The Great Supper of God
(Rev 19:17~21)
When does God hold his great supper? While those who are saved are invited to the Lambs wedding, those who will be judged are called to the great supper of God. The fall of Babylon is a great joy to Christians, yet to their enemies, it is Gods judgment. Notice Gods tenacious love for us in the phrase the great supper, instead of bloody feast, which reflects Gods patient yearning for our return. Who are called to the great supper of God?
1. Those who reject repentance will join the great supper of God. The phrase 'And I saw' is important. John saw a horrible scene after turning from the wedding feast, to which Christ, faithful and true invited Christian as his brides, riding on his white horses. It was the scene of those who didnt repent being gorged upon by birds. Why did they refuse to repent and become the prey of the most horrendous judgment? Even though the Jews received the word of truth, they lived a life of falseness. The lie is one of the most crucial works of Satan. We need to be able to see the lie within us, or we, in spite of ourselves, will be used as Satans tools. As Scott Peck says in The People of the Lie, Satans tools are passing the buck, disguise, pride, mental disease, addiction to recognition, and boasting, which reflects our very nature. Therefore these people of the lie should be the object of our love not our hatred. The target of our hatred is Satan, working behind them. Satan disables people from loving and urges them to hurt one another, which leads us to a question Is an unrepentant heart evil or a disease? However, God still wants to invite even these people to his feast. We were to die because we rejected Jesus Christ, the letter of Gods special amnesty. Now our mission is bring more people to God with the letter. Our life is the period given to us for this mission, where we come across our skeleton-in-the-cupboard people, whom we hardly discern as evil or diseased, but who are actually the channel of Gods blessing.
2. Satan attracts people by his miracles and Christ does by his cross. The war of Armageddon broke out as was expected. Actually this war, as described in chapters 16, 19, and 20 happens again and agin in all history as long as Gods children exist on earth. Notice that theres no mention that Satan was defeated in the war. Satan can rebel against the Lord, but cannot be a match for Him at all. Christ has already won the war. Therefore we need to pray to him at every battle. Satan also enlists his army just as God does. Satan tempts us with a variety of miracles, using money, appearance, and great academic achievement. When we try to go through a narrow door, Satan the deceiver whispers his prosperity gospel to us. Christ collects his army with the cross. He collects his people through crucifixion contrary to the worldly strategy of success. The cross stands for Gods forgiveness of our sins, but it points out every single sin of ours, which gets to our nature and even hurts us. After accepting Jesus as our Lord, we rejoice for a while, yet later we need to wage our own wars of Armageddon till we enter the heaven kingdom. Through these wars, we let our sinful nature be put to Gods judgment and its filthy scars pulled off by the cross, which hurts us bitterly. Our application of the cross is to die to keep our marriage. We need to endure everything for the sake of our Lord. Without the Holy Spirit within us, we can be the prey of Satan anytime. Are you putting up with something now? Then you are already Gods soldiers.
3. Hold on to the Word and you will be led to the heavenly supper. The Word of God comes in chapter 19 verse 9, 13, 15, and 21. The best weapon to defeat Satan is Gods promised Word. Once it is held in our hands, no one can deprive us of it, which guarantees our victory. By holding on to the Word along with my spiritual community, I myself have experienced lots of victories. To me, the practical and dreadful war of Armageddon was losing my husband in a day. Thanks to the Lord, who fought for me in the war, I was able to survive the war and join the heavenly feast through the message of 'the fair God' in Ezekiel 18. When our enemies fall, the horrible war will be changed into a great supper of God. A horrible accident happened to a couple of our church. Their 20 year-old son fell from the third floor of an apartment while installing an outdoor fan of an air-conditioner. The surgery on his broken legs went OK. However, the surgery on his brain needs to be done. No one knows how long it will take to restore his brain. The deacon said that he would serve his son as Christ who visited his household. His wife confessed that she regretted not having considered others children and felt so hurt to see her son suffering because of her sins. Later the deacon had a car accident on his way to his small group. In the midst of this accident, he sent a message to his small group leader that he would join the gathering. It said 'Looks like God sent me another suffering to make me repent more. He wants me to look for not only the Lord of peace but also the Lord of wrath. Now I understand why judgment comes along with salvation and how Im blessed to take part in sharing the cross. I dont know Gods plan. Yet I just come forward to him. I thank God for letting me know why I need my co-workers and spiritual community. Now Id better get a shot of muscle relaxers and pain relievers and go to my Mokjang as my wife instructed, Through this incident of my son, I learned how important my spiritual community is to me Hallelujah!' This is a good example of joining the heavenly feast by holding on to the Word in the midst of a horrible incident.
And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, 'Come, gather together for the great supper of God' (Rev 19:17)
