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Scripture Reading: Luke 14:16-17
In Luke 14:16-17 Jesus spoke to one of the rulers of the Pharisees, saying, “A certain man was making a great dinner and invited many; and he sent his slave at the dinner hour to say to those who had been invited, Come, for all things are now ready.” Again, I hope that we all would be able to recite the last sentence: “Come, for all things are now ready.” The two most crucial words in this sentence are come and ready.
Ready is a precious word in the Bible. Do you want to be saved? Salvation is ready! Do you want to be victorious? Victory is ready! Do you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit? The filling of the Holy Spirit is ready! Everything on God’s side is ready; God has accomplished and prepared everything. On man’s side, however, there is still a need to come. Since God has prepared everything, man needs only to come and receive. God has prepared salvation for all the people in the world, but not everyone has been saved, because not everyone has come to God. The Holy Spirit has been poured out, but not everyone has received this outpouring, because not everyone has come to God.
Although all things are ready on the Lord’s side, if a person is unwilling to come to God, he cannot be saved, victorious, or fervent. The burden of this chapter is more on our coming than on God making everything ready.
In the universe there are two aspects of need: man’s need and God’s need. In the parable in Luke 15, the son needs the robe, but the robe also needs the son. When these needs are considered in comparison, man’s need is not as great as God’s need. Matthew 22:2 says, “The kingdom of the heavens has become like a king who prepared a wedding feast for his son.” Man surely needs to come to the feast, but God needs man to come to the feast.
Actually, our need shows that God has a need; our need reveals God’s need. Just as a son needs joy, a father also needs joy. Any lack that we may feel speaks of a corresponding need of God. Our lack of joy, for example, reveals God’s need to be our joy. Our need reveals God’s need; our need shows the need of heaven, that is, the need of God.
People often say, “I need zeal. I need faithfulness. I need faith.” This kind of speaking reveals that these needs correspond to God’s need to be these things to us. When there is no rest in a heart on earth, there is also no rest in heaven. When there is no joy in a heart on earth, there is a need related to joy in heaven.
In John 4 there is a record of a man asking an immoral woman for a drink (v. 7). This man was the Son of God, our Lord Jesus. Although the Lord Jesus asked the woman for a drink, did He really want only some water to drink? Furthermore, did the woman even give Him water to drink? No. The Lord was thirsty because He met a woman whose heart was thirsty. When the woman heard the Lord speak to her about living water, she drank of this water from Him, and then she went into the city to testify of the Lord. She did not give the Lord a drink, but instead, she drank of the Lord’s living water. When she was no longer thirsty, the Lord also was no longer thirsty. When the disciples returned and offered Him some food to eat, He did not eat, because He was neither hungry nor thirsty: “The disciples therefore said to one another, Has anyone brought Him anything to eat? Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work” (vv. 33-34). God’s work is to satisfy man’s need.
The parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15 also shows that when there is an unhappy son outside the house, there is an unhappy father inside the house. The extent of our need reveals the extent of God’s need. We need God, but God needs us even more. God needs man more than man needs God. If we see this, we will thank and praise God.
God’s need is not related to us giving Him something but to Him giving us Himself. He wants to give us Himself. God’s need is not related to us doing something for Him but to Him doing something in us. God’s need is not related to us giving Him something because He is poor. Rather, His need is related to Him being able to give us something because He is rich. God has everything, and He only wants us. God’s only need is related to man and even is man. Everything was prepared in the father’s house in Luke 15. The only thing that was missing was his wandering son. Likewise, when God gains us, He has no lack.
“Come, for all things are now ready” (14:17). If someone who is invited to a feast brings a loaf of bread with him, the host will not be happy. When we go to a feast, we should not bring anything except an empty stomach. Whenever I am invited to a saint’s home for a meal, I always come with an empty stomach, because I know that the host will encourage me to eat more. When I eat at home, I can eat less, but when I eat with the saints in their home, it is not polite to eat just a little. Every host enjoys seeing her guests eat all the food that she has prepared. Likewise, God wants us to come to His feast so that He can meet all our need.
“Come, for all things are now ready.” God does not want us to give something to Him; neither does He want us to do something for Him. When we come, we should not come with our hands full of things, such as our own faith and zeal. We should put aside our faith and zeal. God is not focused on these things; He cares only that our heart would be empty so that He can impart Himself into us. From the beginning God has been desirous of giving Himself to man, not of man giving something to Him. We have nothing to give to Him, but He has something to give to us.
How should we respond to God’s need? The proper response is to consecrate ourselves to meet His need. Although some may say that come in this verse refers to faith, it also speaks of consecration. God has a need, and we need to consecrate ourselves to respond to His need.
Many of us have an improper understanding of consecration. We think that consecration is a dreadful matter because it will result only in the end of our enjoyment of the pleasures of the world. However, the universe contains more than just the earth, and there is more than just man in the universe. The universe contains both the heavens and the earth and both God and man. We need to consecrate ourselves in order to enjoy the heavenly things and God; consecration is not a matter of dread but of joy.
Once I met a young lady in a meeting. Although she was saved, she was quite fashionable in her attire and adornment. After the meeting she came to me and asked, “Is it all right for me to watch movies after I am saved?” I realized that it would be difficult to give her an answer. If I said, “You should not watch movies,” she could be stumbled by my word to the point that she would no longer desire to follow the Lord. However, if I said, “It is okay to watch movies,” it would confirm that her love for the world was acceptable. Finally, I said to her, “If a little child is playing with a knife, what is the best way to safely take the knife from his hand?” She had a keen mind, and she immediately said, “This is very simple. I would put some candy and an apple on the floor. When the child sees the candy and the apple rolling on the floor, he will drop the knife and pick them up.” I then asked, “How can you be certain that the child would drop the knife?” She replied, “In order to pick up the candy and the apple, which are better than the knife, he would have to drop the knife. He would even lose interest in the knife.” I responded, saying, “Your answer is perfect. This is how God operates in us to make us give up things like movies.”
To consecrate ourselves means that we are dropping a “knife” in order to pick up something much better. When we consecrate ourselves to God, we can enjoy all God’s riches. For example, when we willingly consecrate ourselves to God, we touch God’s love, and when we give everything to God, we receive everything that we need from God.
In John 17:10 the Lord Jesus said, “All that is Mine is Yours, and Yours Mine.” Because the Lord Jesus was standing on the position of consecration, He could say, “All that is Mine is Yours,” and He also could say, “And Yours Mine.” If we truly see the riches of our God, we would be able to say this word and even desire to say this word. If I were speaking to a wealthy man who was willing to give me everything that he had, why would I not be willing to say, “All that is mine is yours, and yours mine”? Our God is so rich! Why would we hesitate to say this to Him? What are we afraid of losing? As long as we give everything that we have to Him, He is willing to give us everything that He has. We should not hesitate in our consecration. Consecration is for us to obtain God and enjoy all His riches: “Come, for all things are now ready.”
