Introduction
    Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and 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 is 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, “Master, Master, open to us.” But He answered, “Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.” Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour, Matthew 25:1-13.
   Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark … and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away … and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all so will it be on the day when Ben Adam is revealed. On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. I tell you, “In that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left.” And they said to him, “Where, Master?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather,” Luke 17:26-27; Matthew 24:39; Luke 17:27-37.
   But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. … Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Sovereign is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. … Blessed is that servant whom his Master will find so doing when He comes, Matthew 24:36, 42-44, 46. 
   But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man. … Heaven and earth will pass away, but My Words will not pass away, Luke 21:34-36, 33.

Airbags Aren’t Pillows; Don’t Drive Drowsy
    Recently, I was driving Interstate 44, and this message, posted by the Missouri Department of Transportation (MODOT) on a digital roadside sign, captured my attention. Many today are Driving LIFE Drowsy … Asleep, At The Wheel – so wrapped up in cares and affairs; so much allowing the deceitfulness of riches admittance into their lives; so much of the substance of those things that can be possessed, but which perish with the using; so much leaning to their own understanding and a way that seems right, that they’ve little left to consider that it is in acknowledging Yahweh and His inviolate will and immutable Law, that their path is enlightened and illuminated so that they need not trip over, and become crushed by, the stumbling blocks of loss and adversity.
   Each of us faces the same struggle of balancing time and aspirations (interpreted here to mean, the cares and affairs of life) with maintaining, and sustaining, a faithful steadfastness toward pursuing the will of Yahweh ~ simply stated, SANCTIFICATION.
   And so, to begin this discourse, let us make recourse to the first clause of Psalm 31:15: “My times are in Thy hand …”
   We are contemporary Marthas – “careful and troubled about many things” (Luke 10:41), neglecting, or at the least, deferring to the morrow, that one thing which is needful: choosing that good part, sitting at Yahshua’s feet, hearing His Word.
   It is today, as it was then. The Apostle Peter, in his general epistles, wrote: Yea, I think it meet… to stir you up by putting you in remembrance… That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the Commandment of us the apostles of the Master and Saviour … Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things … be established in the present truth … gird up the loins of your mind … as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: but as He Which hath called you is set apart, so be set apart in all manner of behavior; because it is written, “Be ye set apart; for I am set apart, 2 Peter 1:13, 3:2, 1:12; 1 Peter 1:13, 14-16.
   Very much of the verbiage that proceeds from our pulpit and which is written in our literature, is spoken and written over and over, and is expended on correction, instruction, and exhortation to a people to go on to perfection.
   But the Truth is, the observable outcome manifests so little application of that verbiage in a people going on to perfection, leaving the Word Expositor, drained and discouraged and feeling himself, that he, too, has come short of that glory which Yahweh has purposed for His people.
   It’s very nearly that time, my friend: Your redemption is drawing nigh and you can ill afford to resign yourself to, “Oh well, life goes on.” For that’s what scoffers say: “Where is the promise of His coming?… all things continue as they were…” (2 Pet. 3:4).
   Yes, life goes on, but what life? stale and stagnant; dark and miry. But that’s not the life, and that more abundantly, which Yahshua promised to give us.
   Today, you will hear people who have some little knowledge of time and season, pontificate, saying, “We’re mortgaging our children’s and our grandchildren’s future. But these aren’t willing personally, to stop their contribution toward increasing that mortgage … unaware, that as long as breath is warming their bodies, they are mortgaging their futures, too.

