Under Heaven Podcast: Trish Hodges- A Look at Weddings and the 10 Virgins

Under Heaven host, Trish, brings you a look into ancient Jewish wedding traditions. Once some of the old ways are understood, the Parable of the 10 Virgins can touch the hearts of Christians. 

You will learn that just as the groom's father would choose a bride for His son, Our Father in Heaven chooses us to be the Bride of Christ. The Word of God means so much as we look deeper. Join for a new look at the 10 Virgins Parable.

Trish: patricia@lookingup24.org

Web: https://form.lookingup24.org/trish-hodges

Ancient Weddings. Parables, The 10 Virgins, God Chose You

Under Heaven Podcast, Faith, Trish Hodges, Testimony, Christian Women, Encouragement, Testimony

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello and welcome to Under Heaven Podcast. This month we're going to be doing something a little different where we're going to be studying from the Word of God and learning a little bit about Jesus, the book of Revelation, the River of Life, some of the parables of Jesus and the end times. So we have an exciting month coming up, and right now, what I'm going to talk to you about is the parable of the ten virgins. And you know, the Bible all runs together. If you if you would take a string and put from this book to that book, from this prophecy to that fulfillment, we would just see the Bible all coming together. And there's so much to tell. It's hard for me to know exactly where to start. But today I'm going to start with a parable of the ten virgins, and I'm going to let you know some of the things about the ancient Israelite society and their weddings, the procedures. Because some of their traditions are certainly different than what ours are here in America in 2026. Let's pray. Father God, I thank you for the word we're about to read. And I ask, Father, for your Holy Spirit to speak forth that my listeners will receive from you alone, Father. And I thank you, Lord, that you prepare us for the future. And may our hearts and our eyes and our minds be open to what your Holy Spirit has to say today. And it is in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Amen and amen. Okay, today we're going to look, we're going to begin by looking at the book of Matthew, chapter 25, and we're going to start with the first verse in 25. Now, just as a little background, Jesus has been talking in 24 about the end times, the signs of the end of the age, and the great tribulation, and then he has some parables. And this parable in chapter 25 begins, verse 1. Five of them were foolish and five were sensible. When the foolish took their lamps, they didn't take olive oil with them, but the sensible ones took oil in their flasks for their lamps. Since the groom was delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep. In the middle of the night there was a shout. Come to meet him. Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps. But the foolish ones said to the sensible ones, give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out. The sensible ones answered, and some virgins say the wise ones answered, No, there won't be enough for us and for you. Go instead to those who sell and buy oil for yourselves. When they had gone to buy some, the groom arrived. Then those who were ready went in with him into the wedding banquet, and the door was shut. Verse eleven says, Later, the rest of the virgins also came. They knocked on the door and said, Master, Master, open, open for us. And he replied, I assure you, I do not know you. Therefore be alert, because you don't know either the day or the hour. Now, as we read this today, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to us, but when you look at this from the time that Jesus was speaking and how the Israelites performed or lived out a wedding, it wasn't like our weddings today. Back then, what we would call an engagement, they called the betrothal. And that would be basically that they're married. We have engagements, and if we decide we're not going to go through with the wedding, the engagement's off, and that's that. In the days of the Israelites, when you were betrothed, what we would call engaged, you were married. You didn't live together, you didn't have the benefits of a marriage, but you were set aside for each other. Now I'm going to tell you a little bit about it. A wedding then usually took about a year, because what would happen is the the bride would be preparing her clothes and all the things that she is going to take with her when she goes to live with her groom. And while she's doing that, the groom is preparing the room or the home where they will go once they are officially married. And I want to tell you some of the steps that they had to go through during that year. And I think you're going to find it absolutely amazing because it all lines up with us being the bride of Christ and the Father and the groom who is Jesus. Okay, so there were ten virgins, and we look at that today as like there were ten Christians. And they're waiting, just like we wait the return of Jesus Christ. But five of them were wise. They had a little flask of oil set aside, so that if the groom came that night, they'd have oil to go with the groom. And five of them were foolish. They did not have any extra oil. And their lamps began to go out when they called and said, The groom's