Parable of the Wedding Feast Welcome to the first Shabbat of the gorgerin year of 2015. Last year we have so far covered the parable of the lost silver coin, The Prodigal Son and the 2 sticks of Ezekiel in chapter 37, The Parable of the Talents and the Parable of the Sower, Today we will look at the Parable of the Wedding Feast as found in Matthew 22. I have found this parable to be quite interesting so let s get started. Slide 2 So first let s read Matthew 22: 1-14 Slide 3 As in all the parables, Yeshua is explaining in His understanding of Scriptures in the Tanakh, The Old Testament. And like the other Parables it is uniquely prophetic, as most all prophecy either directly or indirectly is about the 2 Houses of Israel becoming one. This parable is also prophetic as it speaks directly of Revelation 19: 5-9. Read. So let s begin by using the Tanakh to identify the players. I would ask you to compare the relevancy of the wedding feast in Matthew as compared to Revelation. Slide 4 We won t spend much time on who the King of the Kingdom is nor whom His Son is. I believe all of us are in agreement that as in Revelation 19, the King/Father is Yahweh and the Son is Yeshua. There is a long list of Scriptures to back this. So let s examine who the servants are that He sends forth. Zechariah 1:6 Slide 5 Amos 3:7 Slide 6 Isaiah 19: 5
Slide 7 It is pretty clear that Yahweh considers His Prophets as His servants. There is many more verses but time constraints limit us so we shall only use 2 or 3 per point as in 2 or 3 witnesses. We know from prophecy that the Wedding will take place in Jerusalem, at the 3 rd Temple sometime after our Messiahs second coming, with that in mind let identify who the guests are that made light of the wedding invitations from the prophets, This would be Judah. Slide 8 Yeshua tells us Himself who the guest who turned away the prophets are in Matthew 23:37 Slide 9 2 nd Kings 21:16 Slide 10 2 nd Chronicles 36:16 Slide 11 Yeshua also tells us in Luke 4:24 that a Prophet is not accepted among His own people. So we have established Scripturally that the King/Father is Yahweh, The Bridegroom/Son is Yeshua and the 1 st Guest invited were those of Judah, Let s establish the second group of guest that were invited, Further evidence is presented by Paul in Romans 1:16, so if the 1 st guest were those of Judah the second set must be believers scattered among the Gentiles. Slide 12 Hosea 9:8 Slide 13 Jeremiah 31:16
Slide 14 And Jeremiah 50:18 is another prophetic verse concerning the joining back together of the 2 house of Israel, The Bridegroom cannot marry His Bride until she is gathered together, This verse also shows Ephraim, The lost sheep or the 10 tribes is outside of Judea and must return to be in the Wedding banquet. So we have established Scripturally who the 2 sets of guest are. Slide 15 In order to establish who the man being removed from the wedding party is we must understand what is meant by wedding garment What is proper and why did this man stand out from among the other guests, as we know in the verse both good and bad were invited, How did the King know that this man was out of place as compared to the others, How did the King know who should be there and who shouldn t. I.E. who was good and who was bad. Slide 16 Let s look at a similar situation in Zephaniah 1:7. <Read>. To leap over one s threshold upon entering their house was to refuse to accept that to which that house believed according to the Threshold Covenant prevalent at that time. So if your house worshipped the GOD of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as defined in the Covenant with Abraham and your invited guest jumped over your Threshold instead of stepping normally, It meant he rejected all you believe in. And obviously if you believed in Yahweh you followed all His commands and statuettes. So to reject your GOD is rejecting His Word and ways. Which is as we know is lawlessness or sin. The kings and prince s who are punished had on foreign apparel, meaning they had not clothed themselves with proper attire, Let s look at some other verses for the meaning of proper attire, as well Slide 17 Isaiah 61:10, Ephesians 6:17, Zechariah 3:4
Slide 18 Psalms 119:160, Psalm 119:164, Deuteronomy 4:8 Also compare this back to Revelation 19:8 as to what the bride was adorned in. So as we can see from a Scriptural point of view to be clothed in righteousness is to walk in His Word and ways. To be properly attired is to walk or live in His commands, ordinances and statutes. This is what defines us as a set-apart-people unto Him. What separates us and provides a distinction from the worldly ways. Slide 19 The matter of the wedding garment is instructive. It would be a gross insult to the king to refuse to wear the garment provided to the guests. The man who was caught wearing his old clothing learned what an offense it was as he was removed from the celebration. Or we can look at this as the guest was not clothed in The Word of YHVH and therefore did not belong at the wedding banquet. And this is how the King or Yahwey in this parable knew the man did not belong. Slide 20 And as most of us realize, being thrown into the place where there is a great weeping and gnashing of teeth is not a good thing. As these verses testify to who is thrown out into this place and was also so in Matthew 25 in the Parable of the talents, where the servant who did nothing with the Word given unto him was also thrown out into this place Slide 21 A lot of where our former Sunday Christian misunderstandings come from a misunderstanding of what the words used in the translations actually mean. = Aw-man = belief or believe It is a VERB, donating an action and אמ ן not just a thought So if we believe in Him, We believe in His Word and therefore we do them, To the Hebrew train of thought to say we believe but not do is an impossible act, The old adage, actions speak louder than words Has held true for a reason. It is not as much our understanding that is
important here, it is the understanding of the writer that is important as He is the one trying to get what he understood across to us. Slide 22 So in conclusion, we can see this parable is told after the Division of the southern and Northern Kingdoms, Judah remains in the land and Ephraim has been scattered among the Gentiles as was so at the time of Yeshua s walk on earth. Yeshua is telling the story of of His Father sending The Prophets to call the tribe of Judah back unto Him and His ways, but most did not listen and killed His Prophets, so Yahweh sends more Prophets out unto the gentiles and they come to join the remnant of the Jews at the feast, thus uniting the House of Judah and the House of Israel back to one house, but many of the House of Israel believe, but are not doing His Word and His ways therefore are not clothed in the proper attire and are banished into the outer darkness of a world without a Yahweh. If we look at the New Testament from Matthew to Revelation, this Parable in a nutshell is the Reader Digest condensed story of the New Testament thru the understanding of the Old Testament. For many are called, but few are chosen. Thank you for your consideration. Shabbat Shalom.