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D ai ly D e v o t i o n a l | S T U D IE S IN THE NEW TE STAM EN T FOR INDIVIDUAL MEDITATION AND FAMILY WORSHIP
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By R. A. TORREY
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Thursday, April 1. Matt. 22:1-14.
22). The rejection and crucifixion of Christ was the cause of the destruction of Jerusalem. This had been predicted in' the Old Testament (Dan. 9:26; Micah 3:12). When Israel rejected God’s invitation, God sent it to the Gentiles. Israel lost the mar riage feast because they were “not worthy’’; when one rejects the invitation, he judges himself unworthy of everlasting life (Acts 13:46). The servants were not merely to bid those in the highways to come but to gather them in (v. 10; cf. Luke 14:21, 23). This: lays upon .the Church the duty of urgency and insistency in their inviting men to Christ. We are to invite both “bad and good.” We should all ponder well the de scription and doom of. the unprepared guest. The king will come in, will scrut inize His guests and woe to the one who , has not on the wedding garment. The wedding garment is' a figure for the robe of righteousness that God expects all. to put on who accept His invitation (Isa. 61:10; Rev. 19:7, S; Ps. 132:9; Eph. 4:24; Rom. 13:14). But it is not in our own1 righteous ness in which we are to appear but in His (Isa. 64:6; Zech. 3:3, 4; Phil. 3:9 R. V.). Wedding robes in the East were a free gift from the one who made the feast arid our robe is a free gift from the Father Himself (Luke 15:22). We get it by sim ple faith in Jesus (Rom. 3 :22). We put it on when we put oiT Christ Himself and when He dwells in us (Rom. 13:12-14; 2 Cor. 13:5). The one who had not on the wedding garment had not really accepted the invitation to the wedding feast. If one really accepts God’s invitation to His heavenly kingdom, he will get ready for it, by putting on Jesus Christ. The guest’s neglect to make ready was an act of con tempt for the king, and if we outwardly
By comparing the kingdom to a royal marriage feast Jesus sets forth the thought that it is a place of festal joy (cf. Luke 14:16) and also suggests that Christ’s re lation to His people is that of a husband to his wife (cf. 1 Cor. 11:12; Eph. 5:24-32; John 3:29). The Jews were the ones who were first invited to the marriage but the invitation was spurned and treated with contempt (vs. 3, 5). Nothing more clearly reveals the foolishness ancl wickedness of the human heart than the way in which men receive God’s invitation of grace. These people were shut out of the feast, simply because they did not accept the in vitation; the Jews did not find, life and joy in Christ simply because they would not come to Him (John 5:40). And; if there are any today who do not find pardon and peace and life in Jesus, it is simply because they will not come to Him. The king did not stop at the first invitation (cf. ch. 21:36) and God does not stop with one invitation. Wonderful indeed, is the for bearance of God, He not only repeats the neglected demand for His fruit but even repeats the neglected invitation. The sin of rejection since the cross and resurrec tion of Christ is immeasurably greater than that of Christ’s own contemporaries before the cross and resurrection. Some went even beyond treating the invitation with contempt, they abused and killed the ser vants that brought the invitation. This was historically true of the Jewish treat ment of God’s servants who came to in vite them to His feasts. In verse 7 we have a clear prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem (cf. Luke 19:42-44 ; 21:20-
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