28A23.   Isaiah 25:6-10a.  The Hebrew People had been taken away into captivity to Babylonia.  Here Isaiah prophesies that the Lord will deliver his people out of that misery to an earthly paradise that is a sumptuous banquet where all peoples will be united under God and where there will be no sorrow or death.  “Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us!”

Matthew 22:1-14.  Jesus again “spoke to the chief priests and elders of the people in” a parable.  They were being likened to guests who refused to attend the royal feast, which was to say that they were rejecting God’s invitation that Jesus was making to them to have a life of living on the good things that God had for them.  Instead they were choosing to live their lives in a way that rejected what God had for them.  The result was to be disastrous for them.  Then everyone else was invited to the feast that they had rejected. Now, instead of just Jews, Gentiles were also invited into heaven.  In the second half of the parable there was a guest who chose to be “without a wedding garment.”  A common understanding of his refusal is that he tried to enter into the feast without taking on the change of mind and heart that would enable him to fully participate in the feast, in other words he was not accepting what was necessary to enter into heaven.

Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20.  Paul says that no matter what his personal circumstances are, feast or famine, he can go on, saying, “I can do all things in him who strengthens me.”  Paul says to the Philippians that God will do the same for them, since “My God will fully supply whatever you need, in accord with his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”