The Unending Feast

Esther 1:
5. And when those days were expired, the king made a feast unto all the people that were present in Shushan the palace, both unto great and small, seven days in the court of the garden of the king’s palace;
6. Where white, green, and blue, hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble: the beds were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red (porphyry), and blue, and white, and black, marble
7. And they gave them drink in vessels of gold, (the vessels being divers from one another.) and royal wine in abundance, according to the state of the king
8. And the drinking was according to the law; none did compel: for the king had appointed to all the officers of the house, that they should do according to every man’s pleasure
9. And Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to king Ahasuerus.

In the last post, we were reflecting on throne, king and kingdom. Here, it’s about the unending feast in the kingdom – the feast continues for another period of seven days in the royal garden court of the king in Shushan. The atmosphere is charged full of colours. I’ve allowed my imagination to essay forth a bird to view this scenery from the air. I see a pervading beauty and smell sweet odours that have blended into one. The hangings of white, green and blue clothes fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and….silver-gold beds on pavement of red…mother-of-pearl and precious stones. White is purity; green is life and blue is heavenly while purple signifies royalty. Red or porphyry is the colour of the blood of man’s redemption like the red cord hanging from Rehab’s window. In the worship instituted in the wilderness as the people of Israel moved towards Canaan, the Holies had articles mainly of gold; this typified God. Silver speaks of redemption.

What again, in this feast, are available? Special and most costly royal wines and every one was fed according to his desire. Wines speaks of liveliness, excitement; sense of being actively alive. The guests are served the best the king has. At the same time, similar feast is going on in the palace as Vashti, the queen, is carrying on her own feast.


The heavenly feast is again Christ. There’s an ever increasing knowledge of the Lord; this is the feast that cannot end. The consummate presence of Christ to His people is the Ultima Thule of the journey of our life. We don’t, says a verse of 1 John 3, yet know what we shall be but we shall be like Him when we see Him (verse 2). Oh, no! As we feast on Him looking into the mirror that He is, we shall be transformed from glory to glory, to more of Him (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Shushan is the beautiful city of the Persia and Media kingdom just as Jerusalem is the City of the great King. The Jerusalem here referred is not the one the religious minded visit from their own land and return to bear the JP title. This is the heavenly city of God coming away from Him (Revelations 21:2). This is the tabernacle of God amongst men (verse 3). In this city, in this mountain, the Lord will fete His own. “And on the mountains shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees,of the things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined” (Isaiah 25:6).
A feast! Of things full of marrow. If you are a consumer of the marrow of the bones of animal, the sheen of your skin assumes a glow that’s beyond what is ordinary and common. You’re healthy, everyway fresh and, as it were, of another world beyond the ken of human experience. There’s the wine on the lees well refined which, according to Donald Stamp, literally means “a feast of preserves.” In other words, these wines have been preserved for millennia and have become sweeter. Christ is the wine preserved. Just look around today and you’ll see the foretaste of this in the activities of the Eternal Spirit of God. Just ask those who have had special visitations from the Lord or those who are just filled with the Holy Spirit or those who, as they feast on Christ through reading the bible, suddenly acquire brighter clarity and insight into the meaning of a a word, a phrase or a sentence and you’ll learn of the eternal joy that belongs to them. No the feast of wines on the lees is not manufactured by the best brewer in the world; it’s represented as the hidden manna the Lord Jesus Christ promised the overcomers: “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna” (Revelations 2:17). The hidden manna is that food that sustains my life in all eternity and is quite satisfying to my inner man. For in the Lord Jesus, everything cohere, holds together; everything disintegrates outside of Christ. The things of marrow, full of fat and wines on the lees well refined brightens, illuminates and expands my being to accommodate Him more as I’m being changed into more of Him I’m beholding (feasting on) in the mirror. Thank you Lord for this undeserved mercy.