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A Time to Feast

A Time to Feast

As we come to November, like me, many of you are looking forward to Thanksgiving. It’s a time to relax and to be with family and friends. It is also a time to feast. We feast because it is a celebration of all that God has given us. We are thankful to him and so we celebrate with a meal.

Throughout scripture, God’s people celebrated important events with feasts. There are many significant feasts that God commanded to the Israelites in the Old Testament. The Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), the Feast of Trumpets, and the Feast of Tabernacles. There were many occasions for celebrating and feasting among God’s Old Testament people.

All these feasts pointed forward to a greater feast. We read about it in Isaiah 25. Isaiah says,

“On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.”

Every time we feast with family and friends we are reminded of this ultimate feast when one day we will celebrate with all of God’s people around the throne of God in the new creation. It will e the ultimate reunion, feasting and celebrating with family and friends that are in heaven today. Most importantly, we will see Jesus face to face. The sin that has been defeated on the cross will be removed from the earth. There will be no more sorrow or pain but everlasting celebration in the presence of Jesus forever. Every celebration today is only a shadow of what is in store for us.

As we wait for the celebration, our Lord has left us with a meal – a foretaste of the feast to come. In his supper, Jesus sustains us in our pilgrimage. He keeps our hope aline. He offers us his body and blood in the Eucharist. There we are connected to his cross. Our sins are forgiven, and we are kept in the true faith as we anticipate the ultimate feast with our Lord in his kingdom that has no end.

As we give thanks to God for family, friends and feasts, may we always keep this ultimate feast before us. Happy Thanksgiving!

Pastor David P. Schmidt