The blessings of the Gospel are, with wise adaptation to our views and feelings, often compared to the objects in which man naturally take most delight; and here, as in other places, they are compared to a costly entertainment bestowed by the Sovereign of the universe on the children of His love. It was the custom of Oriental monarchs on great occasions to make rich feasts on a scale of magnificence, of which we in the West can form scarcely any idea (Esther i. 3–7).[1] At these entertainments wise men were often assembled, and important questions in morals and literature were discussed: hence the benefits of knowledge and wisdom were often exhibited under the image of a great feast (Prov. ix. 1–5). The prophet, as our Lord Himself afterwards (Matt. xxii. 1–3; Luke xiv. 16–24), speaks in accordance with the habits of thinking common in his time, when he sets forth the blessings of the Gospel under the image of a great feast.
I. A banquet of grace and salvation spread for the needy (ver. 6). 1. It is a feast worthy of the Founder (Esther i. 7). He who studies it most closely, will be most struck by the vastness of the resources and the magnificence of the generosity of Him who spread it. 2. It is eminently a feast of reconciliation and restored friendship. The feasts of the ancients were often connected with sacrificial rites, were employed to confirm covenants, and to celebrate the reconciliation of those who had been estranged and at enmity with each other. We have an interesting illustration of all this in what we are told of Jacob and Laban (Gen. xxxi. 43–55). When Joseph was about to reveal himself in love to his brethren, and to unite them all in a new bond of peace, he made a feast for them (Gen. xliii. 31–34). So did the father of the prodigal, to testify the perfectness of his reconciliation to his guilty but penitent child (Luke xv. 23). The feast of which our text speaks, is a feast founded upon a sacrifice; it is a feast of reconciliation effected by means of sacrifice; it is the sublime and glorious realisation of the ancient symbol of the feast that followed upon the presentation of the peace-offering (Lev. vii. 11–16). It is the fact that it is a feast of reconciliation that gives sweetness and preciousness to all the sweet and precious things of which it is composed, just as it was the fact that they symbolised his restoration to his place in his father’s home and heart that made the ring, and the robe, and all the choice viands before him, delightful to the pardoned prodigal (chap. xii. 1; Rom. v. 1, 2, 11). 3. Its magnificence and its delightfulness are heightened by the number of those who partake of it. The rich provisions of the Gospel are as widely spread as they are widely needed. This is a joy to the Christian, for to a noble mind happiness multiplied is happiness heightened.
II. Illumination for the ignorant (ver. 7). There was a symbolical fulfilment of this prophecy in the hour of our Saviour’s death (Matt. xxvii. 51); that which had hidden the Holy of Holies from the sight of men was rent in twain. A spiritual fulfilment of it is the need of the world and of each individual: by a veil of ignorance and prejudice the truths which it would be to their highest interest to see clearly. This is declared concerning the Jews (2 Cor. iii. 15), but it is just as true of the majority of the Gentiles: they also see no desirableness in Christ, no preciousness in the salvation He offers them. But this destructive veil has been taken away from the hearts of millions, and shall yet be removed from the heart of a vaster multitude—by the diffusion of God’s Word, the preaching of the Gospel, and the accompanying agency of the Holy Spirit. The preliminary fulfilment of this prophecy at the day of Pentecost (Acts ii. 5, 41) shall have still more glorious counterparts in the not distant future.
III. Consolation for the sorrowing and life for the dying (ver. 8).
This glorious prophecy is in the course of fulfilment all around us; but to us individually it may be as if God had not been faithful to His Word. We may have no appetite for spiritual enjoyments, no craving for spiritual blessings (Col. ii. 18, 19). In this case, so far as we are concerned, this feast will have been spread in vain (Luke xiv. 18). If any man is conscious that for him the Gospel has no attractions, if he can listen to this prophecy without a glow of thankful joy, let him cry mightily to God for that new heart without which all that God’s wonderful compassion has moved Him to do for our race will leave him still unblessed (H. E. I., 4090).—Samuel Thodey.
This beautiful passage may be taken as presenting some of the principal aspects of the establishment of Christ’s kingdom upon the earth. It expresses in a most lively manner the feelings of hope and joy which the Gospel is naturally fitted to call forth, and it unfolds the Saviour’s work to us under the ideas of a feast, a revelation, and a victory.
I. The Gospel speaks to men of a feast. It assumes that they are spiritually destitute, in actual danger of perishing, and it tells them of a feast. 1. A feast provided for all (ver. 6). Christ came not for the exclusive benefit of Jew or Gentile; He came for man (Luke xix. 10). He invites all to share in the blessings He has provided (Luke xiv. 16), and declares that the invitation will not be given in vain (Matt. viii. 11). 2. A feast of the best things. Suggested here by the richness and flavour of wines long preserved. We are apt to miss the truth that the blessings which the Gospel offers are of the richest quality and of the highest value conceivable; we act as if it required us to give up a certain good for a doubtful and visionary one. This accounts for the eagerness with which men seek first “the world,” regarding “the kingdom of God” as something to be made room for after all else has been obtained (H. E. I., 5006, 5007).
II. The Gospel is a revelation to men of God’s gracious purposes (ver. 7). A thing may be a mystery to us in two ways: because it is beyond all human comprehension; or, because though it is comprehensible a veil rests upon it. In the former case the mystery must ever remain what it is; in the latter, the covering has only to be removed, and the mystery is at an end. The morning dispels the mystery of the night. So the Gospel discloses eternal truths of which man has no suspicion (Eph. iii. 2–12). The central, supreme revelation of the Gospel is Christ; and this is so because in Him God, who had dwelt in thick darkness, stands manifestly before us (John xiv. 9; 1 Tim. iii. 16; H. E. I. 855–857, 2241–2243). In Him, too, man is for the first time disclosed to himself; for the first time he catches a glimpse of his nature, of his relation to God, of his glorious possibilities.
III. The Gospel speaks to man of an eternal victory. “He will swallow up death in victory;” or “He shall utterly destroy death for ever.” Here we have suggested to us the crowning work of Christ (2 Tim. i. 10; Heb. ii. 14). In Him the believer has the promise and pledge of a final and glorious triumph. 1. How great, then, should be our confidence even in the midst of the deepest affliction! Doubts, fears, temptations threaten to destroy us; but with Christ strengthening us, our conflict leads to certain victory. He who has conquered will make us “more than conquerors.” 2. With what assurance, therefore, should we approach the hour of death itself! By Him who leads us on, death has been vanquished and captured. Hence death is one of our possessions (1 Cor. iii. 21–23). Death, as in the old time men thought of it, no longer exists; for the Christian it is swallowed up in victory (H. E. I., 1611–1614).—William Manning.