Which Feast are You Planning to Attend?

And I saw one angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly directly overhead, “Come! Assemble for the great banquet of God, in order that you may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of military tribunes, and the flesh of the powerful, and the flesh of horses and those seated on them,
and the flesh of all people, both free and slave, and small and great!”

Revelation 19:17–18 (LEB)

There are two great feasts spoken about in scripture. One is for those who have faith in Jesus (or Yeshua by his Hebrew name), and show this by following his ways, and one for those who do not. One feast is not good. It is the feast of vultures and every unclean bird that will eat the corpses of those who reject God. This feast is alluded to by Moses, and is not just limited to the famous imagery in Revelation.

Deuteronomy 28:25–26 (LEB): ²⁵ “Yahweh shall cause you to be defeated before your enemies; on one road you shall go against them, but you will flee on seven roads before them, and you shall become a thing of horror to all of the kingdoms of the earth. ²⁶ And your dead bodies shall be as food for all of the birds of the heaven and to the animals of the earth, and there shall not be anyone to frighten them away.

I realize these verses seem to be speaking about ancient Israel, and that the whole Bible is about Israel. Once we realize that the twelve tribes were drawn close to God and given the oracles of God, we can have a better understanding of the past, present and future. Israel is not limited to a political nation state on the Mediterranean Sea, and the twelve tribes that were in covenant at Mount Horeb did not all return in 1948. Some did: however, the tribes are still mostly scattered to the four corners of the earth.

Deuteronomy 4:27–31 (LEB): ²⁷ And Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations to where Yahweh will lead you. ²⁸ And you will there serve gods made by human hands, of wood and stone, gods that cannot see and cannot hear and cannot eat and cannot smell. ²⁹ But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God and will find him, if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. ³⁰ In your distress when all these things have found you in the latter days, then you will return to Yahweh your God, and you will listen to his voice. ³¹ For Yahweh your God is a compassionate God; he will not abandon you, and he will not destroy you, and he will not forget the covenant of your ancestors that he swore to them.

In another place, Yahweh tells us more about the birds of prey.

Isaiah 18:1–7 (LEB): 18 Ah! land of the whirring of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Cush, ² that sends messengers by the sea and in vessels of papyrus on the surface of the waters! Go, swift messengers, to a tall and smooth nation, to a people feared near and far, a mighty, mighty and trampling nation, whose land rivers divide. ³ All you inhabitants of the world and dwellers of the earth, when a signal is raised on the mountains, you must look, and when a trumpet is blown, you must listen! ⁴ For Yahweh said this to me: “I will be quiet, and I will look from my dwelling place like clear heat because of light, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.” ⁵ For before the harvest, when the blossom is complete and a blossom becomes ripening fruit, and one cuts off the shoots with pruning hooks, and one removes, tears away the tendrils. ⁶ They shall all be left for birds of prey of the mountains and for the animals of the earth. And the birds of prey will pass the summer on it, and every animal of the earth will winter on it. ⁷ At that time, a gift will be brought to Yahweh of hosts from a tall and smooth people, and from a people feared near and far, a mighty, mighty and trampling nation, whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of Yahweh of hosts, the mountain of Zion.

It’s clear that Yeshua was referring to scriptures in the Old Testament when he talked about the vultures gathering where the corpses are located.

Matthew 24:27–28 (LEB): ²⁷ For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so the coming of the Son of Man will be. ²⁸ Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

Finally, we see this feast of vultures spoken about at the end of times.

Revelation 19:17–18 (LEB): ¹⁷ And I saw one angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly directly overhead, “Come! Assemble for the great banquet of God, ¹⁸ in order that you may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of military tribunes, and the flesh of the powerful, and the flesh of horses and those seated on them, and the flesh of all people, both free and slave, and small and great!”

I certainly do not want to become bird food, and I would rather everyone else avoid this great feast. There is a much better feast planned for people than this one where the birds dine on the corpses of the people at war with God. We see this mentioned in places in scripture, and it is where I want to be. The feast I want to be part of is another feast spoken about by Isaiah. Aged wines and fat filled with marrow, and no more death are something we have to look forward to.

Isaiah 25:6–8 (LEB): ⁶ And on this mountain Yahweh of hosts will make for all peoples a rich feast, a feast of aged wines, fat filled with marrow, filtered aged wine. ⁷ And on this mountain he will destroy the face of the shroud, the shroud over all peoples, and the woven covering over all nations. ⁸ He will destroy death forever, and the Lord Yahweh will wipe off the tears from all faces, and he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth, for Yahweh has spoken.

When we read “Yahweh has spoken”, this tells us whatever has been spoken will happen. Unfortunately, many teachers disconnect the Old Testament from the New Testament these days and will not even discuss the events in the book of Revelation. This is simply because it disrupts their doctrine to do so, or they believe these verses do not apply to them. We know all scripture is true and must be taken into account looking at future events.

Amos 9:13–14 (LEB): ¹³ “Look, days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when the one who plows will overtake the one who reaps, the one who treads grapes will catch up with the one who sows the seed. And the mountains will drip sweet wine and all of the hills will flow with it. ¹⁴ And I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they will rebuild the desolated cities and will inhabit them. And they will plant vineyards and will drink their wine, and they will make gardens and will eat their fruit.

I am looking forward to having vineyards and olive groves. We often hear about the “marriage supper of the lamb”, as if it is only spoken about in the book of Revelation.

Revelation 19:6–10 (LEB): ⁶ And I heard something like the sound of a great crowd and something like the sound of many waters and something like the sound of powerful thunder, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord God, the All-Powerful, reigns! ⁷ Let us rejoice and be glad and give him the glory, because the wedding celebration of the Lamb has come, and his bride has prepared herself. ⁸ And it has been granted to her that she be dressed in bright, clean fine linen (for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints). ⁹ And he said to me, “Write: Blessed are those who are invited to the banquet of the wedding celebration of the Lamb!” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

Plan on being part of the celebration feast with Yeshua. Do not become caught in the wrath of God and become food for the vultures!

Photo by Casey Allen on Unsplash.