Are We Ready for Marriage? We Can Do It with New Light on the Wedding Parables!

One of 10 ways to get rich is to marry the wealth. The Bible teaches that we can become the bride of Christ if we understand the the wedding parables. Understand means to stand under and support—do what those parables teach.

1. Each wedding parable shows we don’t understand them. The invitation is scorned in Matthew 22. The women are asleep with lights out in Matthew 25, and Peter asked if the parable was for them in Luke 12:41.

2. All three parables show a sudden event beyond which it is too late to get ready. The man without a wedding garment was thrown out. The women who went for lamp oil were a little late, but too late to get in. When Christ “knocks,” we must “open unto Him immediately,” Luke 12:36.

3. The event is a sudden, unlooked-for calamity. The remnant get their city burned in Matt 24:7. The cry at midnight is an echo of the midnight calamity in Egypt, Exod 12:29,30. The ‘knock’ in Luke 12:36 is an earthquake because the only other place where Christ ‘knocks’ is Rev 3:20, for a lukewarm church that ended in an earthquake circa 63 AD.

The end-time period, ‘the day of the Lord,’ begins with an earthquake, seen in Joel 2:10,11; Zeph 1:7,10; Zech 14:1,4,5. Something HUGE is coming!

4. That’s one reason why Christ said it would be “as the days of Noah.” Destruction may be worldwide, Joel 3:16.

5. But it might also be unfair for a worldwide judgment “as the days of Noah” without a warning that may seem as crazy as Noah seemed, but this is when Christ comes “as a thief” and three passages suggest “watching” as a protection. “If you don’t watch, I will come on you as a thief,” Rev 3:3; “the day of the Lord comes as a thief…sudden destruction…watch” 1Thess 5:2,3,6. The goodman, if he had watched, would not have suffered his house to be broken,” Matt 24:43. So what does it mean to ‘watch.’

6. Watching is translated from a Greek word, gregoreo. It means to be awake. It would be unfair for Christ to tell us to be awake without some clue for when—we can’t be awake every night, but Passover was the only night in the year it was commanded as a memorial of the greatest events in the Old & New Testaments, Exod 12:10 and when Christ told the disciples to watch and pray, Matt 26:38-41.

7. The wedding parables also have Passover imagery. The midnight cry is an echo of Passover in Exod 12:29,30. Christ tells us to have “loins girded” and that was at Passover in Egypt. Exod 12:11. If we are watching (clue for Passover), He will gird himself and make us sit down to eat and will serve us, Luke 12:37. That’s what He did at Passover. Do we want to be part ofwhat He is doing? Let’s watch as Paul said where he gives an echo of the 1st Passover when travail came on Egypt in birthing Israel.1Thess 5:3-6; Exod 4:22.

8. As Christ ate the Passover with His disciples, He instituted in its place the service that was to be the memorial of His great sacrifice. This is the perfect way to begin Passover when we should “watch and pray.” I’ve found it difficult to stay awake praying but if I read what Christ suffered that night and pray between chapters of an online source, it’s easier and His protection is promised. http://www.whiteestate.org/books/da/da71.html

9. There’s an important modification to Passover. Christ’s closing parables in Matt 24:30 to Matt 25:31 support it “as the days of Noah” when the Flood came with Passover timing, but in the 2nd spring month. This is also seen when five women missed the wedding. Christ said, You don’t know (eido means be aware, consider, understand) Watch (be awake, a clue for Passover—for the kingdom is like a man traveling to a far country.” Matt 25:13,14

If Israelites took a long journey in spring and couldn’t get back for Passover, they were to keep it in the 2nd month as shown in Numbers 9:10,11. This is not just an odd coincidence. “When summer is nigh” for the fig tree is 2nd Passover in May. And “as the days of Noah…Then (same timing, 2nd Passover) shall two be in the field. The evil servant begins to smite his fellow servants. THEN [same timing] it’s like the 10 women and Christ said that timing was like a man traveling to a far country—2nd Passover. We’ve just missed the clues. 10. So how do we “open unto Him immediately”? With a feast of unleavened bread—that’s the feast at Passover, Lev 23:6, celebrated after the cross by Paul with Greek believers in Acts 20:6 and he said, ‘Follow me as I follow Christ,’ 1Cor 11:1. But it’s not about crackers, Christ said, ‘Beware the leaven of the Pharisees, speaking of their doctrines, Matt 16:12. Church leaders have leavened the Bread, making it light—telling people they don’t need to do Passover, etc. True that we don’t need to kill lamb or do Jewish ceremonies, but why not the Lord’s Supper as shown in #8 above? This would be the perfect start and if an earthquake means Christ’s ‘knock,’ we are ready to continue the week of unleavened truths.

11. Bible covenants were linked to 7’s, like the 7 ewes that Abraham gave Abimelech in Gen 21:27,28, and the seven annual sabbaths that God gave to Israel in their covenant, Lev 23. We should give God seven of something—any clues? Yes! We said the Pharisees leavened the Bread and Christ said Elijah must come and restore all things, Matt 17:11. Elijah comes in the context of statutes and judgments in Mal 4:4,5, and they have a 7-fold emphasis in Ezek 20:11-24 where they are linked to sabbaths as a sign of God’s people.

12. The bottom line is that we can marry Christ by a covenant, a pre-nuptial agreement like Jacob was betroth to Rachel for 7 years, we must be faithful to Christ for a similar end-time period. God got an ignorant bride at Sinai, but the wedding parable showing the invitation to the marriage feast (scorned maybe because carnal people want steak and cake?) but the 7 days of unleavened bread coincide with biblical weddings that took a week, Gen 29:27.

13. This represents a feast of information like the feast in Luke 14:16-24. The bottom line is high reward—“ruler over all that He has” or “beaten with stripes” for not being prepared. I guarantee your satisfaction or I will send my commission–part of the $2.99 back if you email me at Ruhling7@juno.com

PS: I overlooked the point that the King makes a marriage for His Son and sends His servants to bid others to the marriage feast. Are we His servants or in the other group? The wise women had light and in Sunday School kids sing, “This little light of mine—I’m going to let it shine…” We should do what we can for the wedding and why not share the information or link to the above article.