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Today’s study is exciting, because we’re going to go over the parables that I mentioned at the beginning of this study. We’re going to see what happens if people decide they’re too busy with their land, ox, and spouse to answer their call. Let’s get right to it, but first let’s quickly go over the homework!!
I don’t want anyone to get personal, but in general, how did your purge go? Did anyone notice a weight lift off of them? Like the air was lighter?
Has anyone made progress yet in their “Plan Notebook?”
The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins – Hebrew Gospel Version
Matthew 25:1-14 Hebrew Gospels
1 “And then the heavenly kingdom will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to the path to the bridegroom and the bride. 2 Five of them were foolish and five of them were wise. 3 And the five foolish ones did take their lamps. 5 And while the bridegroom delayed to come, all ten virgins slept for long – until the middle of the night. 6 A man shouted, ‘Get up! Behold the bridegroom is coming, go out to him to the path!’ 7 Then all the virgins got up and lit all their lamps. 8 And the foolish ones said to the wise ones, ‘Give us of your oil, for our lamps have gone out.’ 9 But the wise ones answered and said, ‘Perhaps it will not be sufficient for us, go to the sellers and buy for yourselves.’ 10 But as they went to buy, the bridegroom came. And those who were ready, entered with him into the wedding and the door was shut behind them. 11 And afterwards came the foolish virgins, and cried, ‘Master, master, open for us!’ 12 But he answered and said, ‘Truth (Truly)– I do not know who you are.’ 13 Therefore you must be awake, for you do not know the day and the hour.
This interpretation is from the Holy Spirit, because not only did I never really understand this story, but no one I’ve heard speak through the years was able to explain why they needed lamps, and why they were able to purchase oil if, all the oil was is the Holy Spirit. I say that because we must honor the Lord and pay close attention to what He’s teaching us.
First, let’s look at the lead in of the next story so you understand this isn’t a random interpretation.
Interpretation: This has to be interpreted in the light that it precedes the talent story, and it flows in the same likeness. It’s very clear in Hebrew, understandable in a Greek text analysis, but not the English.
Matthew 25:14
Hebrew: “Just like a man who went on a journey and called the servants…”
Greek: “[It is] like for a man going on a journey called the own servants…”
New King James: “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants…
The talent story starts, “Just like…” meaning it has to flow into the next and have a likeness, a similar point to the talent story. Today’s revelation absolutely does! These aren’t two very different points.
Write this down, I’ll read a little slower so you can write.
Meaning: The lamp is the regenerated human spirit. Stating the “foolish ones did take their lamps,” is stressing to us they were born of the spirit, they’re of The House of God. Saying they weren’t really saved isn’t possible, because they were able to hold oil. Sleeping and the fire going out is being lackadaisical concerning their assignment, as though they had more time and could take a summer break from the things of God. Their assignment was to watch for the Master. The oil in the lamp is your call, God’s Plan, or your spiritual assignment on the Earth. When you walk in your call, it lights your fire, the Holy Ghost fire in you, and that’s how we shine our brightest light for Christ. Continuing to walk in your call will give you things like a bigger vessel, more oil, and greater fire; but this story is about those that fell asleep. Oil is used because it can run out when burned. You have to obtain more oil to keep your fire going. As we talked about cheese doodle munching before, stopping your call for eating cheese doodles on the couch every night will eventually use up the oil.
The foolish asked the wise for their oil. They can’t share their oil, because the anointings and calls don’t match. It’s different oil. For example, if someone is called to record an album they can’t ask me, a teacher, to teach in my place. If we shared my oil, they might feel good doing something for Christ, but that will quickly dry up and die out in them. Teaching a mixed crowd how to play a guitar or discussing a praise and worship music lineup that came to study the Word won’t work. No one will be happy. The musician will lose my crowd, and feel like a failure. For me, I will no longer be using my anointed teaching, so I would run out of oil and my fire die out with theirs. We can’t work together, because not all gifts are interchangeable. Does everyone understand? Acting on The Plan gives you this oil, an anointing, a special ability.
