Ingredients for a Theology of Feasting
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Happy Monday, everyone.
00:00:06.720 | We launch a new week and we close in on 1700 episodes
00:00:11.340 | in this podcast.
00:00:12.340 | Thank you for your support and for your prayers
00:00:15.600 | and encouragements over the years.
00:00:17.280 | And as we march forward,
00:00:19.440 | I'm also investing some time curating the archives,
00:00:23.720 | going back to notice where some of our content gaps remain.
00:00:27.360 | And while doing so, Pastor John,
00:00:28.840 | I found one of those gaps, I think.
00:00:30.720 | We have several episodes on fasting.
00:00:32.880 | You know, what is fasting?
00:00:34.000 | What does it mean?
00:00:34.840 | What does it accomplish?
00:00:35.660 | How do we do it?
00:00:36.500 | And so on.
00:00:37.680 | But by contrast, we have relatively little on feasting.
00:00:41.600 | And yet feasting is a major category in scripture,
00:00:44.960 | far more prevalent in the Bible than fasting is actually.
00:00:48.120 | So on this Monday, Pastor John,
00:00:49.900 | can you give us a little theology of feasting
00:00:53.000 | in 10 minutes as you understand it?
00:00:55.240 | (laughing)
00:00:56.720 | A little theology, 10 minutes.
00:00:59.880 | Maybe the way to think about this episode on feasting
00:01:03.600 | is that the biblical points that I will make
00:01:07.900 | are the raw materials of a theology of feasting.
00:01:12.400 | That would make me feel a little bit better.
00:01:15.400 | First, we need a definition.
00:01:17.640 | I'm gonna start with a popular definition,
00:01:19.960 | namely feasting is the enjoyment of abundance.
00:01:24.120 | I'm gonna, that's my short-term definition.
00:01:26.320 | I'm not even gonna say that it is limited
00:01:29.080 | to the enjoyment of food
00:01:31.280 | because you could feast your eyes on scenery,
00:01:33.860 | you could feast your ears on music,
00:01:35.940 | you could feast your nose on sweet aromas,
00:01:40.040 | you could feast your taste buds on honey,
00:01:43.040 | feast your skin and body on sexual pleasures.
00:01:47.080 | So when you turn to the Bible,
00:01:51.020 | you find that the word feast
00:01:53.820 | does not always have this connotation
00:01:57.680 | even of abundance in view.
00:02:00.420 | The Old Testament is just full.
00:02:02.500 | I mean, if you do a word search on the word feast
00:02:04.820 | in the Old Testament,
00:02:05.660 | it's just full of prescribed feasts,
00:02:09.660 | they're called in English.
00:02:10.940 | And they include Passover,
00:02:13.300 | feast of first fruits,
00:02:14.980 | feast of weeks,
00:02:15.820 | feast of Pentecost,
00:02:17.020 | feast of trumpets,
00:02:17.980 | feast of booths.
00:02:19.820 | And you can see these spelled out.
00:02:21.740 | They take their beginning,
00:02:22.980 | like in Leviticus 23,
00:02:25.180 | and then they're unpacked all over the place.
00:02:27.820 | They don't all imply abundance,
00:02:31.300 | but rather,
00:02:32.580 | so here'd be a modification of the definition biblically,
00:02:35.600 | a communal sharing of a celebrated meal
00:02:40.600 | with a focus on some remembrance
00:02:44.740 | and thankfulness of some event of God's mercy,
00:02:47.980 | something like that.
00:02:49.380 | And it might be very simple.
00:02:51.480 | I mean, unleavened bread is not what you think about
00:02:54.500 | when you think about a big Thanksgiving dinner.
00:02:57.900 | So we need to be careful
00:03:00.140 | and be sure that when we see the word feast in the Bible,
00:03:03.980 | we determine from the context,
00:03:05.900 | whether it implies the enjoyment of abundance
00:03:09.140 | or something more simple,
00:03:11.940 | some celebration of some remembered event
00:03:16.540 | in a focused and communal and simple way.
00:03:20.060 | But I'm gonna focus on what we ordinarily mean by feasting.
00:03:24.120 | That's what I think you're really asking
00:03:25.960 | over against fasting,
00:03:27.480 | namely a joyful shared experience of some abundance,
00:03:32.300 | usually food and drink.
