Like Puzzle Pieces

I am a strong adherent of the idea that “Scripture interprets Scripture.”  What this means is that anything in the Bible can be explained through the rest of it, with no outside sources needed to shed light on difficult passages.  Today we get to look at two puzzle pieces that fit together to explain entry into heaven.

We are slowly reading through Zephaniah and the passage we’re talking about today is Zephaniah 1:7-11; it reads,

Be silent before the Sovereign Lord,
For the day of the Lord is near.
The Lord has prepared a sacrifice;
He has consecrated those he has invited.
On the day of the Lord’s sacrifice
I will punish the princes and the king’s sons
And all those clad in foreign clothes.
On that day I will punish
All who avoid stepping on the threshold,
Who fill the temple of their gods
With violence and deceit.
“On that day,” declares the Lord,
“A cry will go up from the Fish Gate,
Wailing from the New Quarter,
And a loud crash from the hills.
Wail, you who live in the market district;
All your merchants will be wiped out,
All who trade with silver will be ruined.”

Right away the Holy Spirit lit up my brain with a similar passage conceptually, Matthew 22:1-14:

Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.  He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

     “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

     “But they paid no attention and went off- one to his field, another to his business.  The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.  The king was enraged.  He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

     “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come.  Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’  So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

     “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.  ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’  The man was speechless.

     “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

     “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

This is cool because the two passages fit together like puzzle pieces.

Jesus explained that the parable is about the kingdom of heaven.  The king has a feast prepared.  This goes along with what is written in Revelation 19:7- which says,

Let us rejoice and be glad
And give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
And his bride has made herself ready.

Now wait, both Jesus and Revelation talk about a feast, but Zephaniah is talking about a sacrifice.  This is where it gets interesting because one kind of sacrifice is actually both, the fellowship (or peace) offering.  The Law tells us,

Build the altar of the Lord your God with fieldstones and offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God.  Sacrifice fellowship offerings there, eating them and rejoicing in the presence of the Lord your God (Deuteronomy 27:6-7).

This is extra cool because Jesus, through his sacrifice, made peace between us and the Lord so that we may fellowship with him- as Paul explained in Colossians 1:19-20,

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Many people are invited to this feast, and in both Zephaniah and Matthew’s version the context is that God’s people (Israel) are invited.  However, they reject the Lord’s invitation and are thrown out where there is “weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  This is a version of hell; because we can read a similar description opposite of heaven in Matthew 13:40-43,

As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age.  The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.  They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.  He who has ears, let him hear.

This would absolutely qualify as the punishments mentioned in Zephaniah’s passage.  Even Luke’s account of the wedding banquet parable gets in on the action.  Zephaniah 1:9 calls out those who worship false gods;

On that day I will punish
All who avoid stepping on the threshold,
Who fill the temple of their gods
With violence and deceit.

And Jesus explains them as already being married in Luke 14:20, “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’”  They’re already attached to their gods so they don’t care about the wedding of the Lamb.

Matthew’s account has a part that has always confused me.  It ends with one of these random street guys not dressing appropriately:

But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.  “Friend,” he asked, “how did you get in here without wedding clothes?”  The man was speechless.

     Then the king told the attendants, “Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

     For many are invited, but few are chosen (Matthew 22:11-13).

Wow, harsh, right?  But, Zephaniah explained why the man was thrown out:

On the day of the Lord’s sacrifice
I will punish the princes and the king’s sons
And all those clad in foreign clothes (Zephaniah 1:8).

Part of those thrown out are those in “foreign clothes.”  Remember, the context of both the prophecy and the parable is that the people of Israel are the ones who are invited initially.  However, failing to get them to come, Matthew’s account has the servants go out on the street and grab anyone else- that’s the gentiles.  This was exactly what ended up happening with Paul when he tried to preach Christ to the Jews:

But when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads!  I am clear of my responsibility.  From now on I will go to the Gentiles” (Acts 18:6).

We see though from Matthew that gentile clothes are not accepted in the Kingdom of Heaven.  Jesus tells the churches,

I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes so you can see (Revelation 3:18).

And our earlier passage from Revelation 19 finishes up,

“Fine linen, bright and clean,
Was given her to wear.”

(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)

     Then the angel said to me, “Write: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!”  And he added, “These are the true words of God” (Revelation 19:8-9).

So, the way to be properly clothed for the wedding feast is through the salvation of Christ through his atoning sacrifice on the cross- which we are called to partake in.

Wow, right?  This is how the Bible works.  These passages are thousands of years apart but come together in one very important message: Jesus is the only way to heaven.  So do not tarry my friend, accept the Lord and his salvation.  Oh, and read the Bible; let Scripture build your faith in our Lord.

When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God” (Luke 14:15).

Amen!

Related articles

• Zephaniah in Focus (laymansbible.wordpress.com)