Some people called won’t fulfill their calling because of fear, and we will see that in the next story, or laziness but as a substitute they help others while continuing to mask The Plan on their life. We can see this a lot with husbands and wives. Sometimes they take on each other’s Plan when they have their own Plan. People will automatically assume, “God put us together to work on his call together.” Maybe, maybe not. A husband can be called to preach and his wife will preach before him, after him, or in the night when she’s not called to do so. When you see this, you can tell something isn’t quite right. On the flip side of this, I’ve seen pastor’s wives completely check out because they’re not called to preach. What are they called to do? Husbands and wives must seek The Plan God has for them individually and as a couple. I’m going to keep using pastors as an example… The wife cutting in on the husband’s preaching is stealing his oil and his fire. On the other side of that, I’ve seen a pastor’s wife that worked as a school teacher not help out with the ministry. The secretary of the church had to step in her place. Because she was carrying that weight, she became a deacon and some people get angry at a female deacon. That put the pastor in a bad place. What’s he supposed to say to a woman? “Set up a counseling appointment with the secretary. I’ll get the secretary and we’ll be over your house to pray.” It’s very important to know The Plan for yourself so you’re not stealing oil or missing oil.
Back to scripture, the wise know not to share oil, their anointed call. The buying of the oil represents someone who will not acquire the oil on their own. Getting the oil on their own is planting, cultivating, harvesting, and processing. Buying oil skips the process. A modern-day translation of this means the musician who is called to record an album goes to another artist to sing back up. A teacher who was supposed to start a social media Bible study goes to another teacher and tries to be on their social media show on the side or as a stand-in. That’s buying the oil, joining in someone else’s anointing and fire. There is nothing wrong with purchased oil, but if that’s the plan to get into Heaven, they won’t make it. We must all produce our own oil with planting, cultivating, harvesting, and processing. That means: Planting: praying to know The Plan, Cultivating: praying The Plan out, Harvesting: being equipped by the Holy Spirit as a result of prayer, and Processing: carrying out The Plan.
The Holy Spirit pointed out this story is “the heavenly kingdom will be like,” not solely end time events like I often hear it referenced. This is a serious and very important matter to Christians. There are people dying on their deathbed with no oil. Some people are clueless and others are quickly trying to make it right by buying the oil. True repentance from the heart is what will be required for Heaven for these people. But it’s between them and the Lord if they’re excused from the lack of oil and fire or not. This is NOT our place to judge it. Our job is to encourage in love and either take up The Plan for their life in prayer or completely mind our own business. Repentant people can ask God to extend their life and give them a chance to acquire some oil. God is the only one who can judge this. We are not qualified. That being said, you can get a notebook for your loved ones and pray out The Plan for their lives as well. We’ll talk about that more next week. Back to scripture…
The Master says, “I don’t know who you are.” This is referring to the fact that He didn’t give them that oil or light that fire, the person and their lamp don’t match the oil and the fire.
An excellent example of this is a woman from Texas in her late 50s. She attended the ministry of a woman I’m not sure what she is… a missionary, evangelist, and healing minister. It’s a little muddled. This Texas woman began attending the meetings where the minister would constantly talk about going to Africa to hold meetings, “Africa! Africa! Africa! It’s all about Africa,” she would often proclaim. This woman absorbed her passion. She put her things in storage, sold her house, bought a house in the African jungle, and told her kids goodbye. But she didn’t leave, because… she wasn’t well and needed medication from the United States. She was just waiting on “the last piece of the puzzle,” healing, as she lived in an apartment. A year later, the woman was still in Texas waiting to be healed. She wasn’t called to a ministry, just out there on her own.
This is a true story. Two takeaways:
One: Never teach people that your call is so very important that everyone should join you in the same call. Everyone has an important call that they need to accomplish.
