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Text: Is 25:6-9
Theme: There are magnificent benefits to responding appropriately to God's presence.
Doctrine: consummation
Image: feast~/communion
Need: comfort as we wait for Christ to return
Message: enjoy the appetisers as we await the full feast
*Appetisers of a Great Feast*
Is 25:6-9
*Intro*
When I was younger I went to a camp in the Rocky Mountains called, Crowsnest Lake Bible Camp.
During the couple of weeks there the campers take a trip up into the mountains.
This trip was fun, but gruelling.
We had to carry our own packs, we had to cook most of our own food, we slept under a sloping tarp exposed to the cold and the wind, we had to dig our own latrines.
It was rainy and cold the couple of days we were away from base camp and we were miserable.
None of us could get dry, let alone warm.
The little fires we could build out of the sopping wood made more smoke than heat.
On the way down from the camp we were naturally quite grumpy.
We were cold, we were wet, we stunk, and we were hungry.
One of the camp counsellors decided to try to cheer us up.
He told us that when we got to camp we would get hot showers, dry clothes, a warm place to sleep, but most important to us hungry teenage boys, a large sumptuous feast.
As he is describing the food we were to have you could hear most of our tummies growling.
So, the counsellor decided to stop the descent down the mountain and he handed out some trail mix bars.
He said, “Here is something to eat now while you think about the food we will get when we arrive at base camp.”
It did the trick, that little bar of nuts and fruit prevented us from turning on each other to satisfy our ravenous hunger while we waited for the feast.
*Message to Judah and Israel*
The passage we read from Isaiah does for the Israelites what that counsellor did for us boys.
This is a beautiful description of a marvellous feast which will be given to the faithful people of God.
This is a description of the positive consequences of a proper response to the Holy One of Israel in their midst.
The main theme of Isaiah was the response of the people of God to the Holy One of Israel.
Were the people responding properly to God in their midst, to Immanuel?
Is 24 tells us that the glory of the Holy One of Israel will cause chaos in the world when he comes to his people.
“The moon will be dismayed, the sun ashamed; for the Lord Almighty will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before its elders—with great glory.”
(Is 24:23, TNIV) But, God's glory will not only cause chaos, it will also usher in a magnificent feast for those who respond appropriately.
There are two consequences, then, for the two different responses to the Holy One of Israel; chaos or order, destruction or salvation, death or life.
If the Israelites respond incorrectly, then they receive the negative consequences and God labels them a rebel.
If they respond correctly, then they are given a feast.
The positive consequences outlined in this passage are for the remnant of Israel who will return, those who are faithful, those who make the proper response to God.
Is 26:5 says, “In that day the Lord Almighty will be a glorious crown, a beautiful wreath for the remnant of his people.”
This remnant is the chosen people of God, gathered again from their exile, purified from their rebellion.
In Ch 27 Isaiah tells us that “those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.”
(Is 27:13 TNIV) The people of Judah, sitting in Jerusalem hear the promise of greatness to come.
On this mountain the Lord will prepare a feast.
The words used to describe this feast are incredible and abundant.
A feast of rich food, rich fatty food; the fattened calf.
The really good stuff which we usually avoid because we are watching our weight.
A feast of the best of meats.
meat mixed with marrow.
Meat mixed with the best delicacies available.
Meat that is heavily satisfying.
A banquet of aged wine, Wine left to develop its full flavour and power.
A banquet with the finest of wines.
Wines refined and filtered to make them clear, with no dregs, no sediment.
This description echoes Ps 63:5 “My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.”
This psalm expresses love of God and obedience to him.
The people will not only feast on rich food, but they will do so in the presence of their glorious God.
They will love and serve him in true obedience.
On this mountain the Lord will break through the old ways.
He will remove the veil, the covering, the shroud that enfolds all people.
This covering has connotations of death and mourning; either the actual burial shroud placed around the corpse, or the garb worn by those who are mourning.
This covering of death, of mourning, will be removed and destroyed.
Death itself will be swallowed up forever.
The Sovereign Lord himself will comfort his people.
He will wipe away all their tears.
He will remove their disgrace, their reproach, their scorn.
Israel was scorned by the other nations because their God sent them into exile.
This disgrace, this mark of disfavour, this brand of rejection will be removed and the people returned to communion with their God.
“In that day the people will say, 'surely this is our God; we trusted in him and he saved us.'”
They trusted, they hoped, they waited for the salvation of their God.
They waited.
These are the words of Jacob in Gen 49:18.
When blessing his sons he says “I wait for your salvation, O Lord.”
The people of Israel and Judah are going to have to wait some more.
They are going into exile.
They are going to be punished by God and sent to a foreign land.
A remnant will return, but they will have to wait; they will have to be patient.
They have to wait because no one has given the proper response.
No one has truly turned themselves over to God.
No one was fit to go to the feast.
The people of Israel would have to be purified.
They would have to be shaped by God's discipline in exile as their fathers were shaped in the desert.
This feast will come in time, but only in God's time.
*Fulfilment in Christ*
In God's time one was born who would begin to usher in this feast.
Close to the beginning of the gospel of Luke is a curious story.
Simeon, who was a righteous and devout Israelite, one of the remnant who returned from exile, was waiting for the consolation of Israel.
He was an old man by now, but he still waited for the salvation of the Lord.
Earlier in his life God had told him that he would not die until he saw the Lord's Christ, the Messiah.
One morning he got up with all the usual aches and pains of old age.
It took him a few moments to warm up his joints enough to risk rolling out of bed.
He hobbled over to the fire place and began to rebuild to smouldering fire.
He threw on a couple of small logs and placed his pot on top.
The smell of his cooking began to make him hungry as he squatted on his haunches.
After his leisurely breakfast, he decided to take a stroll around town.
He began his walk in the direction of the marketplace, as he usually did.
When he passed the street going to the temple he looked up it and gazed at the large walls.
He felt moved to go in that direction, and even though it was a long climb up the slope he began his assent.
He slowly made his way up the hill, even though he had to rest a few times.
When he reached the gate he turned and went it.
Slowly making his way across the courtyard he took a seat at the entrance to the Jewish court.
Not long after he had gathered his breath, his eyes were drawn to a young couple entering the temple with a little baby.
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