coming. So while they were gone, the groom came to take the bride and went off into the wedding banquet, which lasts for days in the old in the old Hebrew traditions. And the ones who were gone trying to buy oil, they got left out. They knew the groom, they were waiting for the groom, but they weren't prepared. And that's one thing we're going to be talking about this month. We're going to be prepared. Okay, so as we read the ten virgins, we see the groom is going to come, and they're preparing, and the five wise ones are preparing for the groom. To us, that is Jesus Christ. He will return. The Bible talks, I believe, I've forgotten the numbers, but a great amount of the Bible talks about Jesus' return, his second coming. In fact, I'm pretty sure it talks about his second coming more than it does in the New Testament, more than it does in the first coming. So it's so important, but this is something our churches are not teaching us today. They're not teaching us to watch and wait for Christ. And we're going to learn that too in one of our lessons about entering the secret place, watching and waiting, listening to the voice of God. So what would happen in the ancient Israelite tradition? The father of the groom would choose a bride for his son. Not like here. The father chose the bride. And who chooses us? It says that we are chosen by Father God. We were chosen. We were set apart from the very beginning to be his. And it's not his will any of us should perish. That means not be with him. It's not his will that any of us perish. So we're all invited to be like these virgins to wait for the coming of the groom. Father God chose us, and the father of the groom back in that day chose the bride. Something else that was quite different than what we have here in America, the family of the groom would decide the worth of the female chosen to be the bride. The father chooses, determines the worth. And when we look at how God has chosen us, and he allowed Jesus Christ to go to the cross for our sins while we were still sinners. Jesus died on the cross for us. That's how much we're worth. We are worth so much that God sent his only son for us. So then, not only, let me, I have some notes here, and I don't want to miss any of it, so I'm going to have pull this up here. And he the groom's family would declare her value. And some of the things that we can can um look up. I'll just give you some scriptures if you want to look up at another time. I have 2 Corinthians, I'm sorry, 1 Corinthians 6.20, 1 Peter 1.19, and Hebrews 12.2. We are God's children. We are God's daughters. Hallelujah. We were chosen to be the bride of Christ. Our worth was determined to be so much that Christ went to the cross for us and was raised again, resurrected from the grave for us. That our sins can be washed away. Here you go. Here is the covenant. The signing of the marriage license is in here in America, the signing of the marriage license is the final thing. You are married. And they usually do that after the ceremony. Well, in the old Israelite tradition, they would sign the covenant before the wedding ceremony. And the way they did that is the female would go to the mikveh. And some of us have heard the word mikvah if we've watched some of the programs about Jesus. That's where people would wash to become ceremonially clean. Would go to the mikveh and the whole town would go with her. I mean, you know, all the ladies or whatever would go with her. And she would go into the mikveh, which is basically a pool, a cement pond, a cement pond. And she would go in and she would dip herself three times in that water. Hmm. And you know what? When she dipped herself in that water, it was like signing the covenant or the marriage license. It was saying, I marry for for all times the groom. I am off limits from any other men in this town or any town. And I am totally committed to be the wife, the bride of the one who's gonna come get me. It's signing, it's signing the marriage contract. And they call it um, let's see, the Catova is um where you would sign in front of witnesses, but they would go to the mikvah, and that would be the signing of yes, I'm his. And then once the woman did this, let's see. Uh, let's see. Also, I'll see about the golden cup filled to the brim. Okay, and there would be a um a cup, a gold cup, and it would be filled with wine, and the groom would say, This cup is the new covenant which I offer to you. So when Jesus took the cup at the Last Supper and said, This cup is my blood, it is the new covenant signed in my blood. Well, when they would have that cup and drink from it, it would be a covenant not to be broken, it would be a wedding, a marriage. Now, the wedding feast still is down the road because the groom had to go back to his home, and we learned when we were over in Israel that uh the families there, a lot of them, they they would build on top, like the son would build on top of the father's house, and you know, they'd build on top. And so this groom would go back to his home with the father and begin building a room or a little home for him and his new bride. So, meanwhile, the the groom is making this new uh home for him and his bride, who's already signed the covenant by dunking three times in the mikveh, and he works on that, and while he's working on that, let me go here. Uh okay. While he goes, he departs for the chamber, and