Two: If you feel called like someone you’re close to, take a break from them as you pray so that you have clarity and aren’t accidently lighting your fire with their fire.
We already talked about purchased oil. It’s ok to purchase oil, it’s an excellent boost to your ministry, but all purchased oil won’t get you into Heaven. If you are part of children’s church, and you visited another church’s VBS, and you noticed some really good things they did that you’re not doing. A good purchase of the oil is to come back to your own church and implement the good things that you saw. What you saw was someone’s anointed ability from the Holy Spirit in action. You bought of their oil and you’re going to use it for a bigger fire. We are supposed to share our oil this way!! It becomes all purchased oil if you went to that VBS and said, “They do things better here! I’m going to leave my church and come here.” If The Plan is the church you were at, and you left the oil producing process for the purchased oil, you’re in trouble. You want to ride someone else’s wave of success, because it’s easier than paddling out and finding you own wave. These are the people the Master will say to them, “I don’t know who you are.” Yes, there are people called to help out that amazing children’s church program. Each volunteer has their own Plans to attend to in addition to that children’s church, and that will be the next parable we read about the talents/coins.
It truly is a difficult thing for us to understand how The Master doesn’t recognize people. This comes from doing whatever you want and silencing the Holy Ghost, which is completely ignoring Him. We have to put this in an Earthly way that we can understand. If you have an adult child that’s 75 years old, and you’re still alive and well, and you haven’t seen him or heard his voice since he was 22. If he shows up in the dark and knocks on your door to be let back in your home, your first response is, “Who are you?” If he says, “I’m your son!” You don’t know if that’s truly your son or a lying thief, it’s dark. If he’s holding your daughter’s flashlight to his face, you might wonder, “How did he get that? Is my daughter safe? My daughter didn’t say anything to me! Is that truly him?” And you might feel a little afraid and want to call the police, “I don’t know you! Leave!” That’s exactly how people won’t be recognized when they think they should be.
I know and I understand this is an awful and very controversial point in the body of Christ, but it’s scripture and we must recognize it. People feel like they’re assured of salvation because they said the prayer and believed, but there is another scripture we have to consider…
1 John 3:14 NKJV
We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.
That’s the same theme with these parables and what we have been talking about. The Plan is birthed out love; His love and you operating out of the place of love. If you love God, you love His people, and want to help people not just your family and friends.
Next parable….
Matthew 25:14-30 Hebrew Gospels
14 Just like a man who went on a journey and called the servants, and handed over to them some of his gold. 15 To one of them he delivered five [coins], to another two [coins], and to another one – to every one of them according to his assessment, and he went away immediately. 16 And he who received five [coins] worked with them and profited five others. 17 And he who received two, worked with planning and gained another two. 18 But he who received one, went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s [coin]. 19 And after a long time the master came and wanted to hear an account from them. 20 So he who received the five [coins] came and gave to him five more which he gained, and he said to his master, ‘You deposited five [coins] to me, behold, you have five more which I gained.’ 21 Then the master said, ‘Good and faithful servant, because you were faithful over a little money you may enter into the honor of your master, and over much you will be made master.’ 24 Then he who received the one came and said, ‘Master, I know that you are a hard and cruel man, you reap in a place that you did not sow, and gather what you did not scatter. 25 So I feared, and I hid the [coin] in the ground – now (39v) you can have your money back.’ 26 The master answered and said to him, ‘Guilty and fearful servant! – After you had known that I reap what I did not sow, and gather what I did not scatter unto my place – 27 therefore you should have deposited my money to the table of the exchangers, so that when I did come, I could have asked for my gold with the profit. 28 Take the [coin] from him and deliver it to him who has ten.’ 29 For unto whosoever has, a man will give with surplus. And he who does not have, that little which he has, a man will tear away from him. 30 ‘And you must cast the wicked servant into a dark pit. And there he will bear weeping and the quaking of teeth.’
