Episode 7: The Marriage Supper of the Lamb

Erin Davis: Hey Bethany, you asked me about my last meal on earth (which, as everybody remembers, was steak and potatoes), but I want to know what you think food’s going to be like in heaven?

Bethany Beale: I hope it knocks my taste buds out of the park. I really do imagine it being a long table and all of us on either side around, with piles of the most fresh fruit and vegetables. I don’t know, that’s just the picture that comes to mind. It just quenches that desire. Is that what comes to your mind?

Erin: Yes. I imagine that long table, too, and I just think it’s piled. I don’t think it’s one kind of food. I think it’s just piles of different things and taste experiences. I think it’s going to be more than we can probably imagine.

Bethany: Welcome to The Deep Well with Erin Davis. I know a lot of us will approach food with a whole new perspective after listening to this series. On this episode, Erin will explain why we can look forward to a feast in the future like we’ve never experienced before.

Erin: I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who wears stretchy pants on Thanksgiving in anticipation of all the food we’re going to eat. Right? What’s interesting is even that silly habit can speak some truth to our hearts about something deeper we see in God’s Word.

In this episode, I want to jump right into our Bibles. We’re going to start with Revelation 19:1–10. 

Let me set the stage. The apostle John wrote these words, because God gave him a really dramatic and detailed vision, which became the book of Revelation. Starting in verse 1.

After this, I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God. For His judgments are true and just; for He has judged the great prostitute, who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of His servants." Once more they cried out, "Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever." And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne, saying, "Amen! Hallelujah!" And from the throne came a voice saying, "Praise our God, all you His servants, you who fear Him, small and great."

Now, I know that our brains are probably struggling to absorb everything that’s going on in these first few verses. There’s a voice of the great multitude, and what they’re doing is praising God. Over and over they’re saying, “Hallelujah!” They’re declaring that Jesus is worthy of praise.

Then there are those twenty-four elders and those strange creatures, and they’re falling down in worship. There’s a voice booming from heaven, and he’s giving this rally cry: “Praise God, all of us! All walks of life, big and small.”

Then that booming voice shouts, “It’s time to feast.” Let me pick it up in verse 6.

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters, and like the sound of many peals of thunder, crying out, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns! Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory! For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready. It was granted to her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure. For the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints." And the angel said to me, "Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb." And he said to them, "These are the true words of God." Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, "You must not do that. I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."

God is moving time toward the moment described in these verses, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Now, I’m not sure if we will literally feed our glorified bodies or not, but I think we will. Jesus was in a glorified body following His resurrection, and Acts 10:40–41 tells us that He ate and drank with people after He was raised. Plus, why would we have a feast if we’re not going to eat it?

What I know for sure is that when God inspired John to write about life behind the veil in heaven, a feast is the picture He chose. Once again, as we’ve seen over and over, and in so many other places in your Bible that I haven’t taken you to in this series, God uses food to teach us something significant about Himself.

I want you to try to imagine what it’s going to be like when sin has been fully removed from our lives, when sin has been fully removed from our food. I want you to picture this scene that’s described here. There are creatures, great and small, and what unifies us is our praise to Jesus, the one true King.

I want you to try to imagine what it’s going to be like when the voices of the saints—and there are so many of us, and we’re so loud that it sounds like Niagara Falls—as we declare, “Hallelujah!” because our Lord God the Almighty reigns. What will heaven’s food taste like? What will be on the tables of the King of kings?

Now, before you start thinking it’s like Chick-Fil-A chicken strips—and I’m with you, I adore them—I want you to know that your taste buds cannot begin to conjure up what we will eat at this feast. How do I know that? Well, because 1 Corinthians 2:9 says, “But as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.’”

There’s a lot I don’t know about heaven. When I read these passages like the one we just read in Revelation, I have a lot more question marks than definite answers. But what I do know is that I’ve never seen anything like it; I’ve never heard anything like it; I’ve never imagined anything like it, and I’ve never tasted anything like what God has in store for me at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

Take a big leap with me. We’re going to head from Revelation to Matthew chapter 9. You might feel a little whiplash as I read this verse to you, but I promise, it’s going to connect. What was going on here is that some people questioned Jesus about why the Pharisees seemed to fast so often but Jesus’ disciples didn’t. Again, looking at the outside, it seemed like the Pharisees got it right.

