When we use the word “awake” it can be used as an adjective, describing the state of being alert and not asleep. Or it can also be used as a verb to encourage someone who is already asleep to wake up, rouse from sleep, rouse to action, and become active.
In a spiritual sense, it would be good if we were already awake, alert and active—not sleeping. In Matthew 25 the Church of God is described using a parable of ten virgins, all of who are asleep. When they are woken up at midnight, they all became alert, but not all were ready for action. Some were missing a vital ingredient that prevented them from being active, and that was oil. It was dark. It was midnight, and being without oil would mean they were without light and would be groping in darkness, not able to find their way. Although they are awake now and alert, they are lost.
How are you doing spiritually? Are you awake, alert and active in the work of the Lord? Or are you sleeping, as the ten virgins were? When the call of the Bridegroom does come at midnight, will you be found with the oil of the Holy Spirit or will you be lacking and find yourself without—groping in darkness, unable to find your way—without hope?
Stop! Think! Reflect! “Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.” Haggai 1:7. “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.” 2 Corinthians 13:5
“Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of His fury.” Isaiah 51:17. All throughout history there have been calls for God’s people to wake up. Here Isaiah is trying to arouse the Israelites from their drunken stupor, induced by the wine of God’s fury. The meting out of judgments is often likened to the pouring out of a cup of wrath. An earnest call is extended to Jerusalem to arouse herself and come to her senses before it is forever too late. The prophets to the nation of Israel sent many warnings to try to rouse the nation to the danger they were in. “Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.” Isaiah 52:1
As individuals, and as a nation, God purposed to furnish the people of Israel “with every facility for becoming the greatest nation on the earth.” –Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 288. He purposed to make them an honour to His name and a blessing to the nations about them. The nation of Israel did not fulfil God’s purpose. They forgot the Lord, became spiritually sleepy and complacent, and were beginning to think and act like the heathen nations around them. Therefore, God sent message after message to help them to wake up.
Are we spiritually sleepy and complacent? Do we need to be awakened to the time in which we live and the necessary preparation we still need to make for salvation? We need to examine ourselves so that we are not only overcoming sins of commission but sins of omission also. This is where many will fail in the end. Although salvation is purely a gift from God in response to our faith and love, yet, if that faith and love does not prompt action it is not a genuine and living faith. “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then He shall reward every man according to his works.” Matthew 16:27. The verse does not read that He shall reward every man according to his “faith”, but it says according to his “works.” This is faith in action. “There are sins of omission, as well as sins of commission, and all of us are influencing the course of others. A neglect when the work is laid before you, is as wrong as to perform some sinful action, for in neglecting your duty you fail to supply your link in the chain of God’s great work.” –Manuscript Releases, vol. 11, p. 297. Sleepy people are not working. They are either unaware of their surroundings or they are feeling too lethargic to do much. It is time to awake!
“My brethren and sisters, do you desire to break the spell that holds you? Would you arouse from this sluggishness that resembles the torpor of death? Go to work, whether you feel like it or not. Engage in personal effort to bring souls to Jesus and the knowledge of the truth. In such labor you will find both a stimulus and a tonic; it will both arouse and strengthen. By exercise your spiritual powers will become more vigorous, so that you can with better success work out your own salvation. The stupor of death is upon many who profess Christ. Make every effort to arouse them. Warn, entreat, expostulate. Pray that the melting love of God may warm and soften their icebound natures. Though they may refuse to hear, your labor will not be lost. In the effort to bless others your own souls will be blessed.” –Counsels to the Church, p. 59
Those who did listen and wake up were a great blessing for the cause of God. “Awake, awake, Deborah: utter a song: arise.” Judges 5:12. Here a message is given to Deborah to rouse herself and summon the tribes to action. She did go and what a great victory there was for the nation of Israel.
