Yeah. Because in the scripture, okay, well, let me back up just as a basic study tool. If you take your concordance, and you look up oil, you're going to turn up countless references to the importance of oil, culturally, in the time, I mean, it represented a lot of things, but it was very practical, very important. It was medicinal, it was light, it was fragrant, it was flavorful, it was used for food.

It covers I mean, touches all elements of life. It was it was part of the whole culture. And then you find also in the scriptures that the oil very often represents a lavishness, a richness, and a joy. Yeah, yeah. So and that's a place where you can just begin to read about oil look begin to look up the places where it occurs both in the New Testament and the Old Testament, read the passages and connect the commonalities in in the oil will kind of lift out of the background in this story and become a much more important element.

Yeah, yeah. It's in general, it's a it's a symbol of the richness of life with Christ now in the now is the means or the the that the material that was used to anoint. Yeah, yeah, medicinally or as a as a king, or a servant or a priest was anointed and set apart for their purpose.

Yeah, literally with the oil running down their heads. So, hmm, yeah. With what are we anointed? Right. So that that leads us into maybe thinking about, well, is the oil, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit? Yeah, present within us. Yeah, you know, Jesus said you, I'm the light of the world, but you are the light of the world. Right, right.

So, golly, it's a big, big idea. It's a connection with the oil in the picture. It's a connection that comes to you as you read a lot of scripture, you start making these connections, right?

When you know the role of oil, and you see this right here, you know, light and richness and empowerment, I mean, so many things. And then when you do that, then certain passages start to ring differently, like in Ephesians 5, Paul says, be filled with the Spirit. Right. Well, that sounds like filling the torches right here, you know, or in another place, he says in Romans that, in fact, the Spirit of God dwells in you. So maybe that's the connection we're talking about. But for listeners, you'll make these connections as you go on and read the rest of the scriptures, you'll say, well, what's that oil that was so essential, that because of a lack of it, that when the bridegroom comes, they're cast out.

In fact, he says, I don't even know you. Right. And Paul himself says, if, you know, if you're a Christian, you have the Spirit.

If you don't have the Spirit, you're not really a believer. That's right. So you can start making some pretty close connections here, pretty good guesses, and make some connections that get you to know it. I want to get to this last thing.

We looked at it just a second ago on 12. He says, I do not know you. You know, that's not a phrase that's new to us as we've been reading Matthew, because it shows up really prominently in chapter seven, you know, all these people that did all this stuff for Jesus.

Right. And then in the end, he says, but I never knew you. And a lot of people have said, well, doesn't Jesus know everything, know everybody. But this is a sense of knowing that's like, like the intimacy in a marriage. It's really, you know, we, we know each other. It's not, he doesn't know about us. It's the fact that, you know, we, we don't have anything. We don't have anything going relationally.

I don't know you. Right. And so, um, what a, what a stark rebuke that is at the end of such a great joyous anticipation that when he comes, these five were surprised where they stood. And we'll find out as we finish out these sections on the end of the ages, there are others who thought they were okay and they will be surprised. Indeed, that's going to be an element in the next two parables. There's a lot of surprise. There's a lot of surprise when the bridegroom comes back, even though many will be talking about it and anticipating it, many will be surprised. And here he's trying to get us to understand just like these young girls who help support these weddings with their torches, you have to be aiming at the return of the bridegroom. And a very clearly Jesus is that bridegroom. I wanted to just mention, you know, that's another imagery that's not new to us at all. In fact, at one time in Matthew nine, we were reading the Pharisees came and blasted Jesus because his disciples weren't fasting. And Jesus said to him, Hey, can the wedding guests, can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?

Right. So he, he, he drops this hint so many times in the Old Testament, many times that God himself is our husband. So this relationship is coming together at the end of the age is actually like a marriage happening.

It's the consummation of a promise finally between God, our husband, and us, his bride. And here it is pictured in a really well known circumstance that they, they would see all the time. Well, and that imagery is going to even take on, it's going to become more and more clear in a couple of, well, another chapter on when Jesus tells the story of the wedding feast. It's like, Oh, all of the puzzles are solved at that point.

Yeah, it's, it's really pretty fascinating. So this is not a new metaphor. This is a very common metaphor about our relationship with God. And, uh, and since we've got like a minute left, let me just read for us a revelation 19 because it says it so well, revelation 19 seven, he says, let us rejoice and exalt and give the, give him the glory for the marriage of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. And I jumped to verse nine of revelation 19 and the angel said to me, write this, write this, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb. And he said to me, these are true words of God. So, you know, even in the end of all things as captioned in revelation, the end of the age is a gigantic wedding between God and his elect and blessed are those who are invited. That blessed is being filled with satisfaction of the master of the one we're marrying of the Lord himself.

Yeah. So those of us that look forward to the end of the age, because it's not just about judgment, it's about the consummation of God's promise to us in relationship with him. We are giddy with anticipation.

So I hope you are too. We're going to look at more about what it is we need to do between now and then in anticipating his return. And we'll keep looking at that in Matthew 25 here on More Than Ink. There are many more episodes of this broadcast to be found at our website, morethanink.org. And while you're there, take a moment to drop us a note. Remember, the Bible is God's love letter to you.

Pick it up and read it for yourself and you will discover that the words printed there are indeed more than ink. I like that. I think we're there. I think we can just leave that alone. This has been a production of Main Street Church of Rhythm City.