One of the more difficult chapters of scripture to interpret correctly is Matthew 25. I thought I would take some time this week in 3 posts to unpack this chapter verse by verse. The first passage of scripture that I will discuss tonight is verses 1 through 13, the parable of the virgins.
The chapter begins with the word, “then.” This word lets us begin with the proper time application. The when of Matthew 25 is immediately after the second coming of Christ. What you will see if you read the entire chapter is that this entire chapter is about Christ judging. A few of the elements of verse 1 need to be examined. There are ten virgins who have lamps and they went forth to meet the bridegroom.
The bridegroom is Jesus. He refers to Himself with this title in Matthew 9 and Luke 6. Discovering who the ten virgins are is extremely important in rightly interpreting this parable. The Church, the bride, is described in 2 Corinthians 11:2 as a chaste virgin (singular) espoused to one husband. We have 10 virgins here.
If you do a cross reference check on the word, “virgins”, it reveals who these virgins are. Psalm 45:14 says, “the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee.” The virgins here are following the bride. They are the bridesmaids for the wedding. The Song of Solomon is the O.T. book about Christ and His bride. Song of Solomon 6:8,9 makes a distinction between the virgins without number and the dove, who is but one. In Revelation 14, you find the 144,000 who were sealed in Revelation 7 now on mount Sion (in heaven) worshipping before the throne of God. They are called virgins in verse 4. They are actually physical male virgins. What is important about this designation is that they did not participate in sexual immorality as a part of worship during the tribulation. False worship many times has an element of fornication involved with it. Revelation 7 the 144000 as sealed Jews during the tribulation. These 144000 are the first-fruits of the gleanings part of the harvest. The 10 virgins of Matthew 25 are Jews. They are not the church. Jesus has one bride but there are others who come to the wedding feast. There are the friends of the groom, the bridesmaids, and the guests.
In Matthew 25, there are ten virgins. The number 10 is used in the scriptures in two basic ways. The first is it is the number of the Gentiles. The second usage and the way that ten is used here is to make a distinction of the two uses of the number 5. Five in the Bible is the number of death and the number of grace through the death of Christ. Hopefully, you have noticed that this is chapter 25 (5 X 5). There is a more detailed discussion on one of my teaching pages on how the number 5 is used in scripture.
The significance of the lamps can be found in Matthew 5:14-16. It is the witness of these virgins. The oil is symbolic of the enabling power of the Holy Ghost.
In verses 2-4, we see that 5 of the virgins were wise and took oil for their lamps and 5 were foolish and took no oil for their lamps. Earlier in Matthew 7, Jesus contrasted wise men and foolish men. The wise men were those who heard Jesus’ sayings and did them. The foolish men heard Jesus’ sayings but did them not. This passage in Matthew 7 (verses 21-27) helps us to understand what it means to run out of oil. In verse 22, many say, Lord, Lord and describe their works in the Lord’s name. Jesus says to them in verse 23, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Please see Matthew 25:11-12 which has the same wording. There are a couple of possibilities concerning the lamps of the foolish virgins. The first is that the foolish virgins did good works (in their minds) but without a relationship with Christ. The second is that the foolish virgins began with the power of the Holy Ghost but did not endure to the end. Christ keeps the bride; however these are the bridesmaids and they can fall away. The foolish virgins seem to be in mind in Hebrews 6:4-6.
Before I summarize what we have covered in this study, I want to make the point that these virgins had all died. They were probably all killed for being Jewish by the Anti-Christ (see Revelation 12). That is what verse 5 refers to when it says they all slumbered and slept. They are resurrected for judgement in verse 7.
Although this passage is not directly applicable to the Church doctrinally, it does have spiritual application. This passage teaches that there is a day of judgement for all and that once you have died there is not time to go back and get some oil. It also teaches that what will matter at the judgement will be if Christ has known us and if we have known him. Finally, this passage of scripture teaches us to be watchful concerning the coming of our Lord and to be ready to meet him when he comes.
In my next post, I will discuss the parable of the talents, verses 14-30.