it will he will not return for the bride until the um father says it's done. The father will you know oversee what what the the groom is doing, how he's making his room and the place for the the bride to come. And when the father says it's time to go get the bride, then the groom will go get the bride. But it's not up to the groom, it's not up to the bride, it's up to the father when he will come. And I can say that certainly sounds like when Jesus returns, because Jesus himself said, No one knows the day or the hour that I will return, only the father. So meanwhile, the groom's over at his home building a new place for the bride to come join him, and the bride is in her home making her wedding dress. Yep. The brides made their own wedding dresses back then, and you know, they it was like with every stitch that they put in that dress, it was like saying, you know, I know he's coming back and I'm here for him. I know he's coming back and I'm here for him. And she would make this beautiful wedding gown. And then also throughout the year, let me go scroll up a little bit here. Um, is she would um prepare a trunk, and this is where she would have her clothes, and she'd have her her tools or you know, her hair accessories or whatever a woman needs as a wife. Maybe she had some kitchen tools in there, and she would have a dowry from her family. The family would provide something for her to take into the wedding uh chamber with her, and she would check this trunk constantly to make sure she had everything she needed and that it was prepared. And every time she would check this, she'd lift it up to make sure it was she could carry it out of the house, and she would be prepared. Then there's the lamp that we read about in the parable of the ten virgins. The lamp is to be full of oil, and if she's wise, she will have extra oil for her lamp. Because, you know, she can go and go to sleep at night, but when she lays her head down, she's prepared. Kind of makes me think of when a woman is going to have a baby, and you're not sure when she's gonna go to the, you know, when she's gonna go in labor and have to go to the hospital. So you have a little bag packed, especially with your first baby. You have your little bag packed, and you are ready to go as soon as those labor pains start. Day or night, you're ready. Well, this is how this bride would be. She would be completely ready for the bridegroom to return. And in this parable, we see that they the town announces or some a person from the groom's entourage will come and say, The groom's coming, the groom's coming, and that's when these virgins wake up. And they grab their stuff, they get ready to go, and then, of course, the ten foolish virgins they didn't have enough oil, they ran out. But when a bride back in the Israelite tradition would hear a person coming through the town saying, The groom's coming, the groom's coming. That girl who was going to be the bride would jump out of bed and she had her trunk all prepared and she had her lamp prepared and she was ready to go out when the groom came to her door to take her with him. And how exciting! You know, it's like that woman again in labor pains. It's like, oh, I'm in labor, it's time to go, and you grab your bag and you go. Well, that's what the bride does when the groom comes to town to take her to his home, and then she will go with the groom back to his home, and that's where they would have a wedding feast, and that would usually last for a few days, three days. And um, you know, it's just so amazing because that's what we're doing. We're waiting for the groom to come, we're waiting for Christ to return. Are we prepared? Many of us are not. How many people are sitting in churches today and really haven't even thought about Jesus coming back again? There is scripture that says when he returns, it'll be like the blink of an eye. There'll be two people in the field or two people in a bed, one will be taken and one will be left behind. Just like those ten virgins. Half of them got to go with the groom and half of them didn't. And when those who were not prepared went to the groom's home and said, Hey, we're here, open up. He said, I Don't know you. And the term that they use uh in the original text was I don't recognize you. They had not gotten to know the groom. Have we not gotten to know the groom? This is how we get to know him by reading the word. We also get to know him as we spend quiet time with him in the secret place, just one-on-one. And that's hard sometimes for us today, and we will talk about that later, because we're so used to always going, going, going, doing something. We're a busy generation. And sometimes we stay busy so we don't have to take time to look and see exactly where our heart is. So I'm encouraging you today to be ready. Christ will be returning for us who are his. Yes, we float and let God direct our steps. It says the steps of a righteous man will be ordered of the Lord. And that's what happens when we're full of that spirit. And if we're full of the spirit, we'll be prepared when the groom comes. So stay tuned for our teaching next week. We're going to go a little bit further in being prepared for our groom. Bye bye. Thank you for joining us today on Under Heaven Podcast. Be sure to uh write me, Patricia, at lookingup24.org, and I'll be so glad to hear from you. Have a good one. Bye bye.