However, the reality is that those who do not listen and do not do the work of the Lord go further away. “Those who profess to believe the truth, but feel no burden for the souls of others, will be continually backsliding, and it will require time and strength on the part of the minister to keep them from making shipwreck of faith, when they should be laboring with all their might to present the way of life and salvation to their friends and neighbors.” –The Review and Herald, June 10, 1880
“Wherefore He saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” Ephesians 5:14. As in every age, in the New Testament church there were spiritual sleepers in the church. The Apostle Paul gives the believers the exhortation to arouse and awake. “Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.” 1 Corinthians 15:34. The Greek word here used here for “awake” is “eknepho”, which literally means “to wake up from a deep sleep” and is often applied to those who awake sober after intoxication. Here a call is made to turn back from error to the right way of thinking and acting. It is a warning against the danger of feel spiritually complacent and apathetic. Christians need to be constantly on the alert against false teachings, spiritual sloth, and the darts of the enemy. “Satan is continually at work to rock our people to sleep in the cradle of carnal security.”–Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, p. 600
“And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.” Romans 13:11–12. The preparation needed for the great day of God demands of Christians a wakeful vigilance. Is the Lord’s coming closer now than when you first believed? It is high time for us all to be awake. Make sure you do not lose your first love as did the Ephesian believers (Revelation 2:4). The fact that time has continued longer than many expected does not mean that the Word of God has failed. There is a work to be done. Every individual believer must have a continuing sense of the shortness of the time and the imminence of the return of Christ. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night for those sleep in lukewarmness and self-indulgence (1 Thessalonians 5:3). It is high time to cast off the works of darkness—our sinful habits— and put on the armour of light, fighting the spiritual battle with weapons of light—the spiritual armour of God (Ephesians 6:12–17).
DISCIPLES SLEEPING
The disciples, although they loved their Lord, were found sleeping when He was praying at key moments on His sojourn on this earth. The first time it is recorded that they were sleeping was on the Mount of Transfiguration. Before the appearance of Moses and Elijah, Jesus was praying and the disciples fell asleep. “But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep: and when they were awake, they saw His glory, and the two men that
stood with Him.” Luke 9:32. The second time it is recorded that they fell asleep was in the Garden of Gethsemane, a very crucial time in history when the plan of salvation hung in the balances. “And He cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with Me one hour?” Matthew 26:40. Since they slept in the Garden when Jesus prayed, they were not prepared at all for the events of the next day. They deserted their Master. Yet God, in His mercy, still forgave them as they repented and they continued to faithfully do His work for the rest of their lives.
“Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.” 1 Thessalonians 5:6. Although others may be asleep around us, we must awake. The word sleep here implies those that are indifferent to the nearness of the coming of Christ. It is a lethargy that keeps the Christian from being prepared for the final events. We are exhorted not to be influenced by others into spiritual sloth, but to be fully awake and to watch; being sober—temperate, steady, calm in spirit, in view of the great day that is coming.
“Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:13. Peter, who was found sleeping in Gethsemane, is now wide awake and encouraging others also to be awake, to prepare their minds for diligent activity. The mind is a secret place where no one enters but the Lord. We are encouraged to gather up the loose reins of our thought processes and exercise the mind on the great truths of salvation revealed by the Spirit of Christ. “Pray without ceasing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17
A GOD CLOSE BY
Sometimes it may seem that Jesus Himself is sleeping, “And He was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake Him, and say unto him, Master, carest Thou not that we perish?” Mark 4:38. Yet the truth is that He is a God close by. He is not far away. He sees everything that is said and done on this earth and He has never turned His ear from the cry of the penitent. If we feel He is far away, we need to search our own hearts. Ask ourselves, who moved? It was not Jesus because, “Jesus Christ [is] the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” Hebrews 13:8. The truth is that, “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God.” Isaiah 59:2
The call is made by the Lord: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” Isaiah 55:7
“Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retaineth not His anger for ever, because He delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” Micah 7:18–19
Awake to righteousness, the coming of the Lord is nigh at hand. My prayer is that you will not be found without oil, when the Bridegroom does come; that all sins will be repented of, and blotted out by the blood of the Lamb, and we can say, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.” Isaiah 25:9. Amen.
Wendy Eaton