Well, did Jesus celebrate polygamy? It's an interesting question from a listener named Amy. "Hello, Pastor John. I know you have opposed polygamy on the podcast in episode 860, but I'm curious, if Jesus was so opposed to it, why did he use the parable of the 10 virgins in Matthew 25 verses 1 to 13?

Why would Jesus use this parable if taking multiple wives was immoral?" Pastor John, what would you say to Amy? Let's read the parable. "Then the kingdom of heaven will be like 10 virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, five were wise.

For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, 'Here's the bridegroom, come out to meet him.' Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.' But the wise answered, saying, 'Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.' And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut.

Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open to us.' But he answered, 'Julie, I say to you, I do not know you. Watch therefore,'" this is Jesus' application, "'watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour,'" meaning the day or the hour of the coming of the Son of Man.

Now Amy asks, if Jesus was opposed to polygamy, why did he use the parable of the ten virgins? And I assume Amy asked this question because she thinks the ten virgins are waiting to marry the bridegroom when he comes. And perhaps she's encouraged in that interpretation because another bride is never mentioned in the parable.

The bride is never mentioned. But that assumption that Amy seems to be making is not necessary or even likely, as Amy herself seems to imply. First because Jesus is clear on what he thinks marriage is. It's rooted in God's design with Adam and Eve in Genesis 2. And so he says in Matthew 19, "For have you not read," and he's referring back there to that Genesis passage, "Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said, 'Therefore a man shall, a man, one man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two," not ten, "two shall become one flesh." So it's much more likely that we should see these ten virgins as what we would call bridesmaids.

We don't know the details of how they did weddings among the Jews in those days, but it's easy to imagine that the bride is in the house waiting at the feast in private, not seen yet, and the bridesmaids, their job is supposed to run out to the bridegroom and bring him in with a great feast to where the bride is waiting.

So here's a good principle to learn about parables at this point. Beware of letting imaginary details of parables—and that's what parables are, they're imaginary—take on meaning which would contradict the clear teaching of Jesus elsewhere. Parables are not that sort of teaching. They are verbal pictures to make a point, but not every brush stroke in the picture is designed to make a separate point.

And let me illustrate from this very parable, this principle that I think is valuable here. It ends with a pretty clear statement of application. Jesus says, "Therefore," so I've just told you this story, now here's the "therefore." "Therefore, watch, for you know neither the day nor the hour." So he's comparing the coming of Jesus the second time to the coming of the bridegroom at night, and they didn't know what time he was going to come.

He says, "Therefore, watch, for you know neither the day nor the hour." So the point we are to take away from five foolish virgins whose oil ran out, and five wise virgins who took thought to be ready with extra oil, was, "Watch, so that the Lord's second coming doesn't take you off guard like that." But what does "watch" mean?

All ten were sleeping! All ten! The wise virgins were sleeping. They're not criticized for it. All ten were sleeping. If you think "watching" means going to your window and looking into the sky for the imminent coming of Jesus, you're not getting what "watch" means here. Including these wise virgins who are sleeping.

They are successfully watching. So what does "watch" mean? They're wise. They're watching where they're supposed to. It doesn't mean stay up all night. No, it means stay awake to your calling. Stay awake to your duty. Stay awake to the vigilance you should have spiritually in your life. "Watch" doesn't mean don't sleep.

It means don't fail to avail yourself of all the spiritual resources you will need to persevere in your calling and your duty till Jesus comes. So he finds you doing your duty, which means running out to meeting when he comes, having done your duty. So in the parable the duty was, "Honor the bridegroom with a great welcome and bring him into the celebration so that he can eat with his wife." It didn't matter if you slept, provided that you had all the resources you need to wake up and be there doing what you're supposed to do.

So when it says at the end, "Watch," the watchfulness is spiritual life, vitality, readiness, vigilance, care. So the parable is not about polygamy or monogamy. It's not even about marriage. It's about what it means to live in the light of the second coming with spiritual wakefulness and vitality, always ready to be found doing what our duty is when he comes.

________________ Great takeaway on eschatological wakefulness. Thank you, Pastor John. So good. And we did, in fact, talk about polygamy in a past episode, in episode 860, number 860, which is titled, "May I Have Two Wives, Six Vidos." That's the title. And that's one of our 1,300, over now 1,300 total episodes to date.

Thank you for your interest and questions over the past six years. You can search all those episodes and read full transcripts that are online at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn. Speaking of follow-up questions, our episode on fantasy sports gambling recently brought in a few of those questions as well. Specifically, isn't educated sports gambling as virtuous as playing the stock market?

We'll talk financial risk-taking when we return on Monday. I'm Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening and have a great weekend. 1 DesiringGod.org Page 1 of 2 Page 1 of 2 Page 1 of 2 Page 1 of 2