Matthew 25:1-13 and 1 Samuel Chapter 25

Hello again.

I designed this post to present a high-level, panoramic view of the redemptive plan of God through the ages with the 21^st century in mind, or better yet, with you and me in mind.

We need a fresh supply of oil to see the path before us. Without oil in our lamps we will wander and eventually perish in the darkness. (Proverbs 29:18; Habakkuk 2:2–3)

Throughout history there are the wise and the foolish. At critical junctures, moments, or seasons, their actions or lack have great significance.

The purpose of this post is not to dwell on the failures of others, nor to judge ourselves, but to take note of journeys past, and, heed the words of Jesus. 

Behind his words to stay awake, and not fall asleep, are countless invitations by him over the course of our lives, to come to him, receive his goodness and care, and partake of the tree of life.

May the Scripture, the revelation of Christ in grace, (1 Peter 1:13) become “real” to you as Christ ushers you into a journey of healing and restoration.

I pray our hearts would be embolden by the Lord to search and inquire of him the deeper things of God; receiving his care and love as we journey in the story of redemption and our place in the Scripture.

Simplicity of the Gospel

How does the fulfillment of the promised Messiah not quite 2,000 years ago affect you and me today?

First and foremost, the promises of God culminated in the “perfection” of the second Adam, Jesus Christ, “…he learned obedience from what he suffered, and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” (NIV, Hebrews 5:8-9)

He is our pattern; the first born, first fruit, forerunner, and perfecter of our faith. (1 Corinthians 15:23, 15:45 (second Adam); Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 6:20, and 12:2)

God demonstrated in Christ the truth of his word, the power of his grace, and the fulfillment of “salvation,” for those who prefigured Christ in the Old Covenant and earlier.

Their salvation having been won, they now look forward to being fitly joined together with us, the New Testament Church. (Hebrews 11:40)

In Christ

In Christ, God completed everything he set out to accomplish from the time of Adam and Eve’s fall – to restore “Adam,” to full sonship and union with him.

In Christ, God brought one man into complete and perfect union with him; not only restoring the position vacated by the first Adam, but completing the adventure and journey aborted by Adam’s fall.

Time, Time, and More Time

It took about 4,000 years to complete the journey of “man” back to God – 4,000 years of laying and preparing the foundation, getting everything in place, wooing hearts and desires, for the birth of the Messiah, his maturation and perfection, unto full sonship. (Please see Footnote A)

It took tens of thousands of life stories, to prepare people, events, and places, for the birth of the Messiah and his journey to perfection.

Oh, the long suffering and patience of God over millenniums to bring everything together at the right time, in the right place, in the right setting, to showcase the perfected work of God in the man Christ Jesus.

Jesus, Searching for a Bride

Christ, having completed his own personal journey, now, like the first Adam, looked about for a bride – a help mate, a wife, a joint heir – to rule and reign with him forever.

Perfected and commissioned, he was now ready to woo and draw Eve, “Israel,” unto himself.

If she accepted his offer of love and journey, he would usher in the Millennium and establish her as the head of the nations.

But “Israel,” like Eve of old, looked elsewhere and chose otherwise.

After centuries of wooing, thousands upon thousands of hours of ministry to Israel through the judges, prophets, kings, and priests, and the discipline of the heathen, “Eve,” once again, could not keep her eyes (and ears) from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Fearing the loss of her identity and destiny in the perfected man God brought to her, the second Adam, Christ Jesus, she once again, rejects “Adam” and turns to other suitors.

Six thousand years of work was overturned in a moment of time in the first garden, and another 4,000 years of God’s work was overturned once again in a garden called Gethsemane.

In the span of 10,000 years, seemingly, the work of God has been undone and overturned twice.

Talk about long-suffering. Ten thousand years and still Eve turns her eye towards the treasures and pleasures of this life. Though some turned to Christ, the nation of Israel did not.

Rejection

God courted the heart of Nabal to no avail.

God courts the hearts of the foolish virgins hoping to win their hopes, dreams, passions, and desires. Hoping to capture their beauty “redeemed and restored,” as only it can be, in him.

He hopes their gaze would catch his – see the beauty of his nature and presence, the majesty of who he is, his purity and Holiness – and run into his arms for care and love.

Abigail, sees the beauty of God, the beauty of his protection and care, and fortuitously ends up in the arms of her King, David.

How long-suffering our Lord. God knows the meaning of rejection beyond what we can imagine.

Though there are those who did not reject God from the time of Adam to Christ, the jewel and treasure God was after, the nation of Israel, the Apple in his eye, forsook him, withholding her love for others.

But, alas, God had another plan. He would set Israel aside for now and turn his gaze toward another Eve, the Gentiles, you and me.

He went to a people who were not his, to a people who did not know him.

This new plan would require another 2,000 years or so, to capture the heart of the Church, and then another 1,000 years in the Millennium, to fulfill the promises to Israel, and birth a new kingdom for Christ and his Bride.

God is not easily turned aside or slack as some might think.

Another Milestone Just Around the Corner

So here we are approaching another milestone in the annals of time – by all appearances the last seasons of the church – the final two church ages.

There is much spiritual evidence (discerned by activities in the Church and the Revelation of the Lord in his Word) the period we know as the “Church,” is nearing its journeys end.

