In Acts 2 when Peter is preaching to the crowd he tells them that what is happening among them is in fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel which says: “In the last days, God says I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.” Peter preached this message nearly 2,000 years ago. If it was the last days when Peter preached, how much more so is it the “last days” now?!
My husband and I were talking about this just the other day. He said that there was so much talk about the last days, especially now with COVID and all that it had lost all meaning. He felt that we should stop focusing on the last days so much. In a way I agree. I mean the more we sound false alarms by saying such and such day will be the end of the world, the more we help Satan set the trap of complacency. It gets harder and harder to get anyone to take you seriously that Jesus is coming back soon if everyone is sounding false alarms about the end of the world. I think that’s just what Satan wants. He wants us complacent.
It reminded me of the parable of the ten virgins. All the virgins had prepared for the wedding feast of the bride and groom. All of them had lamps trimmed and filled with oil. All of them were waiting for the bridegroom to appear, but the bridegroom took longer than they expected. Sound familiar? Since the day Jesus ascended into heaven, believers have all been waiting for His return. We’ve been studying the Scriptures and scanning the local headlines in an attempt to understand when He will be back. This is a good thing because we are reading and waiting, but the longer it takes, the easier it is for us to allow compromise and apathy to slip in. We go from eagerly pressing our faces against the window looking for some sign in the heavens to scoffing at those who preach end time messages.
Five of those virgins knew that they didn’t really know what to expect. Sure, they knew the wedding was planned. They knew the bridegroom was coming. They knew it would be after dark and that they would need their lamps in order to see, but they didn’t know exactly when. They didn’t want to be caught off guard, so they brought a bit of extra oil along with them. It was prudence. It was wisdom. We know he’s coming. We don’t know when. Let’s make sure we don’t run out of what we need. All the virgins fell asleep. When the trumpet sounded to signal the bridegroom’s arrival, only the ones who had planned ahead were ready and able to get in. Because for all their talk about the bridegroom coming, they didn’t let his delay lull them into unpreparedness.
As a church, we tend to put a lot of things off. There’s a lot of talk about doing it tomorrow. Getting it right tomorrow. Making better choices tomorrow. Sometimes it’s easy to believe that Jesus coming back is a long way off. But the truth is that every day that coming gets a little bit closer. One of these days, those dire predictions is going to prove true, and we’re going to be so lulled into sleep that we will wake up to that trumpet and find ourselves completely unprepared. I don’t know about you, but I want to be prepared. I want to have that extra oil on hand when I need it.
Do I think COVID-19 is the herald of the apocalypse? Maybe. I mean the first horseman is holding a crown, and coronavirus does get its name from a word that means “crown.” We’re talking about prophecy here so there’s no way to know in advance how literal we’re supposed to take the images of the Book of Revelation. If COVID-19 is the first horseman, we can expect that the second will be war. Looking at the headlines today, it doesn’t look too far fetched that war might be around the corner. The thing is that we don’t know what the first horseman will be. We don’t know when he will appear on the world scene. We don’t even know how much time passes between each horseman. What we do know is that every day is one day closer to the day that Jesus returns.
I could spend my life running around in fear that this is it. I could over do my preparation and have a bunker full of expiring food and stockpiled ammunition. I could easily slip into complacency and live my life sloppily, hoping that I will have tomorrow to get things in order. Or….. I could live my life in expectancy. I could live as if COVID is the start. I could make sure I have extra oil of the Holy Spirit on hand now. I can make sure that I have my life in order now. I can pray to God to help me make the changes I need to make in my life now. If I live out my entire life at that level of expectancy, so be it. I won’t have lost anything. At least that way, I can be sure that when the bride groom arrives I will not be out of oil and left in the dark!
A Beautiful Mess 