The LORD Will Provide a Feast of Rich Food for All Peoples
25: 6-8
The LORD will provide a feast of rich food for all peoples DIG: Kings would often hold inaugural and wedding feasts for their subjects. For whom is this feast on Mt Zion given? Who will be excluded from this feast and why? In what ways are New Covenant ideas about the afterlife foreshadowed by 25:8?
REFLECT: What applications does the B’rit Chadashah make of this great feast (see First Corinthians 15:54; Revelation 9:9, 21:4)? What will be the effect of Messiah’s coming in that day? In coping with death, disappointment or disgrace, what does the promise of 25:7-8 mean to you? When has that promise been made real to you? Or does it seem so distant in its fulfillment that it is not much help to you here and now?
After praise for deliverance, our attention turns to the wedding feast of the Lamb (see the commentary on Revelation, to see link click Fg – Blessed and Holy are Those Who Have Part in the Wedding Feast of the Lamb). It will take place on Mount Zion, the millennial Jerusalem, from which Christ will rule, and it will last seven days and inaugurate the Messianic Kingdom. Contrary to popular belief, this celebration does not take place in heaven during the Great Tribulation. The Bible teaches that the righteous of the TaNaKh will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Messianic Kingdom (Mt 8:11). Dani’el teaches us that they will not be resurrected until after a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until the Great Tribulation.85 The rabbis teach that this banquet celebrates the inauguration of a new and happy era for all mankind. Similar imagery is employed in rabbinic literature of the bliss in store for the righteous in the hereafter.
In addition, the Jewish wedding feast of the first century itself demonstrates the fact that the wedding feast of the Lamb takes place on the earth after the Great Tribulation and not in heaven during the Great Tribulation. In a Jewish wedding, which is always a picture of the Kingdom of God, or the Messianic Kingdom.
As Arnold Fruchtenbaum states in his classic book The Footsteps of the Messiah, “Jewish marriage included a number of steps: first, betrothal (which involved the prospective groom’s traveling from his father’s house to the home of the prospective bride, paying the purchase price, and thus establishing the marriage covenant); second, the groom’s returning to his father’s house (which meant remaining separate from his bride for twelve months, during which time he prepared the living accommodations for his wife in his father’s house); third, the groom’s coming for his bride at a time not known exactly to her; fourth, his return with her to the groom’s father’s house to consummate the marriage and to celebrate the wedding feast for the next seven days (during which the bride remained closeted in her bridal chamber).”
“First, the father of the groom made the arrangements for the marriage and paid the bride price. The timing of the arrangement varied. Sometimes it occurred when both children were small, and at other times it was a year before the marriage itself. Often the bride and groom did not even meet until their wedding day. The second step, which occurred a year or more after the first step, was the fetching of the bride. The bridegroom would go to the home of the bride in order to bring her to his home. In connection with this step, two other things should be noted. First, it was the father of the groom who determined the timing. Second, prior to the groom’s leaving to fetch the bride, he must already have a place prepared for her as their abode. This was followed by the third step, the wedding ceremony, to which a few would be invited. Prior to the wedding ceremony, the bride underwent a ritual immersion for ritual cleansing. The fourth step, the marriage feast, would follow and could last for as many as seven days. Many more people would be invited to the feast than were to the marriage ceremony. In the Marriage of the Lamb all four of these steps of the Jewish wedding ceremony are evident.” Therefore, if you are consistent with what the Bible teaches, the engagement is like the Rapture because the bride goes to the Bridegroom’s home. Then, at the end of the Great Tribulation, the Bridegroom comes with His bride to her home”, the earth, where the wedding feast takes place and the Messianic Kingdom begins (Matthew 22:1-14, 25:1-13). With it, all four stages will be complete.
On this mountain the LORD of heaven’s angelic armies (CJB) will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples (25:6a). This does not mean that everyone who lives in the Millennium will be saved; instead all peoples means that people from everywhere in the world will be saved. Food will be provided for all peoples, for believers from all over the world who are gathered at the feast. This banquet includes the best of meats so there may not be any animal rights people there: the KJV says a feast of fatness. To the Jews the fat portions were the best. Thus it is not surprising that these were the portions of the sacrifices reserved for God (see the commentary on Leviticus Ak – The Peace Offerings).
This would also be a banquet of aged wine that picture God’s ability to supply the needs of His people during the Messianic Kingdom. A feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined (25:6b KJV). This refers to wines that are kept long with the dregs (lees) mixed with them, and therefore old and strong. They are refined or filtered by being strained through a cloth sieve, thus separating the liquor from the lees. The wine in the East is said to be usually turbid (having foreign particles stirred up or suspended in it), and requires straining before it is fit for use.86 The wine was to be strengthened by leaving the lees in the wine after the fermenting process. But what the LORD gives in 25:6 He takes away in 25:7-8.
On this mountain He will destroy, or take away, the shroud that enfolds all peoples, and the sheet that covers all nations (25:7). There is also a play on words between the shroud and the sheet. The difference is one letter. The shroud is shma-neen, and the sheet is shma-non. They sound almost identical. These are not symbols of mourning and affliction, but of spiritual blindness, like the veil upon the heart of Isra’el mentioned in Second Corinthians 3:15. The only difference between the two nouns is that in the shroud the leading idea is that of the completeness of the covering, and in the sheet that of its thickness. The removal of the veil, as well as of death, is summarized in First Corinthians 15:54.87
He will swallow up death forever (25:8a). Death is not used just in the sense that every life is stained by sin, but more importantly as the evidence of the curse imposed as consequence of sin (Genesis 2:17; Romans 3:23; Hebrews 2:15; Revelation 21:4). Not only that, but Adonai ELOHIM will wipe away the tears from all faces (25:8b). When compound names of God are used they emphasize His relationship to man or the nation of Isra’el in particular. So here, it’s emphasized with the removal of death and wiping away of tears that will take place at the end of the thousand-year reign of Messiah when death, Satan, and hell will be thrown into the lake of fire (see the commentary on Revelation Fp – The Second Death: The Lake of Fire). At that time, a new heaven and a new earth will be established (see the commentary on Revelation Fr – Then I Saw a New Heaven and a New Earth). Therefore, wherever there is a tear, the Lord wipes it away. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away. He removes the cause, the sin, as well as the outward symptom, the tear (Revelation 21:4).
In addition, He will remove the disgrace of His people from all the earth (25:8c). Isra’el’s disgrace (reproach KJV) will be removed. In that day, as the nations turn toward Zion, all the shame, failure and loss will be made up for. In fact, it will be known that the salvation of the world exists only through God’s chosen people Isra’el.
Leave A Comment