#DailyDevotion The Lord Is Into Big Parties
October 17th
Read Deut 15:19—16:22
Deu 16:13-17 Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine: (14) And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates. (15) Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the LORD thy God in the place which the LORD shall choose: because the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the works of thine hands, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice. (16) Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty: (17) Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee.
God is into partying, not debauchery. Three times a year, a party for each person of the Holy Trinity was to be held. There was the tithes party, the Passover party and the Pentecost party. A fair amount of one’s wealth was to go into these parties. It wasn’t going to be a stingy canned cheese and ritz cracker party. You brought out your best for this. These parties were just supposed to have your favorite people in the world either. The priest, widow, fatherless, poor and foreigners were to be invited.
These festivals were a foreshadow of the feast to come. Jesus reminded the Jews of his day in this passage Luke 14:12-14 Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee. (13) But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: (14) And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.
You see it’s that way in the wedding feast of the Lamb. The Lord reminds the Israelites what they were like when He called them to be His people. St. Paul reminds us also 1Co 1:26-29 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. (27) But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; (28) God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, (29) so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
That is who Jesus invites to his wedding banquet, the feast which has no end. Heaven, i.e. the New Heavens and New Earth to which we will be resurrected to on the Last Day, will be a feast with Jesus, the Father and Holy Spirit throwing the banquet. We get a foretaste of it to come on Sundays when we receive the Lord’s Supper. There is no party in the Lake of Fire, just loneliness and suffering.
Lord Jesus Christ, fill us will joy now in the current feast that we may enjoy your perpetual feasts in your Kingdom. Amen.