THE GREAT SUPPER
THE GREAT SUPPER
Do you not sympathise with the sentiments of the one in Luke 14 who exclaimed: “Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God”? (Luke 14: 15) To eat and drink where everything is under divine control, could [p. 171] anything be conceived more gratifying to the new man than that the smallest details of daily life should be carried on, not amid the strivings of men, not merely in a quietude effected by restraint of evil, but where everything is under the sway of the blessed God? This, to me, was a beautiful sentiment.
But the kingdom has not come, and hence the Lord tells us that there is a great supper, a festive time now, prior to and surpassing the millennial day. The kingdom of God will be on the earth. The great supper to which we are called is where our Saviour dwells. This earth is now a scene of turmoil and misrule. Man knows not how to rule the earth; God’s Son has been rejected here, He has been received up into heaven, and the great supper is where He is, where all is of God. It is Wisdom’s feast. It is the climax of the grace which has rescued the sinner. The supper is the celebration of accomplished grace, as in Luke 15, “bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry”. (Luke 15: 23) It is in His house, and on His side of things, which God hath ordained to our glory. It is a display which wisdom only could adjust. Eye hath not seen it, ear hath not heard it, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. The Spirit leads our hearts through the opened heavens to the place where Jesus is, and there we feast on joys beyond the feast of tabernacles.
We enjoy our Lord in the scene that suits Him, and as the queen of Sheba was lost to everything natural to her when she saw the wisdom of Solomon, so are we, much more, when we are sharing in the great supper. Natural advantages, such as land, oxen or domestic ties, divert us from this great festivity. The Lord delights that we should taste of this great joy now. “They began to be merry”! (Luke 15: 24)
[p. 172] The Lord grant that each of us may answer more and better to the desires of His heart, that we should largely and continually partake of this great festivity which His grace has provided for us.