SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/26/2023 12:23 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Invitation Rejected”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
22:1-6
Message of the verses: “1 Jesus spoke to
them again in parables, saying, 2 "The kingdom of heaven may be compared
to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. 3 “And he sent out his slaves
to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were
unwilling to come. 4 “Again he sent out other slaves saying, ‘Tell those who
have been invited, "Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my
fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to
the wedding feast."’ 5 "But they paid no attention and went their
way, one to his own farm, another to his business, 6 and the rest seized his
slaves and mistreated them and killed them.”
I think that it would be best to quote from
MacArthur’s commentary on the subject of the ancient near east wedding. “In the ancient Near East, a wedding feast was
inseparable from the wedding itself, which involved a week-long series of means
and festivities and was the highlight of all social life. For a royal wedding such as the one Jesus
mentions here, the celebration often lasted for several weeks. Guests were invited to stay at the house of
the groom’s parents for the entire occasion, and the father would make as
elaborate provisions as he could afford.
A royal wedding, of course, would be held in the palace, and a king
would be able to afford whatever he desired.
“A
wedding feast that a king prepared for his son would be a feast of all feasts,
and Jesus was therefore picturing the most elaborate celebration
imaginable. The fact that it was a wedding
celebration was incidental to the purpose of the parable, the only mention of
the groom being that of identifying him as the king’s soon. No mention at all is made of the bride or any
other aspect of a wedding. The point is that
because the feast represents the greatest festivity imaginable, given by the
greatest monarch imaginable, for the most-honored guests imaginable, a royal wedding
feast was chosen as the illustration of the ultimate celebration.”
These
are some interesting facts that I certainly did not know about and so I am
happy to pass them along to those who read this SD. Even though this is a parable of our Lord
does not take away from the history of elaborate weddings of that day.
Now
after this king had all the preparations for this wedding taken care he sent
out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast. The truth is because they had been invited, that
this indicates that the guests were invited earlier and already knew they were
expected to attend the wedding. To be a
pre-invited guest to the king’s wedding was certainly among the highest honors
possible, and no doubt those who had received invitations were boasting to all
their neighbors and friends. It is so
inconceivable that when they got the invitation that the king now sent out that
they would not come.
This section is going to take us a while
to go through, but I do believe it will be worthwhile.
7/26/2023 12:45 PM
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