Imagine if a glass jar were able to speak, what would you expect it to talk about? If you could ask this jar to explain to you what brings it the most satisfaction, what do you suppose would be its answer? We find rest and peace in the finished work of Christ, not in our outward piety, the perception of others…It wouldn't say that flying through the air brings it the most joy, it wouldn't say that swimming in an open ocean is what fulfills its longings! The jar would say that the way it's fulfilled is when it is used for its purpose, to carry and store away whatever its owner pleases.

When I was growing up in my small church in Frewsburg, NY, I was always told about how important it was for Christians to know Christ. In fact, that very concept is used often in our evangelism. How many times have you asked, or have been asked, “Do you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior?” From a Christian perspective it seems like a great question to ask, but in reality that question has humanistic undertones. When we refer to the verses I have quoted out of the New Testament book of Matthew we see four words that stick out; “I never knew you.The glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way God has chosen to get to know you.” What is the indication here at the end of these three verses? This tells us that no matter how much we think we know about God it is worth nothing if He does not know us. Think about the implications of that!

For Solomon to say something like this to us is most beneficial. This man accomplished many things, things that no one else in history has accomplished and yet he tells us that what God does is most significant and there is nothing we can do to improve it or lessen it. If you read the rest of the book of Ecclesiastes, you will find that Solomon sought to do many great things for God to make a lasting legacy for himself but in the end found these things to be empty.

We only have to exist in ourselves for two minutes to realize that we have issues with idolatry. We worship anything and everything which is not God most easily and quickly. For the Christian this is our great struggle if we are honest with ourselves. At the end of these verses we see something wonderful and that wonderful thing is that believers are described as throwing away their idols and seeing them as disgusting. The question that has to be asked is how are we going to participate in this wonderful throwing away of idols?

In order to enjoy the God who wrote these verses we must consider who they are written to. In the verses before, we learn that these people were needy people. We learn that they are spiritually poor people, people who lack. These people are weary from what they do not have and weary from the various miseries that they do have. Is this not wonderful? This feast prepared by God has not been prepared for the super spiritual person; it has not been prepared for the spiritually strong or the spiritually satisfied. This wonderful feast has been prepared for the broken, the weary, the needy, the sorrowful. My dear brothers and sisters, the next time you find yourself lacking and needy and broken take comfort that God does not despise you, nor find you guilty in these things even though the world and even the church may. God has prepared a feast for you to enjoy and be filled. You may say, “I cannot sit and enjoy this feast, I am too ungrateful, too worldly.”Feasting is delightful to those who are down and so consider that it may be that the Lord has you in this time of difficulty that His gospel feast which is already yours may be sweeter and more glorious when you sit down to partake of it.