4 Keys To Wisdom (Part 4)

“But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet, and the door was shut. Later, the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’ Therefore, keep watch because you do not know the day or the hour.” Matthew 25:10-13

In Proverbs 30, Solomon speaks of four little things on the earth that can teach us great wisdom. The spider displays the value of determination, the cony models habitation, and the locusts teach us about unification. But the ant helps us learn the value of preparation. The ant prepares his meat in the summer because he knows winter is coming. The message of the ant is to prepare for winter! 

Life has been summed up in the four seasons. There’s spring time, which represents youth and vitality. These are the years you are in the season of childhood and adolescence. Then, you move from spring to summer, which is womanhood or manhood. You take on your own life, your own identity, and your own direction. But then there comes the fall of life. It’s when you’re getting older, and life is about your children and your children’s children. You’ve reached a place in life where you have lived your life, and now you’re living for others. But then, inevitably, comes winter. Winter in the Bible always speaks of death. And the Scripture says, “If you’re wise, you’ll be like the ant because he, during the summer, prepares for winter.” Thousands of ants work together when they find food because they know winter is coming.

Hebrews 9:27 says, “For it is appointed unto man once to die.” You don’t make the appointment; God does. You don’t decide when the appointment will take place. The message of the ant is, don’t wait too late. Don’t just live for here and now. Don’t just live your life as though eternity is not real. Hell is full of people who said, “One day, some day, I’m going to get right with God.”

Are you prepared to meet God? If Jesus were to come back today, would you be left behind? The wisdom and message of the ant is “prepare for winter.” No one knows when their winter will come, and no one knows when Jesus will return.

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