00:03:34.660 | And so I have four observations as I look at the Bible
00:03:38.420 | about such feasting,
00:03:40.460 | the raw material maybe of a little theology of feasting.
00:03:45.380 | First, the Bible is clear that feasting
00:03:48.920 | in and of itself may be a very good thing or bad thing,
00:03:53.920 | depending on other factors.
00:03:57.140 | For example, Proverbs 17, one says,
00:04:00.980 | "Better is a dry morsel with quiet
00:04:04.740 | than a house full feasting with strife."
00:04:08.300 | In other words, mere abundance of food and drink
00:04:11.640 | does not make for a happy family or happy community.
00:04:14.980 | There must be more to it.
00:04:17.220 | Another example would be Ecclesiastes 10, 16,
00:04:20.060 | "Woe to you, O land,
00:04:21.840 | when your princes feast in the morning."
00:04:25.700 | Happy are you, O land,
00:04:27.580 | when your princes feast at the proper time
00:04:30.720 | for strength and not for drunkenness.
00:04:34.460 | In other words, there's a time for work
00:04:36.780 | and a time for feasting.
00:04:39.500 | And there are good purposes for feasting,
00:04:42.080 | and there are fleshly, worldly, sinful reasons for feasting.
00:04:47.200 | Feasting in and of itself may or may not be good.
00:04:51.720 | Another example, Ecclesiastes 7, 2,
00:04:55.040 | "It is better to go to the house of mourning
00:04:58.260 | than to the house of feasting,
00:05:00.520 | for this is the end of all mankind
00:05:02.840 | and the living will lay it to heart."
00:05:04.400 | In other words, the good and rightful pleasures of feasting
00:05:09.320 | cannot teach you the deepest things about life and death.
00:05:13.940 | I never heard anybody say they went deepest with God,
00:05:18.460 | learned most of God on easy days or at feasting.
00:05:23.460 | One more example, God says to Israel in Amos 5, 21,
00:05:28.100 | "I hate and despise your feasts.
00:05:31.340 | Let justice roll down like waters
00:05:35.460 | and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."
00:05:37.860 | In other words, if our feasting is a cloak of pleasure,
00:05:43.060 | covering lives of lovelessness and injustice,
00:05:47.220 | the feast has become a stench in God's nose.
00:05:51.380 | So those are examples of what I mean when I say
00:05:55.240 | feasting in and of itself may be a very good thing
00:05:59.600 | or bad thing, depending on other factors.
00:06:02.820 | Observation number two, God intends that the abundance
00:06:07.820 | which he provides for our physical enjoyment,
00:06:12.160 | the enjoyment of our senses,
00:06:14.780 | should echo in our hearts with thanksgiving to God
00:06:19.780 | and be made holy by the word and prayer.
00:06:23.620 | I'm simply echoing 1 Timothy 6, 17,
00:06:28.540 | where Paul says we should set our hope on God
00:06:32.860 | who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.
00:06:38.740 | In other words, the sights and sounds and smells
00:06:42.560 | and tastes and touch of good things that God has made
00:06:47.560 | are not mainly tests to see if we will make them our God
00:06:52.680 | and become idolaters, but rather they are mainly pleasures
00:06:58.880 | to send our hearts joyful and thankful back to God.
00:07:04.080 | That's their main purpose for existence.
00:07:06.560 | Paul puts it like this in 1 Timothy 4, 4.
00:07:09.260 | Everything created by God is good.
00:07:12.420 | Nothing is to be rejected if it is received
00:07:15.300 | with thanksgiving, for it is made holy
00:07:20.300 | by the word of God and prayer.
00:07:24.180 | So the difference between unholy feasting
00:07:27.460 | and holy feasting is not what's on the table,
00:07:31.480 | but what's in the mind and in the heart.
00:07:34.580 | Is the mind grasping the God-centered meaning
00:07:38.540 | of these things from the word of God?
00:07:42.200 | And is the heart sending up joyful prayers of thanksgiving
00:07:47.200 | as we taste more of the goodness of God
00:07:50.740 | in the very things we're eating?