Jesus said something in response that I believe points to this feast in Revelation. Matthew 9:15: “And Jesus said to them, ‘Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.’”

While they had Jesus, they didn’t need to fast. Remember? They had that beautiful breakfast on the shore with Him. They had His physical presence in their lives. He was right there to listen and respond to their needs. But when Jesus was pressed on the rhythms of fasting and feasting among His disciples, He said, “Once we’re separated . . .” Now, they were separated physically, not spiritually. Jesus made the way so that we do not have to be separated from Him by sin. But once Jesus ascended and His disciples were there waiting for His return, then they had a reason to fast.

You know what? We’re in that same gap between Christ’s resurrection and His return, and so we have reason to fast. It’s only when we are finally and forever united with our groom that fasting will have served its purpose, and it’s only then that the true feasting will begin.

Pastor David Matthias once said it this way:

In fasting we confess we are not home yet and remember that we are not homeless. In fasting we cry out to our groom and remember that we have His covenant promises. In fasting we confess our lack and remember that the One with every resource has pledged His help in His perfect timing.”

I think few practices remind us how earthbound we really are quicker than fasting. I mean, miss a single meal and it causes a physical reaction. At first, we get hungry, and then our minds start to obsess over food. If we fast much longer than one meal, our blood sugar is going to drop and our brain’s going to get foggy. That doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong.

I have a friend who started fasting, and she said, “Erin, I just don’t think it’s for me, because my brain gets really foggy, and I have a hard time thinking! Does that happen to you?” Absolutely it does, because food feeds my brain. Again, it’s such clear evidence of how much I need help. I mean, eight hours have gone by here and I can’t think. That’s the reality of fasting. Again, that doesn’t mean we’re doing it wrong. It’s that need meter sounding its alarm again.

Those physical signals are a reminder of a greater reality. What fasting does is it forces our bodies to testify and our hearts to fixate on the fact that it will not always be this way. This world is not our home; this body is only temporary. A feast is coming, when the Bread of life will be ours to behold, and the Living Water will finally quench our thirst. It’s kind of like wearing stretchy pants on Thanksgiving. The Scripture’s call is to hold life loosely in anticipation of the feast that is to come.

The way I’d like to wrap up this series is by reading those verses from Revelation one more time. I’d love it if you just got lost in the hope, in the promises that God has for you, and maybe got excited in a way you never have been before for the marriage supper of the Lamb that’s coming.

Here it is again, Revelation 9. I’m going to start with verse 6.

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude [I think we’re going to be among that crowd, friends!] like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns! Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory. For the marriage supper of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready.’”

Bethany: Erin, you had a lot of great Christian talk that kind of went over some of my head, even though I’ve been a Christian a long time. Like marriage—you talked a lot about the marriage of the Lamb, and I know that, but what is this marriage and who is this Lamb? Can you unpack a little bit of this marriage? Okay, I’m personally married, but what does this marriage in heaven look like?

Erin: Yes. Well, it flips a little bit, because we are the bride of Christ. That’s true here in Revelation, and it’s mentioned that way elsewhere in Scripture. You are the bride of Christ, and I am the bride of Christ. Together the Church, the sanctified, redeemed Church, which is all followers of Jesus throughout all of time; we are the bride of Christ, and the groom is Jesus. We’re separated from the groom right now in history; we’re at that point where we’re in the bridal suite, so to speak, and we can’t wait to see Him, and we can’t wait to be with Him. But there is a moment coming when we will be united to Him, and just like our human marriages, Bethany, which are meant to paint a picture of this deeper reality, once we are united with Christ, we will never, ever, ever be separated from Him. We will be united to Him forever. Man, I have a lump in my throat, because I cannot wait for that moment.

