82. Friday after Third Sunday after Epiphany.
Blessed are they that dwell in thy house;
they will be still praising thee! Amen
Isaiah 25, 6-9. And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it. And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
❦
Could anything more beautiful be said concerning the glory of our Lord Jesus and the salvation of his people than that which the prophet says in this text? “Many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.” The feast shall be prepared for all people. All nations shall be there. The Lord of hosts, our Jesus, does not do anything on a small scale. What a feast, what a meal it will be! There the wine is without dregs, and the fat things are all marrow; there is nothing but pure, unmixed joy and bliss, nothing but love, nothing but God himself, who at this feast is all things in all. For the covering that still is cast over all people is taken away, and we know God face to face; we see him in Christ as he is. Then death is wholly and utterly destroyed forever; it is swallowed up in victory, is gone, has disappeared, even as night with its darkness disappears before the sun. And with death there is an end of sorrow, and crying, and sighing, and wailing. Dishonor and ignominy have been buried out of sight forever. — These things has the Lord promised to his church; the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. We still await the fulfillment in its entirety; but in faith and hope we already possess salvation. Thousands upon thousands of the gentiles sit at the table of God in his church on earth; eat his flesh; drink his blood; live of his life; taste his love; and see him with uncovered face, though still as through a glass, darkly. And who shall number the multitude of those already at home in heaven? But these two, the saints on earth and the saved in heaven, are one people, and stand together in one place, around the same Lord; the only difference being that the saved in heaven see that which we as yet only believe. Who, then, can doubt that the Lord shall do that which he has spoken, and that he shall gather us as one people in the consummation of glory?
Praise be to thee, Lord Jesus! Do thou soon gather into thy church of all peoples as many as can be saved, and as shall furnish thy wedding feast with guests, in order that the glory of the perfect church may come quickly. Amen.*
There is a home of sweet repose,
Where storms assail no more;
The stream of endless pleasure flows
On that celestial shore.
There purity with love appears,
And bliss without alloy;
There they that oft had sown in tears
Shall reap eternal joy.
[Evangelical Lutheran Hymnal 455; listen here]
* Here the head of the family says a short morning or evening prayer in his own words, and closes with the Lord’s Prayer and the Benediction. This is to be done every day. If the stanzas are not sung, they may be read in their proper place before the impromptu petition and the Lord’s Prayer.