As a reminder, “Just like…” which means this story will have a similar point to the ten virgins.
It’s very important to note that The Master delivers the coins based on His assessment of the 3 servants; their prior performance determined how many coins they received. We determine how many coins, callings, or Godly Plans we receive. Some of us always want to say, “Well, God didn’t give me great abilities.” He wanted to, but we didn’t act in a way that He could assess us for more. But after today, we’re going to change that! We’re all going to be assessed to receive maximum amounts of coins.
The man who receives 5 coins, “worked with them,” and received 5 more. This man’s behavior tells us exactly what we should be doing to receive more. When we learn how to work with the Plan of God, our giftings and callings, we will double what we have been given. Another way of saying it, develop the skill God gave you by using it and learning from the Holy Spirit how to use your gift His way. There are people that are anointed to work with children that have mental challenges. Working The Plan, your anointed gift, is saying, “God show me how to handle this… show me how to handle that… Lord, how would you like me to answer this child?” That’s “working with the coin,” developing your skill God’s way, learning, and moving forward under His Teaching. When this person does things His way, He can use them to write books for the parents and family, books specially for the kids, teach classes to other teachers or parents, or maybe even invent products that are useful for the children and families. The Lord may need to get useful resources into families’ hands that are hurting. When they want to praise the gifted person, “Oh you’re so helpful! I don’t know what we’d do without you!” Being right with God, humility will come out and that’s the time to minister and point them to the Lord. That’s how gifts operate, and the reward for diligently seeking the Lord (Hebrews 11:6).
The man who receives 2 coins, according to the assessment, “worked with planning,” and doubled what they received. When we plan how things are going to work out, we plan God’s Plan, He has a low assessment value on us trying to work it out. The Bible didn’t tell us that things won’t work out if we plan God’s Plan, we just won’t receive many plans, callings, giftings; however, you’d like to call it. That’s pride creeping into the situation. It’s not that it’s God’s desire or punishment to hold back talents from you, it’s that you’re not fully carrying out His Will His Way. You know why? You’re busy making messes that need cleaned up, or your on-the-job training is taking forever to get you there. Remember the chair cleaning story I shared last week? The person had to go back and go over all their work to fix the mess. It took longer to arrive at the goal line. We cannot shift blame onto God for how we are assessed, or in other words our many messes.
Some of us, by nature, don’t want to read the instructions. We want to tear it open, fiddle with stuff, and see what happens. Right? Not many companies would want to hire you as a product tester, because they would have to fix what’s not broken. You might be the reason the baby stroller has a label, “Remove child before folding.” The can of pepper spray that warns, “This product may cause eye irritation.” Or the famous Swedish chainsaw warning, “Do not attempt to stop chain with your hands or genitals.” Superman costume, “This cape does not give the wearer the ability to fly.” Blanket warning, “Not to be used as protection from a tornado.” Here’s another interesting one, “Not dishwasher safe,” warning from a tv remote. Last one for today, “This product can burn eyes,” warning for a curling iron. I used those so you’ll remember to pray for the instruction manual to The Plan of God for your life, that’s exactly what your notebook is supposed to be, an instruction manual. You don’t want to meet God and have to explain your warning labels. Warning: ruins church chairs, sets church on fire… TWICE, hits choir members in the face dancing like David danced, breaks pews jumping on them to make a point, almost drowned a large lady in baptismal pool, because you said, “I got this,” and splits pants down the center while really into preaching a sermon. You’d be surprised how many pastors have that story! All joking aside, while those are silly examples that happen, there are not so silly things that make us waste our time and money doing things our own way, not to mention the frustration.
