Isaiah 25:6 - Exposition

In this mountain ; i.e. the heavenly Zion—the "mountain of the Lord's house" ( Isaiah 2:2 ; comp. Isaiah 24:23 ). Unto all people ; rather, unto all peoples . There is no restriction of salvation to any particular race or nation—"Jew, Greek, barbarian, Scythian, bond, free" ( Colossians 3:11 ), are equally invited, and some of each come in (comp. Daniel 7:14 ; Matthew 8:11 ; Revelation 5:9 ; Revelation 7:9 ). The Church of the redeemed contains men and women of all "nations and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues." A feast of fat things . It follows from many passages of Holy Scripture that there is something in the final beatitude of man which is best represented to us in our present condition by the image of a "feast"—something very different, no doubt, from the festive joy of which our Teutonic ancestors hoped to partake in the halls of Odin, but yet figured to us most fitly and appropriately by terms ordinarily used to describe earthly feasting. Our Lord tells of a "marriage supper," to which he will invite his friends ( Matthew 22:2-12 ); and the scene of the "marriage supper of the Lamb, "according to St. John in the Revelation" ( Revelation 19:7-9 ), is heaven. There man, it would seem, will partake of a sacrificial feast with his glorified Lord ( Matthew 26:29 )—will eat the "heavenly manna," which is "angels' food" ( Psalms 78:25 ), and drink a spiritual drink which may be called "the fruit of the vine," deriving from this "eating" and "drinking" life and joy and strength. It has been already observed, in the Commentary upon Exodus, that the sacrificial meal on Sinai, whereto the seventy elders were admitted ( Exodus 24:9-11 ), prefigured this heavenly feasting, and throws a certain light upon it. All gross and carnal ideas must, of course, be subtracted from the conception of the heavenly festivity; but it seems to be true to say that our author, and also St. John and our Lord himself, imply that in the world to come there will be a feast, at which God will be the Host, and all men, priests and laity alike, his guests, and receive from him the choicest and most exquisite gifts—gifts which will make them supremely happy. A feast of wines on the lees . 'Wine which remained on its Ices, and was not poured off them into another vessel, was considered to be of especial strength (see Jeremiah 48:11 ). Its defect was a want of clearness. The wine of the heavenly banquet is to be at once strong and perfectly clear or "well refined."