WISDOM'S FEAST
WISDOM’S FEAST
The chief thing presented to us in the 14th chapter of Luke, is the supper; and it becomes a great thing for us to know what this supper is. You see it is at the end of the day — it is the celebration of an accomplished work, — it is a festival, wisdom’s feast. It is often used, I have no doubt, for preaching the gospel, but though it includes that, there is a great deal more — it is the climax, the completion of the thing. In chapter 15, we read of a feast, and it is at the end of the blessing, not at the beginning of it. We have not got to heaven yet, but we taste of the joy of it, that is the supper. The supper is in the Father’s house.
It will help us if we note that there are three places in which the prodigal is found. First he was lost: grace came and he got enlightened. He came to himself, he arose, and while he was yet a great way off the father saw him, and he gets the kiss. Last of all we read of the feast, “They began to be merry”. The three parables are fulfilled in every believer. We get the shepherd going after the lost sheep, that is, Christ on the cross; then the woman lighting her candle, and sweeping diligently. You get light working in the soul. “And he arose, and came to his father”. Well, what next; “His father saw him, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him”. (Luke 15:20) The sinner gets the sense in his soul ‘there is love in the heart of God for me’. That is the first thing that gives real comfort. It is not a question of love in me, but in Him. How do you know that love? He kissed me. You see it was God’s act: the kiss is the expression of the one who gives it. There is love in the [p. 86] heart of God for you. I do not ask, Are you a better man? but Do you know this love of God?
The true evidence of a converted, man is, that he prays, as it was said to Ananias of Saul; “Behold he prayeth;” that is, he counts on God. Like the Syrophenician woman, she did not get the blessing when she took the place of Israel, but when she took that of a dog (deserving nothing), looking to Him, He gave her what she sought. There is nothing a parent values more than confidence. Confidence is when I count on you; presumption is when I count on myself. Suppose I go to a friend’s house, and walk in, and he says, ‘I am delighted to see you’. ‘Well’, I say, ‘I counted on you’. But if l go to a stranger’s door and do so that is presumption, I am counting upon myself. Man turned from God at the garden of Eden, and to bring himself back, that is presumption. Then how do I get confidence? I see Christ given for me, that is how I get it. “God commendeth his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”. (Romans 5:8) We are not up to grace. Look at the thief; “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom”. The Lord says, “To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise”. (Luke 23:42 - 43) Grace was beyond him. When the son got the kiss, he was still a great way off. What then? “Bring forth the best robe;” what then? He is, in another place. “And bring hither (it does not say, “Bring forth”) the fatted calf ... and let us eat, and be merry”. (Luke 15:22 - 23) That is the feast. I trust I am addressing those who have got the kiss. You have got the sense in your soul ‘there is love in the heart of God for me’. Is that all? It is not, it is only the beginning. Well, what now? (Romans 5.) You get the new clothes, for we are, made “meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light”. (Colossians 1:12) That is the divine nature; that fits me for that other place; for what I insist upon is that there is another place — a place with the Father.
[p. 87] I ask the evangelist, Where do you leave your converts? With the kiss, or at the feast? Many never bring them to the feast at all. The feast is in the Father’s house. “They began to be merry”. The soul must be brought to the sense of this — I am in the scene that suits God. There is the feast.
It is the same grace that kisses me afar way off that delights to have me in the Father’s house. But, you say, it is a great thing to have had the kiss. I admit it. If you have not had the kiss, you have nothing. But l am talking about the feast, because I want you to see it is the same love that gives me the kiss that will not be satisfied till I am at the feast.
