Anticipate Jesus' Heavenly Feast
We are beginning to anticipate Thanksgiving around our house. We’re planning our menus, guest lists, eating schedules, even our exercises that will hopefully combat our feasting. It is a time of celebration and thankfulness, and our family looks forward to it every year. This year I have been nominated to make the dressing to go with our turkey. This is a large task because my mother is the one who has always made the dressing. I’m already beginning to feel the pressure to do everything right so that I make everyone in the family happy.
Isaiah 25:6 tells of a feast that we can anticipate but includes no pressure. To be welcome at this feast, we will not feel pressure to perform a certain way. All we must do to be included in this feast is accept the invitation. The invitation to attend God’s feast in the Kingdom of Heaven is freely given and to accept the invitation we are called to believe in Jesus Christ, turn from our sinful ways, and trust in His Almighty sovereignty.
This will be a feast where all God’s people will honor and praise Him because of His goodness, and this is evident in the poem of praise in Isaiah 25. God delivered His people who were brought about by judgements in Isaiah 24 and the people are taking time now to praise Him and anticipate the time they will spend with Him in eternity. All the people who have trusted in His promises and lived in obedience to Him will come together at one feast. Matthew 8:11 says “many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven. We will all come together to a feast where God will wipe away all mourning from our faces, our tears will be no more, and death will be forgotten. Jesus’ promises to us will be fulfilled and we will see Him again as we feast with Him at His banquet.
As we reflect on God’s Heavenly banquet this holiday season, there are three things us I want us to focus on. May we first focus on the sacrifice He paid for us on the cross. Only through Him is it even possible for us to spend eternity with Him feasting at His banquet. Second, can we free our hearts from the pressure this world puts on us? If there is no pressure from the most important, God Himself, why should there be pressure from those in this world? Thirdly, let’s go into this season with a thankful heart. Thankful for what Jesus has done for us, what He is doing for us daily, and what He will do for us in the future. He will never let us down, which makes Him the only person we can fully depend on.
While you plan out your Thanksgiving meal, keep your future Heavenly feast in the forefront of your thoughts. Live with thankfulness of the holiday season with your friends and family but also with anticipation of what is to come.
Digging Deeper:
What pressures do you feel around the holidays?
How can you turn your pressures over to Jesus and rely on Him to provide for your every need?
What will you keep your focus on this Thanksgiving?