Not so funny things: The teenager who drove into the church building because he was up late playing video games; not Plan minded. Here’s another story, a husband and wife decided to be more involved and have a children’s sleepover at the church. It was in the early 2000s before everyone had a cellphone. A little boy was being bad and they kept telling him to stop or he’d have to go home. He didn’t stop, so they told him let’s go! They drove him to his house, one of them was getting out of the car, and the 11-year-old boy said, “I have a key.” They watched the boy go into the house and then left. The next day, the pastor received an angry phone call. The parents decided to go on an overnight trip, since Little Disaster Jonny was gone. He was scared all night and cried himself to sleep, because he didn’t know his parents left. The parents filed lawsuits against the couple and the church. Thank God, the judge threw the case out because the child wasn't in danger despite being afraid. Someone with child training would have told them to make sure they made contact with the parents.
The final man, which of the most focus is on him, hides his one coin, his Plan of God. When he’s facing The Master, he has enough nerve to blame God. I want you to see this. “I know that you are a hard and cruel man,” He just accused The Master of caring less and causing suffering (that’s the definition of cruel). He doesn’t stop there, “you reap in a place that you did not sow,” wow!! He just called The Master a thief. He’s not done yet, “gather what you did not scatter.” If the Master didn’t get the subtle hint of thief the first time, surely the second round will do it, right? After accusing, insulting and blaming The Master for his own actions, he told him how he hid it, “It’s not my fault, it’s Your fault.”
Let’s put this into something we recognize people say today, “Master, I know you called me to India but the plane might go down. What if I get sick on the food? What if some strange bug or snake bites me? I’ll have to go to the hospital there. What if people steal my things? What if they put me in jail? I can’t go… it’s a dangerous time right now, especially for Christians!” People do this all the time, blame God for being the thief from John 10:10; kill, steal, and destroy. In addition to that, he’s accusing The Master of caring less about him and causing his suffering. Let’s move on to The Master’s response…
“Guilty and fearful servant! – After you had known that I…” basically saying you knew I was a thief (which encompasses steal, kill, and destroy), “you should have deposited my money… I could have asked for my gold with the profit.” The Master is saying, if you thought of Me as a thief (steal, kill, destroy), then why didn’t you let someone else work the coin/your talents and I receive an increase? Maybe you understand it better said like this, if you thought of Me this way, why didn’t you even try working The Plan of God through someone else. You might be thinking, “Whaaat?” If you’re called to India, and you refuse to go out of fear, why do nothing? The Master would be saying, “Why not find someone who is willing to go, give them the money, they can do what they’re called to do, and maybe a little of what you’re called to do?” That’s the little interest. I wouldn’t suggest purposefully doing this, because you may still be in hot water… more like hot fire!! But that’s the interpretation, the servant didn’t even try to do something despite his fears. He’s well deserving of being called fearful, guilty, and wicked.
Let’s talk about this a little more. The wicked servant called The Master, “hard and cruel.” It’s popular in modern days to label God as hard and cruel; meaning without care and concern, and a source of suffering. It’s not just in teaching and preaching, but our modern-day music. Oxford Languages defines cruel as willfully causing pain or suffering to others, or feeling no concern about it. We must be very mindful that we don’t label God as anything but good, or twist good to mean harsh cruelty.
Psalm 100:5 - For the Lord is good…
Psalm 34:8 - Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good…
Nahum 1:7- The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble…
That leaves us with the question, “What do we do when things don’t work out for us?” Our natural minds can’t understand, and our human nature’s first response is, “God must not want…” and then we say whatever good thing! I want to encourage you, never think that way much less say it.
