Discernment,  Discipline,  Holiness,  Wisdom

The Lord’s Banquet Table – Proverbs 9:5

Come, eat of my food and drink of the wine I have mixed.

Wisdom calls out, inviting us to dine at the lavish table she sets before us.[1]  She offers to satisfy our gnawing hunger and heal our spiritual destitution by bringing understanding and knowledge.  She invites us to come as honored guests and partake of a feast without cost.[2]  She lays a banquet before us to feed our souls from abundant fare picked fresh from the tree of life,[3] and having nourished us, she ministers to us with the warmth of fellowship and the promise of grace from the King of kings who will welcome us to His celebration, receiving us as those of renowned eminence.

The Lord lays out the finest china and silverware, prepares the supper, and sends out the invitations.  He checks that all is in perfect readiness.  Yet many will remain out in the darkness.  Preferring to live apart from God, they either refuse the Lord’s entreaty outright or enter the presence of royalty dressed in the filthy rags of unrighteousness.[4]  Such people cannot expect to receive anything from the Lord, for they will not benefit from all the Lord’s exquisite preparations unless they go into the banquet hall clothed in Jesus’ righteousness.

Blessed are we, who know the Lord and can enter into the festivities.  Therefore, go and feast on the Lord’s goodness.  Seek nourishment by dining on the instruction of the Word and on the teaching of the Holy Spirit.  Having once drunk the wine of reconciliation and eaten the bread of restoration through salvation in Christ, partake daily of these life-giving delicacies to replenish your faith and sustain your soul.

Do not distain the Lord’s call to come to the table He has laid out.  Go and receive the sustenance needed to live as a disciple of Christ and to grow in the grace that flows from the knowledge and understanding you will receive from wisdom’s teaching.  Drink from the goblet of truth and sound judgment, and allow the Lord to fill you with holiness, so you will grow stalwart in your faith, becoming unlikely to drift away.[5]

Heed wisdom’s invitation, and go, eat her bread, drink her wine, and rejoice as she enters your heart and gives pleasure to your soul.[6]

The banquet hall is ready

Glistening, the glasses shine

The Lord has laid the table

Where His family will dine

Feasting on the Bread of Life

So they’ll hunger not again

And drinking Living Water

With their Father and their Friend

The lavish meal presented

Freely offered without cost

The invites sent to those who sought

To those who once were lost

Those having been adopted

And raised to royalty

Clothed in robes of righteousness

To join the jubilee

With grateful hearts they enter

Answering the Savior’s call

Beautifully arrayed they come

To attend the royal ball

[1] Isaiah 25:6

[2] Revelation 22:17

[3] Revelation 2:7

[4] Matthew 22:2-14

[5] Hebrews 2:1

[6] Proverbs 2:2, 10