The Great Supper is very different to the Wedding Supper!

There are 2 suppers and one doesn’t seem appealing at all!

“And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and the mighty, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, great and small.” (Revelation 19 v 17-18)

In both Greek and Jewish literature they have images of the wicked who have died but have no burial so the vultures devour their rotten flesh. In the Old Testament we have numerous references but perhaps John’s readers saw this as a fulfilment of The battle of Gog and Magog which we will read in the next chapter and is told in Ezekiel 38 and 39. “Son of man, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Call out to every kind of bird and all the wild animals: ‘Assemble and come together from all around to the sacrifice I am preparing for you, the great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel. There you will eat flesh and drink blood. ¹⁸ You will eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth as if they were rams and lambs, goats and bulls—all of them fattened animals from Bashan. ¹⁹ At the sacrifice I am preparing for you, you will eat fat till you are glutted and drink blood till you are drunk. ²⁰ At my table you will eat your fill of horses and riders, mighty men and soldiers of every kind,’ declares the Sovereign Lord.” (Ezekiel 39:17-20)

So you can see the similarity with the verses in Revelation.

Gog and Magog have been debated and interpreted for generations. Some have gone as far as naming the nations who these belong to and who exactly they will attack. It’s quite amazing what people know! Anyway, we will get to that soon.

There isn’t much life at the Great Supper party. You don’t want to be there!

So what am I reflecting on this morning? It is simply this:

The vultures are eating the ‘flesh’.

All that has been relied upon; all that has been achieved; all that we have boasted in, battled and divided over; all the grotesque sinful flesh; the hurt and the pain of sin; so much of what has caught our attention and what we have wasted time over; its lying rotting on the floor; gone forever.

Don’t put too much trust in the flesh. Some arguments last far too long. Some desires drain you because they never cease. Real life is never about the flesh.