I don’t know what you had at your wedding. We had just appetizers after the wedding, because we had a beach wedding. I think we served barbecue meatballs. But there was food, there was feasting, there was celebration. Even that translates to glory in heaven. There will be a marriage, there is a bride, there is a groom. It tells us in this passage that we wear white clothes, just like a bride does, that the Lord has cleansed and made us holy. And there’s going to be a feast. I don’t think there’s going to be barbecue meatballs; I think it will be more spectacular than that!

Bethany: We had breakfast for dinner at my wedding. We had a whole breakfast feast.

Erin: Oh! That’s good.

Bethany: I’m kind of hoping it’s bacon and eggs and waffles.

Erin: Yes, I can go for that. I think you’re going to get a slice of the wedding cake at this wedding, and if you don’t know what I’m talking about you have to listen to the other episodes. But there won’t be anybody who doesn’t get to feast.

Bethany: Yes.

We may have someone listening who’s saying, “This has been an incredible series, and I hear you talking about this future hope, but I’m actually not sure if I’m going to be there. I don’t know if I really know Jesus.” I don’t want us to end without just sharing this hope of Jesus with The Deep Well listeners. So can you give us a quick invitation? What does that look like, to make sure we’re at this feast?

Erin: I’m so glad you asked that. There have been so many years of my life and of my Christian walk that I would have listened to this and thought, I’m not sure I’m invited! I’m not sure I’ll be at that wedding! I would feel that anxiety and worry. If you’re feeling that, you’re in good company. The disciples expressed similar things, like, “I know you’re telling me, but I’m not sure I’m going to be there.”

This is how you are invited to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb: you tell Jesus in your heart that you believe Him that He is the King and that you want Him to rule your life, because you acknowledge you can’t rule your life on your own. The first step is to confess that. “I am a sinner. I cannot be who I want to be, who You want me to be. I need You to forgive me, and then I need You to be in charge.”

That’s it. You don’t even have to say it in those words I said it, you don’t have to close your eyes and fold your hands. I know people that have given their lives to Jesus in all manner of different ways, but they acknowledged that Jesus is King, they surrendered themselves to Him, and asked for His forgiveness. Those are the important steps.

That’s it. You’re in. You will be at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, you will be the bride, along with Bethany and I and all of the other saints. It’s not an invitation that ever gets revoked. You are His; this is your future reality. It’s guaranteed.

You know what? I think Jesus is looking forward to it as much as we are. He’s prepared that feast for us. That moment when the groom is united to His bride is what He went to the cross for, so He is longing for it. I am longing for it. I know you are longing for it, and I want you to be there so desperately.

Bethany: It sounds so amazing, and especially in life right now when things can feel very heavy . . . We’re all in different places—life can feel great at moments, hard at moments. For you, Erin, how has this future feast that’s to come, that is so amazing and it gives us hope for today, how has that changed the way that you live? How has that changed your outlook for being on this earth when hard still happens?

Erin: Yes. What’s that old hymn about the things of earth growing strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace? That’s what it does. They don’t disappear. It’s not like I don’t have to do laundry anymore because someday I’m going to be at the Marriage Feast of the Lamb. It’s not that life doesn’t have aches and pains—of course it does. We’ve talked about how that’s a good reason to fast. But they’re strangely dim in the light of His glory and His promises.

What I know is, I’m going to be at that marriage feast in a second. Maybe not a second like we measure time, but in the scope of time, in the scope of eternity, I’m going to be there really soon, and we’re going to have that feast. I’m going to be united with Jesus forever, and the saints are going to be so many and so loud that as we sing it sounds like peals of thunder. I mean, we’re almost there! It won’t be long now, and that gives me fortitude and it also gives me urgency. Like you said, Bethany, not everybody is at the feast, and those who are not at the feast are separated from God forever.

In some senses that’s why I teach, and it’s why I have an urgency about that, because I want everybody I know and everybody I don’t know to be at this table and enjoy this feast.

Bethany: When I think of this feast, to me it’s really, even on a daily basis, it’s what gives me strength and hope. If I don’t have a future, if I don’t know what’s to come, what is the point? Why am I here? Sometimes I do question that, too. “Then why am I here? Why doesn’t God just take us all home with Him today? That’s the most amazing thing in the world, but what’s the point?”