Rome, Revisited
    Many writers and thinkers have drawn many similarities between the decline of the Roman Empire, and the current decline of the Western World – Europe, and especially, the United States of America – that has characterized the past 50 years.
   The social mores and financial belt-tightening of a people accustomed to having lived through the decades of the 1930’s, 1940’s, and 1950’s have given place to ultra-liberal, socialistic politics that has compromised principles; abridged personal freedoms; redefined lifestyles; and, been given over to consumption, consumption, consumption …
   But at what expense, as a people gladly surrender what had been so long cherished of principles and freedoms and Scriptural foundations of financial security and integrity, to a Government positioned as a generous benefactor doling out economic stimuli and social welfare, and robbing its constituencies of personal initiative and ambition.
   That’s where we’re at: The United States and many other, thought-to-be first world countries, presently wallowing in serious moral turbulence and fiscal instability, as war is waged by the ‘woke’ folk against past cherished institutions like traditional marriage between one man and one woman, till death do they part; against propagation of family, and family values, purposed of the Creator; against the religion of the Bible and Its practitioners whom they would criminalize as narrow-minded bigots.
   And let’s speak particularly of wallowing in serious fiscal instability – very much related, incidentally, to the United States and many other, thought-to-be first world countries, wallowing in serious moral turbulence; among the United States and many other, thought-to-be first world countries, hanging on, but barely, at the precipice to social catastrophe and economic collapse.
   We came across a recent Prophetic Trends article appearing in the Assemblies of Yahweh publication, the Sacred Name Broadcaster, entitled, “A World On Edge.” It was a sober read. The author of that piece, cited words from Merrill C. Tenney’s two-volume work, New Testament Survey and New Testament Times, a vivid portrait of the Roman empire during the formative period of the Messianic faith.
   Addressing the socio-economic aura of the time, he writes:
   The world of the first century was not unlike the modern world of the [21st] century. Rich and poor, virtuous men and criminals, free men and slaves, lived side by side and the social and economic conditions that prevailed were similar to those of the present day. The old free-holding populace of Italy had disappeared. Many of the earlier senatorial families had perished in the party struggles. … In their place had risen a new aristocracy, the landholders who controlled public lands by their influence and who bought cheaply the private lands of those whose families were impoverished by war or by the impossibility of making a living from a small farm. … Largely because of the rise of slavery which was built upon the use of military captives, the middle class was almost crushed out of the empire. Many had been killed in the wars and proscriptions. Many others had been unable to meet the competition of slave labor, and had slowly been starved out of their small farms and estates.
   Gradually, they swelled the homeless and foodless mobs, which filled the great cities, especially Rome, and they became dependent for their sustenance upon the state. The hungry, idle crowds, who would vote for any candidate whose promises sounded better than those of his competitor were a dangerous and unpredictable factor in the social life of the empire.
   Moral declension does not mean that no comparatively decent people existed, or that virtue was completely stifled. [But] it does mean that the prevailing trend in society verged downward in indulgence and to lawlessness. Human life was cheap and murder was frequent. Divorce was easy to obtain and was generally accepted in ‘society’. The [abandonment] of unwanted infants was a common practice, as illustrated in the well-known letter of Hilarion to his wife, Alis: “Should ye bear a child, if it is a boy, let it live. If it is a girl, expose it.” Superstitions and trickery of every kind flourished.
   That’s where we’re at, and we need not wonder what’s next. The advent of Revelation 13’s beast system is closer … now, than when we first believed. The love of money, and what money can buy, has been, and still is, the root of all this evil and when the dominoes begin to fall … and they are even now, shaking and quaking, there will be no stopping them.
   All the foundations of the earth are, already, out of course; the world’s economic system is in a state of jeopardy, on the heels of moral decay that has been prompted by unrestrained imagination and the pursuit of excess. Yes, the world’s economic system is in a state of jeopardy, and the beast system of Revelation 13 will enslave the peoples of the world, because the money interests will demand a return on the credit it’s extended.
   No nation in the history of the world has ever escaped debt without involuntary adjustment. As of this writing, the United States owes its foreign creditors more than $33 trillion, and has to borrow more just to make the interest due these loans. The time will come, and is here already, that no longer will America’ treasured monuments and public spaces satisfy as collateral to its creditor nations. $218 million is added every hour to America’s debt clock – that’s $5.2 billion every day. Reckless spending, wasteful squandering, not only by Government – but by its subjects as well … people buying things they don’t really need with money they don’t have in hand.
   Economic growth in this country has been fueled by increases in credit card balances. Credit card debt in America has exceeded $1 trillion, with interest by some lenders approaching 35%, and card balances increasing by $48 billion from the second quarter of last year to $1.08 trillion the third quarter.
   And do we care? no, not when we can make minimum monthly payments … hardly FEELING the pinch at all. Some people MUST finance the purchase of a new car every two or three years – a purchase costing more than a modest home did a generation ago. Donghoon Lee, Economic Research Advisor of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, observed that the continued rise in credit card delinquency rates is broad-based across area income and region, but particularly pronounced among millennials and those with auto loans or student loans. (Millennials are that age group falling between 20 and 30 years of age.)
   Let’s talk about home mortgage debt. In the third quarter of 2023 (July-September), it increased to $17.3 trillion, an increase of $228 billion from the second quarter (April-June). As of the third quarter of last year, auto loans have topped $1.6 trillion. Repossessions and foreclosures, too, have risen dramatically as people, become accustomed to living above their means, discover that awaiting them at the end of their rainbows, is doom and gloom.

Yahweh’s Purpose for a Peculiar People
    Right here, examine yourself in the light of what Yahweh purposes for His Peculiar People. Let’s begin with a read from Philippians 4:12, 11:
   “… Every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need … I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound … for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”
   We’ve written these verses in a different order, so that you get a sense of process and order. One doesn’t learn without first being instructed. Today, some want to abound and be full, without first being instructed and learning how to be abased, hungry and suffering need because this latter is too painful. People naturally incline toward abounding and being full, living abundantly … and, on credit.
   Moreover, people don’t like their lifestyles challenged; they don’t like being told to “present your bodies a living sacrifice … which is your reasonable service … And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind …” (Rom. 12:1, 2). They don’t like being told how to live ~ not by the Word, and especially, not by the Word Expositor.
   However, becoming not conformed to this world but transformed by the renewing of your mind and, ultimately, conformed into the image of Yahweh’s Dear Son is only accomplished as you choose to give the more earnest heed to the five administrations of the Word and Which ought be presented in season, from the pulpit; and out of season, in the public square: Reproof, Correction, Instruction-in-Righteousness, Rebuke, Exhortation.
   In the Torah, in the first 13 verses of Deuteronomy, Yahweh promises blessings for a Peculiar Peoples’ obedience, concluding with these words in verse 13:
   And Yahweh shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of Yahweh thy Eloha, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do [them].
   So, judge yourself: Are you the head, or the tail? Are you above only, or beneath? Are you the borrower, enslaved to a lender? These are questions you need to answer. For if your answer is, “I’m the tail” and, “I’m beneath” and the answer is, “I’m the borrower, enslaved to a lender” – if this is your situation, then you need to work … yes, we did say, work, to change your position and, moreover, determine with yourself and with Yahweh Who is set to help you, that you’re going to get yourself FREE.
   Back in the January-March 2020 issue of the YAIY Beacon, there appeared an article, transcribed from a message delivered to the Assembly, entitled, “Scriptural Foundation For Financial Security And Integrity” – principles laid out in process and order, which if followed, will help you thrive and not just survive. (You can read that transcript online or you may order it for free.)
   Here’s the bottom line: We but fool ourselves if we expect Yahweh to be for us, when we’ve willingly positioned ourselves against His will.

