“Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” Matthew 24

“…the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut.” Matthew 25.

Here is the simple point: the main reason the saints will be surprised at the end of the age is if they were not lead into preparation.

If the New Testament spends pages and pages on the end of the age, and a large percentage of the text is aimed at it, then making the end of the age a priority should be so for the saints.

Sadly we are under the impression that the thief in the night teaching means that we don’t need to prepare… since we don’t know, it must not be right away. Rather, the Bible taught that Jesus was coming like a thief in the night…therefore prepare! Be ready every night! The follow up warning is about drunkenness. The idea is not that the sober person will be ready, but that the sober-minded will be ready (1 Peter 5).

And so the reason that the final years last for 7 years is that the saints may have time to repent, wake up, and make themselves ready. The saints will have some time to make the necessary heart preparations to be ready for the bridegroom. Saying things like, “well we really don’t know if we are the last generation” is how Satan ensures that we don’t get ready, which defeats the commandment of Christ. Really? We have more time to be drunk? That’s why Jesus is hiding his exact arrival plan? But when we act like that it shows our faith.

The better thing to do is spend more time that we currently give to stupor (ever seen the face of a person in front of a screen?) and spend that time in sober mindedness. Not anger at the world, or escaping into fantasy, but alert, aware, and seeking the face of our beloved. It is the ones eagerly anticipating him for whom Jesus will return…and when he will return.