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Did Yeshua leave an extra important warning for the generation that will be living when he returns?

Yeshua taught a number of parables about how people should be ready when comes in judgment. There have been many generations in the 2,000 years since his time, and these parables would seemingly inspire any generation to get its act together, and be prepared for judgment. After all, regardless of whether some remarkable judgment occurs in any given generation, it is always good for anyone of any generation to "Watch" and be ready for judgment by God.

However, when Yeshua brought up these parables he did so in the context of his return, therefore it leads one to wonder if there is something about what they say that is more specific to that generation that sees his return.

The first generation we have to consider is that one which saw that great judgment in 70 AD, fulfilling Yeshua's prophecy about "all the righteous blood shed upon the earth... shall come upon this generation." (1) Did Yeshua primarily have that generation in mind when giving these parables and what appears to be an extra important warning to a specific generation?

Maybe, but just in case it is for a yet future time, we will examine some of these parables in light of how they would apply to our present day situation where Yeshua might return any day now.

The Ten Virgins (Matthew 25:1-13)

In this parable you have ten virgins all waiting for a man to arrive. They all fall asleep, and then they are all alerted when that man has nearly arrived. Half of the virgins have run out of oil, and the others did not want to share. For some reason those without oil deemed it important enough that they went to go buy more oil, but that caused them to miss out on getting to enter when the man arrived.

Here is how it ends:

And while they went to buy [more oil], the bridegroom arrived. The ones who were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins showed up, saying, "Lord, Lord, open to us." But he answered and said, "Verily I say to you, I do not know you." Watch therefore, because you do not know the day nor hour when the son of man arrives. (2)

So, it is obvious that not all believers are looking for the return of Yeshua. The parable focuses squarely on those who are. All of them had bought oil, and some had bought more than others, and the ones who bought less oil had run out of oil. But others, it stands to reason, who are not mentioned in the parable, had bought no oil at all, or had in the past but long since ran out, and were not even looking for the arrival of the bridegroom, which I am interpreting to mean the return of Yeshua.

So the first thing we would take away from this parable is that it is about the group who is actually trying to be ready for the return of Yeshua, and not everyone who believes Yeshua will return one day is taking any steps to be ready for his return. We might also say that roughly HALF of the group who is trying to be ready for his return doesn't make the cut! Yeshua will say to them one day, "I do not know you!" It reminds me of what Yeshua said in another place, "Strive to enter the narrow gate, because many, I tell you, will seek to enter it and will fail to." (3) So his words in other places and reconfirming the idea in this parable.

Now another interesting thing is that it says "While the bridegroom tarried, they ALL slumbered and slept." (4) Slumbering and sleeping means not watching like they were suppose to. There are a few organizations today promoting the idea of a continued line of watchers-- men who are anointed by God to this special purpose of making sure his people do not become corrupted with bad influences. Well, according to Yeshua they ALL slumbered and slept, so we can throw out that idea of this standalone organization that has been watching on our behalf.

We also see that although they had all slumbered and slept that they were alerted to his arrival by some stranger (lucky for them). In the real world, we can look up the history and see that various groups of believers have been warning eachother (inaccurately) of the imminent return of Yeshua down throughout these last 2,000 years. Like the boy who cried wolf, this has caused both believers and non-believers alike to generally not pay attention to any of them. The parable shows that the real alert comes from an outsider, someone who happened to know about their situation and is awake during the night.

This point is also made very clear: when the cry is made, it is too late for anyone to go back to buy more oil. If you are to make it in at all, you must go as you are.

(1) Matthew 23:35-36

(2) Matthew 25:10-13

(3) Luke 13:24

(4) Matthew 25:5