But War is NOT the Way to Recovery
    History informs us that the way a nation attempts recovery from a failed economy, is to go to war. Transforming peace-time industrial production to war materiel, sparks a nation’s economy … at least, in the short term. And so, the way to sustain prosperity and to defer economic recession that inevitably follows a cessation of hostilities, is to lengthen the war, because it generally takes longer to reconvert again to peace-time production than the urgency which prompted the earlier industrial conversion.
   And we’ll digress a moment to give one further notice: World War 2 gave us, Rosie the Riveter, come to age during the 1940’s, as she replaced her menfolk in the workplace who were gone on to military service. Now, ‘earning’ her own way, and become the ‘head’ of her house, she experienced the ‘thrill’ of being ‘liberated’ – a situation that did not bide so well when once her menfolk returned home. For when her male significant others returned home from the front, many of them found their particular Rosies had discovered that the traditional relationship between man and woman, had given way to the nuclear age.
So now, let’s return to current events: The decimation of what was Ukraine continues – remember Ukraine, now in its 26th month of war with the Bully and the memory of which is faded, owing to a most recent distraction in the Middle East. Oh, and what about Israel? We’ll begin our commentary with an exegesis: Hamas (Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, G.2555, kwaw-mawc’, violence, by implication, wrong, and rendered severally in Scripture as unjust gain: cruel(ty), damage, oppressor, unrighteous, violence (against, done) violent (dealing).
   Hamas GoPro cameras documented and posted video images on the web, of the gleeful butchering of hundreds of civilians including women, children, and infants, and the taking of hundreds of hostages.
   And all this, occurred during the seventh Biblical month, and at a time when many in Israel were given to, as it was in the days of Noah … eating and drinking … likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot – they were eating and drinking … people – their hearts set on mischief; their hearts weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, so that day came upon them suddenly like a trap – at a music festival that sported licentious behavior instead of its attendees, regarding the sanctity of these set apart days and accentuating the reproach lauded by public media, owing to IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) responses to this terrorist aggression, labeled “disproportionate,” and fueling anti-Semitism around the world.
   Elitist universities assumed a part, too:
   • A Stanford instructor singled out Jewish students with unhinged rantings and denials of the Holocaust;
   • Screaming campus activists with their professors openly supported Hamas terrorism by marching and parading around campus buildings, waving Palestinian flags;
   • A Cornell University history faculty member was exhilarated with the news of Hamas atrocities;
   • An enraged University of California at Davis professor threatened harm to the children of “Zionist journalists;”
   • Inflammatory adjectives and nouns were assigned to Jews by a teacher at the Art Institute of Chicago.
   • At protest rallies, hundreds of students with faculty members and the general populace – many cloaked in garb resembling sheet- wearing Klansman, and wearing masks and wrapping their faces in keffiyehs – talked about eliminating Israel altogether.
   It bears repeating: It’s very nearly past the time, my friends – your redemption is drawing nigh!

Conclusion
    You can ill afford any longer, to resign yourselves to, “Oh well, life goes on” – but what life? stale and stagnant? dark and miry?
   That’s not the life, and that more abundantly, which Yahshua promised to give us.
   In the 36th chapter of Isaiah, we read of the Rabshakeh (Sennacherib, the king of Assyria’s field army commander) with a great army, standing at the conduit of the upper pool proximate to the highway of the fuller’s field taunting Israel, and encouraging a coup d’ etat against Hezekiah.
   Hezekiah, upon receiving word of the Rabshakeh’s reproach, rent his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of Yahweh, first sending Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah, declaring to him, “Thus saith Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy’” (Isa. 37:3).
   Well, today, too, is “… a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy …”

Airbags Aren’t Pillows; Don’t Drive Life Drowsy
    It’s time to awaken from “a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands” (Prov. 6:10). It’s both time and season to affirm to yourself, and to your sundry cares and affairs, “My times are in Thy hands …” (Psa. 31:15) – taking little less thought for tomorrow, and much more for this day: now, in a time accepted, to give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For what you have here, may well be your last, best hope in this time and season to take heed to a Word of deliverance from the apocalyptic Rabshakehs that are come, if it is possible, to wear you down and out.