When you haven’t received something from the Lord that you have been praying about, I want to encourage you today to believe again! This time I want you to ask the Holy Spirit to take you on a prayer journey to get you to that answer. What that means is to teach you what you need to know to be healed, free, made whole, blessed, answered, or whatever you have been crying out to God about. We are promised that the Holy Spirit will lead and guide us into truth. We all need Him to guide us on a truth journey to The Father. We can’t get there without Him, because without Him looks like the Old Testament. Sometimes we forget to put Him on the job. So, please, I want to encourage you to clear the air with God today, if you thought He didn’t care, treated you harshly, or you felt disappointed. Give The Lord another chance by clearing the air, and asking The Holy Spirit to take you on a prayer journey or ask Him to teach you what you need to know to get you to what you need. We don’t have time to get into “It Didn’t Happen” topic for this study, but the short answer is to clean your life out of the idols (we talked about that in the last study), show God you’re interested in The Plan, put The Holy Spirit on the job, and expect something to change. We can’t sit there with a bad attitude, “Yeah, You won’t help me.” Approach God with a good attitude, “Father, apparently I’m missing something.” Back to the parable, because we’re about to close this week’s study.
So…. When we hold our gifts back, we're holding back help from a hurt and dying world. That’s exactly why The Lord isn’t going to deal kindly with those who ignore a hurt and dying world. Often times just walking The Plan will make a drastic change in your life where you felt disconnected, just chugging along, and doing the mundane usual life will turn into joy, peace, and excited Holy Ghost fire.
Take note the servant with the two coins, The Master’s response is never mentioned at all. He doubled through planning, but he’s not noteworthy at all. That’s something to think about as you pray about God’s Plan for your life. He wasn’t given the wicked servant’s one talent, the five guy was given the talent. There are people that die and leave this Earth without accomplishing their plan. Their talent and plan is up for grabs!! Working The Plan God’s way will qualify you to pick up theirs.
The interpretation of the young ladies in the parable ties in with the talent story, basically they’re the same point. The foolish ladies are called “foolish,” because they knew their call, started, and quit. The man with one talent was called in Hebrew “guilty and fearful” then “wicked,” but the Greek says, “lazy and wicked.” We see the first story, people who started but quit, versus the second was someone who never did anything at all; but the point is still the same, your assignment on Earth must have forward progress. Both stories are also similar in that the ladies with the lamps, and the man with one coin were of the House of God.
I’m so thankful the Lord has given us the interpretation of these parables. Please take them seriously. Mediate on them, and let them sink into your heart. He provided these interpretations, because He wanted to bless us with answers and a greater walk with Him.
Next week will be the last week. We’ll go over the ending of Matthew chapter 25, Judgement Day, and see where the Holy Spirit leads us. The Lord is going to open up Judgement Day in a different way to us than we typically see. Next week will be communion week!
(Ask who would like to buy or bake a celebration loaf of bread {tasty sweet bread}. Have more than one person bring bread so it’s communion and munching celebration. If you do crackers only, have them bring both! Buy the grape juice yourself in case they forget.)
Homework
- Re-read these parables in Matthew 25 this week, ask the Lord to open up your understanding
- Continue to pray The Plan for your life
- Get a notebook, if you haven’t already and a notebook for your children and family that you’re praying for. You can pray for them, or at least start them off on their own journey to The Plan
- Communion bread volunteers, please write it on your calendar or set an alert in your phone
Prayer
- Thank You again, and again, Lord, for blessing us with revelational understanding of Your Word
- Help us walk in the light of what we have learned in this study
- Holy Spirit help us to quiet our mind so that we can hear You speak His Plan
- Lord, when we hear The Plan, please give us the strength to complete it
- Anytime we accidently thought of You as hard and cruel because of something difficult and painful that happened to us, Lord, we want to clear the air with You right now
- We know disappointments, unanswered prayers, hurt, pain, fear, depression, feeling lost, without hope, and other things contrary to what we read in the Bible aren’t of The House of God.
- Father, we let it all go right now and ask that You heal our hearts, fill them with joy, peace, and strength
- Holy Spirit, we ask that You take us on a prayer journey that we can obtain the good things that we have been praying for, and even the things of the past that we have forgotten, take us to The Master to see the reward and fruit of our prayers.
- We love You Lord, and thank You that we’re growing closer and closer to You
- Please continue this work in us as we lay down in bed tonight, and again when we get in Your presence
In Jesus’ Name, Amen