Can you help us understand—why are we still here if there’s such an amazing thing to come? Why doesn’t God just take us all home with Him and we can start feasting today?

Erin: Well, because not everybody knows. We know from Scripture that it’s God’s desire that all would give their hearts to Him. So those of us who know Him, this is an irreversible promise, but there are lost people, and they need to know. God’s heart is that all of His children would be at the feast.

My kids are young, but as I imagine them as young adults, and when they have their own families, and I have the table set for some big Christmas dinner. Say Judah and his family and his kids aren’t there yet. I’m going to be like, “Wait a minute! Nobody touch that turkey! Nobody take a drink of anything! We are waiting for Judah.”

It’s that idea, that He wants us all to be there.

Bethany: That is so gracious, when I think about that, because He doesn’t have to. He didn’t have to send Jesus. He doesn’t have to wait, but He desires for us to be with Him and to be there, and it gives such purpose. Even as a mom, to share with our kids. I loved how you talked about your fasting for your son, to know Jesus deeper. Wow! We can fast and we can feast, to even celebrate what’s to come, but also to pray that we would be purposeful and meaningful with our lives and telling other people about Jesus right now. It doesn’t have to be that we’re missionaries far, far away; we can do that right in our own families.

Erin: Yes.

Bethany: For the mom who’s like, “Okay, I have a few kids and I want them to know, I want them to be at that feast one day,” how can you encourage her to love and be purposeful in her home right now?

Erin: Yes. I want you to talk about heaven every chance you get with your kids. I mean, every chance you get! Talk about hell, too. I think that’s sometimes where we’re like, “Oh, we don’t want to talk about hell with our kids. That’s scary.” But they should know the stakes and the reality—not in a way to frighten them into a commitment with the Lord, but if the Lord talks about it, we should talk about it. That’s sort of my parenting mantra.

I think my kids would say—we should ask them some season of this podcast, or just in general—that their mom talks about heaven a lot. When I do, it’s usually with tears in my eyes. I just said the other day, “Guys, I want to be with Jesus. I want to go right now.”

One of them was like, “Well, don’t you want to stay with us?”

I was like, “I love you! I hope I get to watch you become old men. I want to see every moment of your life. But if I have the choice between being here with you and being in glory, I don’t have to hesitate. I want to be with Jesus.”

That’s because they know heaven is this place of feasting, heaven is this place of glory, heaven is this place where there’s no sin. Heaven is when I get to be with Jesus.

So maybe start there. I mean, read Revelation with your kids! Talk about this Marriage Supper of the Lamb. You have so many opportunities. I hope you’re at the dinner table all the time with your kids. It’s just a shadow thing. It points to the greater reality.

You were talking about God being so gracious. How gracious is it that when we are in heaven with Him, He’s going to give us a feast? I think about that every year on Thanksgiving. Only a good God, on a holiday intended to give Him thanks, gives us all this abundance! That’s what He’s going to do in heaven, too. We’re going to be there to glorify Him, but He’s going to give us riches that we can’t even imagine. So I just say, make heaven a common conversation at your family table.

Bethany: I love that you’re really normalizing these conversations about fasting, feasting, and even heaven. I know for me it can sometimes feel like, “Okay, heaven . . . just, ‘Hallelujah!’ all day.” It’s like, “What am I doing?” But you’re painting a picture that’s so beautiful. We’re giving God glory, but there’s so much more. We’re feasting and we’re celebrating, and it’s more incredible than anything we could imagine. So sharing that with the people around us and normalizing that conversation and being in Revelation and learning, with these passages you shared, I feel like that’s a good challenge for all of us.

Erin: I think part of that ethereal picture of heaven comes from this idea that we think our bodies for earth and our bodies aren’t for heaven, and food is for now and there’s no food in heaven. I don’t think that’s what we see in Scripture at all. Will we have glorified bodies? Yes. What will those be like? I don’t know. In my case, it hopefully means being free from chronic pain, because sin will be removed from the equation. But we’re going to eat, so we need to stop pretending that we’re going to be these blobs that sit on clouds and play harps. I mean, we’re going to feast, and that helps all of us recognize, “Oh, it’s not as detached from my current reality as I maybe think it is.”

