Jesus spoke in parables to make Himself clear to those who followed Him. Many followed Jesus but were not ‘married’ to Him.
Think not of marriage, in this case,
as a union of two peoples of the opposite genders, but several people, men or
women, engendered by Jesus; that which Jesus called “born again” (John 3:7).
The meaning of which is engendered from above
In the beginning, mankind was
made in the Image of God. That divine Image was ‘Selem’ in the Hebrew. Adam
was a ‘Shadow’ of God, or God in Phantom. His flesh was material, but inwardly,
Adam was the Glory of God of immaterial substance. The original sin was to “come
short of the Glory of God” (Rom 3:23), and mankind, to this day come short of
the Glory of God.
Marriage, in the parable, was “made
whole’ again like the woman with the issue of the blood (Mat 9:22).
The Church represents the ‘Bride’
and Jesus the ‘Bridegroom’ (Mat 25:6). However, ‘bridegroom’ is simply ‘nymphios’
in the Greek whose root noun is ‘veil’
Of course, the brides in the
parable meant that they were strictly veiled, and in the dark so that their
appearances were concealed. The lanterns were there for them to be revealed to
the bridegroom as He lifted the veils to indubitably discover who the intended
bride might be.
Russians performed a similar
ceremony for their ‘Caesars,’ the Tzars. It was a bridal show for the Tzar,
the bridegroom, to whom the brides (nymphs) would be revealed. Each time those
brides who showed flaws were eliminated until the bride intended by God was
revealed. Usually, the groom would select the finalist himself, but often a malefactor
would create rumors or induce sickness in the bride-to-be to promote their own
relative as the bride. A Tzar would not select a sickly bride or non-nobility;
those with a blood issue, so to speak. At one time, Russian brides had to be
Russian by blood to be wives of the Tzars.
In the parable, the brides are
not revealed. Someone, or perhaps themselves, saw them as fit to be brides of
Jesus.
The role of the Bridegroom was to
lift the veils, but the nymphs would shine their own lights for the revealing.
They would endeavor to show their glory to the bridegroom.
There was a problem in the
parable: Some took oil for their lamps to light while others failed to do so.
Oil, in scripture, represents the
power of the Holy Spirit. As such, only five of the nymphs were worthy of being
the brides of the ‘Caesar,’ Jesus.
Caesar was king of kings and as the
Pontifex Maximus, they were Lord of lords as well. With that background, Jesus
was a type of ‘Caesar.’ Let’s call Him ‘Tzar’ for a moment, a Russian
version of Caesar. The parable was a ‘bridal show’ as it is considered in
Russia.
The Orthodox Church in Russia requires
that the bride and the groom would be of different genders each of which compliment
the other in spirit.
For the Jewish wedding, think of the
‘bride’ who would be unlike Jesus in the flesh but much like Him in the Spirit.
Do not think of the bride as women and Jesus as the Man, but the spirits in each
of them.
When the veils would be lifted
and the lanterns lit, their Images within would be revealed. Jesus was not interested
in their faces or the purity of their fleshes, but the gloriousness of their souls.
Remembering that there is no marriage in Heaven (sexual coupling), this marriage
would be a spiritual coupling. Jesus was not looking for Himself a bride, but
to provide for the worthy brides a Husband — Himself the ‘Husbandman.’
Note that it was not their performance
that would make them worthy, but the glory in their souls.
God, before the wedding, planted
His Divine Seed in some of the women and not the others. The foolish brides
were those who had no Image of God within them; they had failed to prepare for
the wedding by spiritual rebirth to change their natures. God had not
engendered them, not because He would not, but because they failed to prepare
for the wedding. The neglect was on them.
All ten were virgins (parthenos;
Mat 25:1) who had never had intercourse with a man. However, some had had ‘intercourse’
with God. Not sexual intercourse, but a union with God when He had implanted in
them the very Image of Himself. He had imbued five of the ten with His Holy
Spirit. They all performed the bridal duties, but only five of the ten had the
oil, or Spirit of God, within.
Oil symbolizes the Holy Spirit. Samuel
had taken the horn of oil and anointed King David with it and the Spirit of the
Lord came onto David (1 Sam 16:13).
For five of the ten, they had had
the Spirit of the Lord come onto them. God had prepared them for the wedding.
It was not so much that their lamps were empty of oil but that their own vessels
were empty of it. As Jesus would say, their cups were empty, meaning
that it was not their purposes to be brides; that the Lord had prepared the
brides for His Son as was the case even in Russian Orthodoxy.
The Tzar, however, would have only
one bride for his carnality to be appeased. Jesus was not the groom in the fashion
of the Tzar. He could have many brides because they would always remain
His virgins, in a spiritual sense in the manner of David who retained the
Spirit of God forever; theirs would remain forever unless they became carnal.
Many compare Galilean weddings
for guidance about the meaning of this passage in scripture. I have taken the
liberty of comparing it to a royal Orthodox wedding with its ‘bridal show.’
Of course, Jesus is not marrying
anyone for the pleasure of it, but to save those who the Lord had
already engendered.
The Orthodox of Russia were
always certain that the brides-to-be were truly virgins; they examined the
evidence of a hymen. Jesus looked beyond their physical attributes, lifted the
veils — the very doors to their souls — and examined them inwardly. Only those
who had known God were to be the brides of God.
Ugly people can make beautiful
brides for the Lord. Sometimes the ugliest face has the most glorious soul. God
never examines His ‘brides’ by their outer appearances, but the true beauty
that God had endowed unto them to even come to the marriage.
In the bridal show for Jesus, Satan
had somehow gotten five of his daughters through the door to the bridal
chamber, just like Satan had gotten unrighteous daughters past the door of the Noah’s
Ark before God closed the door forever. Yes, Noah and the Ark was very much of
a bridal show in the same manner as the parable, and some of the eight souls
that got into the Ark were impure.
In the case of the parable, that ‘bridal
show’ is how the Lord ensures that none that are unworthy, by His standards,
get in. They must have been born again and imbued with the very Image of God to
be worthy brides of God.
Like the bridal show in the
parable, the Church has many who are there, but many are not worthy of union
with Jesus. God must prepare the brides, for if they are not begotten of Him,
then they are not worthy of the Son.
Behold your own church. Many of
us look pious and righteous; some of the most beautiful people in the church
look like holy angels, and some have been called that. Thankfully, the Lord does
not look for outward beauty, but the glory within. It is not of ourselves, but
beauty imbued within us by God in preparation for the ‘wedding.’
With that said, born again
is preparation for the wedding, and a requirement for the Church. Many have got
into the Church because their veils have not been lifted and they are empty of
the ‘oil’ of God.
We all like to think that we are
worthy, but Jesus is the judge of that; all the veils that conceal our souls will
be lifted for the judgment day. Unlike five of the virgins, come prepared by
knowing God before the midnight hour!
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