It is not that I am not satisfied; but He is not satisfied. No greater appeal can be made than that. If you wish to gratify the Father’s heart, go in and partake of the feast. I remember hearing of a mother whose heart was broken by the bad conduct of a favourite son-, it brought her to death’s door. At length he returned, and someone told her he was come. What do you think was the message she sent out to him? ‘Tell him to come upstairs’. Suppose he were to say. ‘No’. Well, I would say you were bad enough before, but now you are shameful. That is what I say to you. Have you ever gratified the heart of God? What do you mean? Have you ever come to the feast? Have you ever enjoyed the fatted calf? It is a figurative expression, but every one who has lived in the country knows what the fatted calf is: one kept under a crib till some great guest arrives, then it is brought forth. Beloved friends, the things set forth here is the love of the Father, He was so glad to have the prodigal back. Now, He says, we have the right guest. Who is the guest? A sinner saved by grace. And that is what the elder brother could not understand at all. God’s heart was delighted to have a poor sinner. Now, He says, for the feast, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard” that is, the feast; “Neither have entered into the heart of man”. “But” now says the apostle, we go beyond that — “God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit”. (1 Corinthians 2:9 - 10)
We have the feast, (verse 15). One said, “Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God”. (Luke 14:15) Oh! says the Lord, You are looking forward to the millennium; but there is something before that. Just as with the thief, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom”. (Luke 23:42) This man was looking for the kingdom, not what the Lord brings before us in the supper. Now we find one thing very clear, that the feast or “great Supper”, is not an earthly feast (the kingdom was that), and if earthly blessing is occupying you, you turn away from the supper, and therefore the Lord looks out for those who are poor and wretched, for the others are pre-occupied and will not come.
It is the festive moment when the soul is brought into the sense of divine enjoyment — festivity with God. I am at home with God. Did you ever hear of a father that did not like to share the joy of his house with his children? I ask you; have you entered into the feast of the Father’s house? What was the apostle’s anxiety about the saints? That they should be converted? No, they were converted. That they should walk as respectable citizens down here? Of course he wanted that, but that was not what they were converted for. “For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea; ... that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge”. (Colossians 2:1 - 3) It is a wonderful thing for a person to say, True, I have a poor place down here, but I have a wonderful home. You see the poor [p. 89] labouring man, toiling on from day to day, but he says, “I have a home”. You never met a man in the world going on regularly and steadily, who had not a home. And the Christian who has not a home is very shaky and uncertain. In one sense I have not a home; I am a pilgrim and a stranger. A stranger is one without a home; a pilgrim is one going home; but how can you be going home, if you do not know you have a home? I shall always be walking down here in the sorrows of this world, if I do not know I have a home, and taste of the enjoyment of it, and walk in the power of it.
Now turn to 1 Kings 10, because people ask, ‘But how do you get this?’ The Lord said of Himself (Luke 11) that He was greater than Jonah, and greater than Solomon. It is not only that Christ suffered here and bore the judgment of sin which answers to Jonah, but He is greater than Solomon. The apostle says, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above”. (Colossians 3:1). Beloved friends, are you seeking the things above? Now do not say that is all very fine if I could only get to it. It is not a question of getting it; but are you seeking it?
Look at the queen of Sheba; you get an example there of seeking. We might say of Christendom, The queen of Sheba shall rise up and condemn it. She was the queen of the south, a gentile - just what we are. Well, you say, I wish I could get it. Then you are like the queen of Sheba. She said, I must have it. It was at an immense cost she had to come from Abyssinia, across the desert; a toilsome journey. No matter; look at what was in her heart. I am set upon having it, at whatever cost. Oh, that this were in every saint’s heart! I am set upon having the enjoyment of Christ.
I remember when I wanted to get that enjoyment in Christ. What did I find? That things I never thought I could get rid of dropped off like autumn [p. 90] leaves. Why? They lost their power. Why? Because they were cast into the shade. What was Paul’s argument? “I saw ... a light above the brightness of the sun”. (Acts 26:13) What I have to learn, and what I have learned, in some feeble measure, is that Christ is the brightest thing, not only in the dark day, but the brightest thing in the bright day. In the brightest circumstances possible. He is the brightest - far “above the brightness of the sun”. That is what will put out the farm, the oxen, and every earthly blessing. Will you go to trouble to get it? Paul counted “all things but loss” — not for salvation; he had got that — “for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord”, that he might know Him. How long had he been at it? Thirty years. “I have suffered the loss of all things;” (Philippians 3:8) He counted them rubbish. The moment I hear a man saying, I lost so-and-so following the Lord, I say, Oh, do not talk about what you lost. If you lost a farthing in picking up a sovereign, you would not be talking of what you had lost. If you counted Christ as a treasure you would be talking of what you found in Him.
