Is Prepping Biblical?
What kind of question is this? The greatest preppers of all time are in the Bible. Not only are they praised for prepping, but in certain outstanding cases it was the Lord God who ordered them to do it. Noah and Joseph should come immediately to mind and settle this question for one and all. If it is more “spiritual” to just trust the Lord, then why isn’t that what the Lord told those two to do? Are we more spiritual than those giants of the faith?
"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. Matthew 25:1-4
All scripture citations are from the English Standard Version (ESV) unless otherwise noted.
Biblical Heroes
Noah is a perfect example for us. He was facing a world-wide flood of judgment coming his way. We are too. What he did under the Lord’s specific guidance and direction is the stuff of legends. His prepping for the impending disaster not only saved his life and his family’s life, it saved humanity! Not only that, but all life on earth was replenished through what he did by bringing the animals onto the ark. Even better, without the seed of the woman persevered through his lineage, there could have been no Messiah and no future salvation coming to anyone. Thank God Noah was a prepper!
Joseph was too. His prepping also preserved the seed through which the Savior would come and Israel, the nation which would raise and recognize Him. Even so, much of Joseph’s prepping wasn’t with any of this in mind, as it would have been for Noah. Joseph was simply working in a sensible way in a foreign nation—and a thoroughly pagan nation at that. Yet, God gave Joseph a dream so that Joseph could be freed from prison and placed in charge of Egypt’s affairs, second only to Pharaoh. Why? Because Joseph’s ideas for how to prepare for the impending disaster—storing food—would save Egypt. Saving Israel was in no one’s mind at the time. Only the Lord’s. Thank God that Joseph didn’t think it beneath him to do a little righteous prepping!
Everyone knows the parable Jesus told about the wise and foolish virgins quoted above. This is set in the context of the End Times, the very times that we are talking about. The foolish virgins earned their nickname because they foolishly didn’t stay prepared for the expected arrival of the bridegroom. They didn’t have oil—the basic commodity they needed to keep their lamps burning. We can spiritualize this all we may want, but it is a clear tale of physical preparation. The wise virgins weren’t storing food as Joseph had, but they were keeping sufficient quantities of fuel on hand. Our expected Bridegroom, Jesus, praised them for doing so.
One unsung prepping hero shows up in an unexpected way in the feeding of the five thousand. Recall that the disciples were completely unprepared and thrown into confusion, if not panic. They weren’t being spiritual by being unprepared. They weren’t even prepared to believe Jesus for a miracle. One boy, however, had been prepped by his mom. She alone looked ahead and thought it would be a good idea to send her son with plenty to eat—just in case. She didn’t do a lot of prepping, but what she did was what Jesus needed someone to do. It was the seed from which He grew a miracle.
Is prepping Biblical? Of course, it is!
Next Way to Prepare
Prepare to Go through It If you have ever seen someone experience the sudden, unexpected death of a loved one, then you know that there is a lot to being mentally and emotionally prepared. You can brace yourself. That’s why it is usually such a mercy to the ones left behind, if there was the sort of illness that prepared them for the inevitable letting go. Going through grief is hard, but if it catches you suddenly and unprepared it can sweep you off your feet. Surely, this is a major reason why the Lord has given us so much advance warning about the times to come.
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