Bethany: I’m so happy I’m not going to be a blob on a cloud.

Erin: I don’t want to be a cloud-blob, either.

Bethany: No to the cloud-blobs!

Okay, you mentioned another thing that, if you’ve been a Christian or been in church for a while, you hear a lot. You talked about living water. Some of us may understand what that means, but some may not. We hear these Christian terms a lot, but can you unpack that quickly? Erin 101, living water; what is it?

Erin: I think we can find it in our Old Testament and our New Testament, of course, because they’re not separate from each other. They mirror each other.

The story that comes to mind is when Moses was leading the Israelites out of captivity and they were grumbling. First they were hungry, which I can’t believe we didn’t talk about the manna in this series. That’s another whole thing. (I think it tasted like graham crackers, by the way.) Then they’re thirsty. They need a drink. Bethany, you can so relate to this with a toddler, because they always need food, and then they need a drink! So they were being toddlers, right?

God said to Moses, “Strike the rock with your staff and out of it will flow water.” That’s exactly what happened. Where there was just a rock, suddenly there was life. There was this gush of water. That is a picture for our hearts. We have hearts of stone (that comes from Scripture) when we don’t know Jesus. He strikes them with His salvation, and out of us flows this living water, this hope. Jesus is the living water; He satisfies us with good things. That thirst for salvation, that thirst to be made right with God, that thirst for our lives to have meaning, that thirst for joy, that thirst to belong—He satisfies all of that with Himself. That’s all over the place. It’s at the woman at the well and here again in Revelation, that idea that Jesus satisfies us, like water satisfies us when we’re really thirsty.

Bethany: There are so many things you’ve mentioned that are on earth, but they point to Jesus, like marriage and feasting and fasting and water.

Erin: Ding, ding, ding! That’s the whole Bible!

Bethany: So, how can we feast? We’ve been talking about fasting and feasting, but let’s talk about feasting, because that’s a good note to talk about. It just feels better than fasting. I want to know; we have this future feast to come; that sounds amazing. How can we feast today in a way that celebrates and reminds us of that future feast to come?

Erin: I think, as we’ve talked about feasting all along, the baseline of what I’ve been trying to communicate is just acknowledge that your food comes from God and receive it with gratitude. I think I’d almost flip that script here and just say, absolutely, enjoy your food, receive it with gratitude. I’ve said all along that doesn’t mean just throw all caution to the wind, but here I’d say even the best meal you’ve ever had (we’ve talked about some our best meals), even if today you make yourself the most perfect ham sandwich of all time, just know it’s all a shadow. It’s just God saying, “Wait and see what I have for you.” 

Take that beyond food. Even if everything goes great at work today, and everything goes great in your relationships today, and your body feels great today, and you happen to catch an amazing sunset today, and it’s just one of those perfect days, it’s a shadow. It’s a shadow of all God has for you. So we don’t put our hope in perfect days here. We don’t put our hope in perfect food here or perfect bodies here. We put our hope in all that is to come, and we enjoy what we have now, and we just know it really is just the appetizer for the feast.

Bethany: I can’t believe it’s the last episode of this series!

Erin: Aw, thanks, Bethany! I have loved having you in the cohost seat. You have made this so much fun. I wish I could take you out to lunch; that seems like a fitting end to this series on food.

I did just one more time want to mention the work that Bethany does through Girl Defined ministries. They are pointing young women to God’s Word, and I can’t cheer loud enough for that work. Find them at GirlDefined.com.

Bethany: I’ve loved spending this time with you, too, and I am going to go back to all the previous episodes and relisten to them. 

You can actually do that, too. To hear all the past series of The Deep Well, visit ReviveOurHearts.com/TheDeepWell. That’s actually where you can grab a copy of Erin’s devotional, Fasting and Feasting. This series is over, sadly, but your personal study of food in the Bible can just begin when you get this book. Again, grab a copy at ReviveOurHearts.com/TheDeepWell.

The Deep Well with Erin Davis is a production of Revive Our Hearts, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

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