God’s spiritual calendar, his clock, is running just like ours.

In the culmination of this age, he has bestowed a special time once again, for “Eve,” the New Testament Church, to come to the fullness and the stature of her betrothed, Christ.

Jesus is coming to many in the womb of the Church today, wooing and preparing those who desire him. Will you count yourself among that number? I hope to be.

The Church age will finally come to an end when God fulfills his plan to provide a Bride for his Son. (There are those in the Bride from past church ages as well.)

When the invisible church in the womb of the visible church is birthed, and comes to the fullness and stature of Christ, she will be commissioned by God and minister with Christ for a short season, on the eve of the Millennium.

Tree of Life

We, the Church, are being beckoned by the Lord to turn one last time from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and eat and drink from the Tree of Life, Jesus Christ.

The first Tree of Life, literal or figurative, was destroyed or removed sometime after Adam and Eve left the garden.

(The tree may have been represented by the Lord himself, because, if they had come into his presence after sinning, they would have been permanently embraced with the nature they’ve chosen, eternally separated from him.)

The second Tree of Life, Jesus Christ, was rejected a second time by Eve, i.e., Israel. And though Christ was cut down, he was not destroyed, instead, planted in the midst of the garden of the nations.

The Tree of Life will be planted (figuratively speaking) a third time in the nation of Israel in the Millennium.

If we fail to eat and drink from the Tree of Life, Jesus Christ, and receive his life-giving food and drink, then we will be like the foolish virgins, and be found wanting.

Let’s not be like Nabal, but Abigail, and choose to offer gifts meet for repentance and win the heart of King Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

This is no time to seek other suitors. God is on the move, and great things lie just ahead for the church.

In Conclusion

The people of Noah’s day were presented an opportunity for repentance before the flood. (1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 2:5)

At the appointed time, the Church of Israel, under the iron legs of Rome (Daniel 2:33), had their day of visitation from the Lord, the opportunity to see and hear his words and works.

Sadly, though some chose Christ, the nation as a whole rejected the Lord and his offer of healing, restoration, and marriage.

Again, sadly, foolishness prevailed over wisdom.

And, at the appointed time, the New Testament Church, under the feet of iron and clay, the 7^th world kingdom, (Revelation Chapter 12 and Daniel 2:33), will have the opportunity to receive care and love from the Lord Jesus Christ before events unfold and culminate in ushering in the Millennium.

Wisdom is Not Optional

The foolish do not receive what they need in their season to make the transition in God, in Christ, to the new season unfolding before them.

Noah’s peers did not expect the flood, they had not seen rain.

Israel did not expect a humble, no name Rabbi from Judah, outside the courts of Israel, to be their Messiah, their link with God, their leader who would take them into a new world.

Each dispensation has their test of faith and expectation.

The wise, Noah and his family, the Jews that left the “church” of Israel and accepted Christ, the Christians in the last of the last days of the New Testament era – those who receive Christ’s offering of healing and restoration transit eras and are ushered into new places in God.

Expect the unexpected, spontaneous and unplanned responses, as the Lord visits our generation(s) preparing those who respond to his call.

Blessings, Drake

 Footnote A

There are many opinions about creation, how long it took, figurative, literal, and how long from the creation of Adam and Eve to the time of Christ. Some believe generations are skipped – missing – from the Genesis record.

Based on the chronology as given in the Bible, it appears there’s about 4,000 years from the time of Adam to Christ, (if the literal is longer, God gave us the figurative, about four thousand years, for a reason). And we know, shy a decade, it’s almost 2,000 years since Christ’s ministry.

Dates, times, are important to God. He has a calendar and created one for us. The Bible is filled with prophetic dates and times – some spiritual, some natural.

If each creation period is about a millennium, 1,000 years, (see 2 Peter), then it was about 6,000 years from the beginning of creation to Adam and Eve.

Some scientists (who are Christian) opinion the Genesis creation sequence does not fit with science. For example, the sun coming on the fourth day of creation does not make sense or fit with the scientific model.

Dating of elements, their lives, usurp the creation sequence and creation itself, and become the model for how long it took for creation.

One observation I’ve not heard mentioned, outside of Bible college, is the “typology,” associated with each day of creation to actual events in the millenniums following the creation of Adam and Eve.

This is a series in itself, but here are a few examples. Notice the theme of the second day of creation is water and sky. A major theme of the second millennium after Adam is the flood.

The theme of the third day of creation: land, seas, seed bearing trees and plants. Major themes of the third millennium after Adam is the planting of the nation of Israel, the planting of the law and the seed-bearing fruit of the law, the separation of Israel (Abraham’s land) from the nations (seas).

The theme of the fourth day of creation is the sun, moon, and the stars. The major theme of the fourth millennium after Adam is the establishment of the Davidic kingdom culminating with the coming of the Messiah, Christ a “type” of the sun. The moon is a type of the Old Covenant, having no light of itself. The stars are a type of the resurrected Saints in Christ.

The Scripture we have today is complete and accurate. The creation picture is a mosaic of not only what God did, but what he was going to accomplish in the seasons of man, and man’s journey in the plan of God. A plan with dates and times from the beginning has been prepared for us, they are inseparable from our story.

(NIV) Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.Zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblical, Inc.™