00:07:52.400 | Observation number three, one of the beautiful ways
00:07:55.480 | God describes the destiny of those
00:07:59.060 | who will accept salvation, his invitation,
00:08:02.700 | is a final feast with him in the age to come.
00:08:07.700 | Isaiah 25, 6.
00:08:09.840 | On this mountain, the Lord of hosts
00:08:13.100 | will make for all peoples a feast of rich food,
00:08:18.100 | a feast of well-aged wine,
00:08:22.320 | and he will swallow up death forever.
00:08:26.660 | That's a magnificent picture of our hope
00:08:30.600 | beyond this age, beyond the grave.
00:08:33.660 | Jesus says in Matthew 22, 2,
00:08:35.780 | "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king
00:08:39.740 | who gave a wedding feast for his son
00:08:43.500 | and sent out the invitation to the world,
00:08:46.740 | come to the wedding feast."
00:08:48.300 | That's what world missions is.
00:08:51.220 | My book is called "Let the Nations Be Glad."
00:08:53.020 | It could be called "Let the Nations Come to a Feast."
00:08:55.700 | And to his disciples at the last supper,
00:08:59.500 | just before he gave his life for our sins,
00:09:03.220 | Jesus said in Luke 22, 29,
00:09:07.000 | "I assign you, as my father assigned to me,
00:09:12.000 | a kingdom that you may eat and drink
00:09:16.940 | at my table in my kingdom."
00:09:21.160 | And the book of Revelation tops it off
00:09:23.280 | with the angel crying,
00:09:25.220 | "Blessed are those who are invited
00:09:27.620 | to the marriage supper of the Lamb,"
00:09:31.340 | to which I respond, "Blessed indeed
00:09:34.460 | to be a part of the bride of Christ on that day."
00:09:37.060 | One last observation, number four.
00:09:40.700 | "In some measure now, then perfectly at the last day,
00:09:45.700 | God himself will be our feast."
00:09:51.380 | Psalm 36, 7.
00:09:54.060 | "How precious is your steadfast love, O God.
00:09:57.620 | The children of mankind feast
00:10:00.860 | on the abundance of your house,
00:10:03.320 | and you give them drink from the river of your delights."
00:10:08.320 | I think if we meditate on those four observations
00:10:13.780 | about feasting from Scripture
00:10:15.900 | in the context of the whole Bible,
00:10:18.100 | we will be able to move wisely
00:10:21.340 | between fasting and feasting,
00:10:24.540 | between the joy of self-denial
00:10:27.900 | and the joy of abundance
00:10:30.340 | in a way that shows the supreme value of Christ
00:10:35.240 | in our lives.
00:10:36.900 | - Thank you, Pastor John, for these raw materials,
00:10:39.900 | these ingredients to cook up a theology of feasting.
00:10:42.660 | I appreciate it.
00:10:43.660 | And thank you for joining us today.
00:10:44.900 | You can ask a question of your own.
00:10:46.860 | You can search our growing archive
00:10:48.220 | and find all of our episodes on fasting
00:10:50.980 | or several other issues.
00:10:52.980 | And you can subscribe to the podcast too.
00:10:54.420 | You can do all of those things
00:10:55.460 | at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:10:58.940 | That's our online homepage,
00:11:01.060 | desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:11:04.260 | Well, next time we look at a family in crisis.
00:11:09.820 | Husband and wife are at odds.
00:11:12.100 | Son is pitted against father.
00:11:14.660 | Daughter is pitted against mother.
00:11:17.100 | Even the daughter-in-law sides
00:11:18.780 | with the daughter against mom.
00:11:21.420 | And all those compounded animosities
00:11:23.940 | toward the mother weigh down on the father too
00:11:26.500 | until it appears that a man's enemies
00:11:29.820 | are in his own home.
00:11:32.460 | So when a family breaks apart like this
00:11:34.780 | and crisis hits, what is a man to do?
00:11:38.580 | That's the topic next time.
00:11:40.140 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke,
00:11:41.180 | and we will see you back here on Wednesday.
00:11:44.300 | Thanks for listening.
00:11:45.140 | We'll see you then.
00:11:45.960 | (upbeat music)
00:11:48.540 | (upbeat music)
00:11:51.120 | [BLANK_AUDIO]