A Banquet of Fat Things
“The LORD of hosts will prepare a banquet of fat things for all the peoples on this mountain; A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, and refined, aged wine.
And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples,
Even the veil which is stretched over all nations.
He will swallow up death for all time,
And the Lord GOD will wipe tears away from all faces,
And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth;
For the LORD has spoken.”
A couple years ago, I started a cooking club with my bestie Pythias for the girls in our Bible study, in order to help them get some cool recipes under their belts, and also create more fellowship amongst ourselves. While college girls apparently have difficulty responding to an RSVP (ok, let’s face it, we ALL put off RSVPs until the last second) the Dandurands’ house would always end up full with young ladies excited to cook and eat in the name of home economics.
I called our club “Wine and Marrow,” (even though we cooked with wine and marrow literally one time—risotto and balsamic reduction lamb chops!) Our theme verse was Isaiah 25:6-8, because it was so beautiful to me. Here we have the LORD of Hosts, YHWH, the Creator of the entire world, stepping down and devouring death for us. Swallowing it whole, so that this dark funeral veil will no longer shroud us. The Almighty King of the universe will wipe every tear from our grubby, sin-stained faces as one would blow the nose of a child (a thought that makes me tear even now).
But on top of it? He will also make us a meal. A delicious meal, full of FAT things! Perhaps you don’t believe me, like NASB and ESV apparently don’t, since they write the English translation ‘lavish’. However, the actual Hebrew word here is “shemen”, which means ‘fat’ or ‘oil’. The best pieces of meat, the juiciest steaks and roasts with that trim of crackling fat—those will be our portions (so there, my dear father-in-law. That meat clearly is going to have juicy redness in it! Don’t worry though, your steaks are still delicious to me, but I think we’d all rather have God be the one behind the grill).
Why this focus on fat? It’s really kind of interesting, because in certain cases the Jews were forbidden from eating fat (like Leviticus 7:25). However the reasoning behind it is fantastic. The verse says, “Whoever eats the fat of the animal from which an offering by fire is offered to the LORD, even the person who eats shall be cut off from his people.” Why are they not supposed to eat fat here? Because those choice parts have been offered to the LORD, and to steal them would be akin to Cain’s sour, lean, second-rate offering. (Guess who else was cut off from his people).
And yet, even though God deserves the glory, deserves the richest portions on account of His power! His goodness! His love! His faithfulness! He prepares the best banquet for us who had rejected Him. He draws us in and feeds us as if we were important guests, as if we were his sons and daughters—which we are if we believe in His name.
I’m not trying to justify my ‘fat diet’ here by twisting Scripture! After all, there are also plenty of verses that harshly decry people who have glutted themselves, allowed themselves to become fat in soul and mind, and often thus lost control of their body (Ps 119:70, Job 15:27, Ez 39:19, Judges 3:22)
However, doing my little word study on fat made me recall two things. One—God has made a ridiculously wide variety of scrumptious types of food. He could have just created a tasteless pill that kept us going, which still would have been completely gracious, but instead He gave us a delicious variety. I for one will praise Him exuberantly when I am wolfing down a smooth avocado with chili, a savory salad with rosemary-toasted walnuts, a juicy piece of peppered tri-tip—and, let’s face it, from time to time a scoop of double chocolate fudge-chip ice cream from Graeter’s. We must eat in moderation, and that includes fats! (So rejoice, HFLC people!)
But even more beautiful than this discovery? The reminder that my God—who violently abhors my sin and crushed it to death by offering His Son as a blood sacrifice—is also a TENDER God. He cares not only for the hungerings of my body, but the starving pangs of my soul. Like the father with the prodigal son, He “girds up His loins” to run and meet me and will wipe every tear from my eye. He loves me, from before time to the end of time, and far beyond.
And on top of it, He’s invited us to a fantastic gourmet feast (you can bet there’s going to be fat involved) prepared for His beloved children of all tribes and all nations. Now that’s an RSVP I’m certainly not going to miss.
Under the Mercy,
Lady Knoxie