This great queen had great treasures; gold and silver, and precious stones, and camels. Can you not imagine her counsellors of state addressing her: ‘Madam, this is a most extraordinary journey to take; think of the time, the fatigue, the cost, and on a mere report’. ‘Ah’ she said, ‘I’ll go; I do not care what it cost; all I want is to talk with Solomon’. Beloved friends, is that what is in your, heart, I want to talk with Him? That is not all she goes to Jerusalem for. Many souls stop on the way; many have the kiss, and stop there. I may be speaking to some who have never been in the Fathers house. People make a wonderful thing of it if they walk seven or eight miles to a meeting, and talk of what they lost — perhaps a day’s work. It is not what you have lost, but what you gained. We ought to be set on this “[p. 91] Until we all arrive at ... the knowledge of the Son of God”. (Ephesians 4:13) That is the highest knowledge you can ever come to. The queen came to Jerusalem with a very great train. People say, ‘if only I had everything in this world, I would be all right’. Well, she was not all right. The world is divided into two things — pleasures and afflictions; I am more afraid of the pleasures than the afflictions. In affliction you turn to the Lord. The danger is of being carried away by the very favours God has given to man.
What is the next point? She communed with him of all that was in her heart. Have you given the Lord the key of your heart? I asked that of a believer, and he turned honestly round, and said, ‘No, I won’t’. I will not say he was an unsaved person; but he was not happy. The moment you confide in a person, that person is your master; he has hold of you. m “There was not anything hid from the king”. She told him all.
Now comes occupation with Himself. Not only with what Christ is doing; but what He is. “He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you”. (John 16:15) What is the consequence? “There was no more spirit in her;” (1 Kings 10:5) all things here faded away. She was lost; gone, dead to them all. Her gold and silver were there just the same; but she had seen a brighter thing. She was entranced. Paul was beside himself, and no wonder, in such a scene. It would be a wonderful difference to us if we were entranced. You will never be proof against the beautiful things of this world (for it is not so much the bad things, but the good things, of this world that do us harm) till you have seen something better. I am not saying anything against the world’s good things; but I have seen something better. Did you ever take a pair of scissors out of a child’s hand? How can you do it? Show him a glass marble, or something bright, and they will drop. It is not that I say. Drop the world; but I ask you to see [p. 92] Christ in glory. The moment I see a person occupied with things down here I say, You have not seen Solomon. I do not say you have not seen Jonah — that Christ died for you; but you have not seen the King in His glory. Now I am identified with Christ’s death, I do not dwell on that. I have Christ’s life first, and therefore life is before death, and death is an advance on it. Death works in us; life in you. “We who live are always delivered unto death on account of Jesus”. (2 Corinthians 4:11)
Now I ask, is there one of us who has not tasted of the joy of the Father’s house? Paul says, “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling”. (Philippians 3:14) And can we be steady in our course till we have the “mark?” and what is this? — it is seeing Solomon. It is not simply seeing Christ in humiliation; but Christ in glory. We see Christ as the One who has suffered; then His present interest in us; what He does, and the things He is in. Do we all know what this is? Does every heart go out to what is presented in the feast with the father in Luke 15? Is there one heart saying, ‘I don’t care for it’. I trust those who know it, like the apostle, are longing to know more of it. The Lord grant everyone may know the wonderful blessing; and portion of light and joy we are brought into, instead of going through the world trying to overcome this and that, and laying, ‘I must give up this thing and the other’. It is not a question of giving up at all; but I have something better, greater, brighter, and I let it drop.
“Yea doubtless; and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I, have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ”. (Philippians 3:8)