Coronavirus - A Wake Up Call
A Warning to Be Ready
“Our Savior, in the parable of the ten virgins, was instructing and warning us to make wise choices in everyday life by making every effort to be ready, waiting, and wise as a bride for her bridegroom”
Our Savior, in giving the parable of the Ten Virgins, was instructing and warning us to make wise choices in everyday life by making every effort to be ready, waiting, and wise as a bride for her bridegroom. The five foolish virgins represent so many people who are double minded, half hearted, and unprepared for our coming Savior and His righteous kingdom. Until the Coronavirus, most have been too busy, self-serving, people pleasing, and consumed with the things of this temporary world. Yahshua (Jesus) our eternal Bridegroom speaks of the foolish virgins as adulteresses, We must gain the scriptural reality and warning, “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He [the Savior] jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us?” (James 4:4-5) Although they (the five foolish virgins) confessed to love the bridegroom, Yahshua (Jesus) sees them as an “adulteress” having many loves rather then He being the first and foremost focus of their lives. For the foolish virgins Yahshua (Jesus) is one of many loves competing for their heart, mind, and attention.
“Many will be led astray forgetting to purchase the necessary oil of the Spirit in order to be ready for the Bridegroom and the long awaited “marriage supper of the Lamb”
The Holy Spirit says, “… I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Messiah I might present you as a pure virgin [undefiled by sin and the flesh’s desires for the world]. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Messiah [Christ]” (2 Corinthians 11:2-3). Apostle Paul is cautioning the believers that they not be deceived and tempted by Satan with the temporary pleasures and riches of this passing world. He grieved knowing that many would be led astray and would forget to purchase the necessary oil of the Spirit in order to be ready for the Bridegroom and the long awaited “marriage supper of the Lamb” (Revelation 9:6-9). In the parable, when the foolish virgins awoke and realized the bridegroom arrived, it was far too late to purchase the oil of the Spirit to fill their empty, “lukewarm”, self-pleasing lives. It is written, “while the [foolish virgins] were going away to make the purchase [of the oil], the bridegroom came, and the [spiritually prepared wise virgins who] were ready went in with Him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut. Later the other virgins [the unprepared foolish] also came, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open up for us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you.’ Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour” (Matthew 25:6-8,10-13). Let us be motivated and take to heart, that our Savior was magnifying the reality that all ten virgins professed to know and love the bridegroom, but only five were wise with foresight to be prepared and ready. The other five were foolish and had only a shallow confession of faith; they were distracted and preoccupied, greatly lacking the oil of the Holy Spirit, and due to their hindsight they were not ready for His return and missed the wedding and the eternal kingdom.
“Our God and Savior made it clear that He looks at our hearts and the words of our mouth are meaningless and hypocritical if our hearts do not wholeheartedly love Him”
All ten virgins were waiting for their bridegroom and His kingdom. They all confessed Him with their lips, in essence saying, “I am a believer, I have faith, I love Him, I go to church, I am saved, and I’m going to heaven.” However, our God and Savior made it clear that He looks at our hearts and the words of our mouth are meaningless and hypocritical if our hearts do not wholeheartedly love Him. He powerfully proclaimed this foundational and vitally important commandment; “You shall love Yahveh (the Lord) your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind …” (Luke 10:27). This is why Yahshua (Jesus) made it clear saying, ‘This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me. ‘But in vain do they worship Me …” (Matthew 15:8-9). The deception that all we have to do is to make a cheap confession of our faith is one of Satan’s biggest lies. Many have bought into this counterfeit gospel message because it gives them license to continue to live according to a man-made, people pleasing, cheap gospel that indulges the flesh rather than the true gospel that calls for the denying and crucifixion of our flesh nature.
Sadly, many professing believers do not understand the uncompromised truth and the pure gospel message as proclaimed through the words of our God, Savior, and the apostles. Yahshua (Jesus) adamantly and frequently proclaimed the cost of being a true follower on the holy “narrow path” that leads into His kingdom. Our Savior made it clearly evident saying, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 7:14, 16:24). Apostle Paul emphasizes this by saying, “the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14). “You are not your own, For you have been bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19). “By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked. Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:6,15). “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24).
“Through this time of global quarantine, our Heavenly Father is giving us added time and mercy to reassess and reprioritize our lives in order to prayerfully obtain the wisdom to fill up with the oil of the Spirit””
At this late hour, this terrorizing Coronavirus pandemic is a sobering merciful wake up call and count down to the end of the age. It is time for the many who profess to love our God and Savior to be shaken and awakened in order to become part of the remnant of wise virgins, consumed as a bride to be ready for the eternal union with her bridegroom. It is written that, “In the last days difficult times will come”, the Coronavirus is being used as a powerful warning and discipline to stop His children from continuing on a reckless “broad path” that has taken many of His children far away from the righteous “narrow path that leads to eternal life” (2 Timothy 3:1, Matthew 7:13). Through this time of global quarantine, our Heavenly Father is giving us added time and mercy to reassess and reprioritize our lives in order to prayerfully obtain the wisdom to fill up with the oil of the Spirit. Apostle Paul’s words encourage us, he said, “We know that Yahveh God causes all things to work together for good to those who love [Him], to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). It is written, “… It is time for judgment to begin with the household of God” (1 Peter 4:17). Yahshua (Jesus) in omnipotent mercy allows judgment to purify His people to become the holy virginal bride that His sacrificial blood redeemed us to be (Malachi 3:2). The Coronavirus is destroying many idols of this world that have kept His redeemed people preoccupied and spiritually far away from Him. “Yahveh God knows who are His” and He is calling them to wholeheartedly turn to “godly sorrow leading to repentance” because “death has climbed in our windows” (2Timothy 2:19, 2 Corinthians 7:10, Jeremiah 9:21). The Holy Spirit is trying to teach us, through these trials, that we must “number our days to gain a heart of wisdom” by which to “redeem the time for the days are evil” (Psalm 90:12, Ephesians 5:16).
Times are challenging and will become increasingly more treacherous as we move toward the end of the age. The redeemed righteous must be building up their treasures in heaven with saving faith compelling them to “straighten up and lift up their heads, because their redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28). The wise will view this pandemic and the quarantine as a divinely given opportunity to “seek our Savior with all of their hearts while He may still be found” and to build up an intimate, faith filled, prayerful, relationship with their coming Bridegroom (Isaiah 55:6). It is through trials and tribulations and the refiner’s fires of hardships that the redeemed remnant are purified and made spotless as a bride adorned in righteousness. The accruing of faithful endurance is the oil of the Spirit that fills the lamps of our lives; this ensures that we will be amply prepared and eagerly ready as we wait for the midnight cry, ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out and meet Him!’ (Matthew 25:6).
