the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Voice of the Lord
The Kingdom of Heaven ...will be like ten bridesmaids who took their lamps and went out to meet the groom (Matthew 25:1).
After the Lord created woman from Adam's side, the Torah says, "He brought her to the man-person" (Genesis 2:22). The rabbis deduced from this verse that the Lord attended the marriage ceremony of Adam and Eve, and they concluded that it is a mitzvah (good deed) to serve as an attendant at a wedding. Thus the Jewish wedding came to incorporate a procession of family and friends eager to fulfill this mitzvah for the beloved bridegroom and bride, often by torch light.
The ten virgins of Yeshua's story were to be part of such a procession. Five had brought extra oil and were prepared to fulfill the mitzvah. Five others seemed equally eager, but failed in the end. They had not made preparations to complete what they had begun. Perhaps their anticipation of the bridegroom's appearance was halfhearted, for it did not translate into perseverance.
Messiah warns at the end of his story: "So stay alert, because you know neither the day nor the hour" (Matthew 25:13) in which the Son of Man will return. He is noting our all-too-human tendency to start well and fade away, especially in matters of obedience. Salvation is a gift, but we will be ill-prepared for Messiah's return if we follow him without a concrete commitment to persevere.
...correct any habits or attitudes in my life that reveal a waning eagerness to follow Messiah.
RR
The Voice of the Lord, Copyright © 1998 by the Lewis and Harriet Lederer Foundation, Inc. Published by Messianic Jewish Publishers, Distributed by Messianic Jewish Resources, www.messianicjewish.net. All rights reserved. Used by permission. No part of this article may be reproduced in print or on the web, or transmitted in any form, without the written permission of the publisher.
