Kill and Eat!

The Lord clearly enjoys feasting with His people. He spent many hours just hanging out with His followers in homes, by the lake, and walking from village to village. When He fed the 5,000 and the 4,000, once again, the Lord had everyone sit down in groups to enjoy the meal together. The Lord performed His first miracle at a wedding feast where He turned the water into wine. He spent one of His last days sharing the Passover meal with His disciples. The early church broke bread from house to house.

The activity of eating a meal together is certainly communal, and there is always the aroma of the Lord's communion evident in every meal enjoyed by a gathering of saints. Yet there is something else about eating a meal together I had never seen before until this last week.

Everyone knows the story from Acts 10 when Peter, while sitting on a roof in Joppa, goes into a trance. He sees a great sheet, bound at the four corners, descending in front him and filled with all kinds of four-footed animals, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. Peter is offended by the Lord's command to "Rise, Peter; kill and eat" these fowl creatures. The Lord, however, is not directing Peter to eat a snake and an armadillo stew. He is preparing Peter to evangelize the house of Cornelius, a group of Gentiles who seem just as unpalatable for the gospel as those creatures would be for a hot meal. Peter, quick to respond, cries out, "Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean." Jesus, once again, is not asking Peter to eat anything unclean because His plan is to cleanse the Gentiles by His shed blood. He instructs Peter to kill the flesh of the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius through the preaching of the gospel. Their flesh will die, and they will be consumed by the kingdom of God.

"Rise, Peter; kill and eat!"

The command to kill and eat is a two-edged sword. When the gospel is preached, some die to the flesh and are saved while others reject the Word and are condemned. Jesus reminds us of this fact when He says, "He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him-the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day." (John 12:48) Those who reject the Word of God will be judged and cast into the lake of fire with Satan and his demons.

All of history is moving relentlessly toward the final feast, or the marriage supper of the Lamb, or the marriage supper of the Great God. (Revelation 19:9 & 17) Jesus refers to the destruction of the wicked as a "marriage supper." The anti-Christ will gather the nations from the four corners of the earth and bring them to the battle of Armageddon where Jesus and His army of saints will converge upon them and slaughter them completely. Just as He said to Peter on the rooftop, He will say to us on that day, "Rise, beloved; kill and eat!"

Peter saw a sheet that was bound at the corners. The four corners of the earth will be bound by angels just prior to the marriage supper of the Lamb. (Revelation 7:1) The demons of Satan will gather the Gentiles in front of Jesus, and the multitude of saints with Him, where the Gentiles will be destroyed, while the angels of God stand at the four corners of the earth in God's authority over the planet. When the saints gather to eat a meal together, they prophesy concerning the marriage supper of the Lamb. Like Peter, we are to preach the gospel to the nations of the earth. We are to "Rise; kill and eat" until we kill and eat for the last time at the marriage supper of the Great God who will afterwards establish His kingdom on the earth.

For this very reason we are told to eat anything put before us that does not cause us to stumble. Paul exhorts Timothy on this very subject:

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed. (1Timothy 4:1-6)

We are to sanctify our food in prayer, but all creatures of God can, and should, be eaten by human beings. We prophesy of the double-edged sword expressed by the Lord's command to kill and eat when we feast together in the name of the Lord. We are not to condemn our brethren who - lacking in faith, being of poor health or dealing with a weak constitution - eat only vegetables, as each of us, no matter our condition, has been accepted by God. (Romans 14:1-3)

Here is a beautiful picture. Jesus calls us to take communion together on a continual basis. The early church of Corinth, though not always prudent in their activities together, participated in their love feasts where they ate together and took communion. The activity of communion unites the saints through the death of Jesus on the cross and the price He paid for our sins, the propitiation which makes possible our fellowship with one another. We eat together to prophesy of the evangelization of the nations and the marriage supper of the Lamb, an activity that edifies and emboldens us to persevere. The body and the blood of Jesus make possible both the salvation of the lost and the destruction of the wicked, all represented in the two meals we share together among the saints.

Just as the consumption of a good meal makes us full, so does the spiritual function of our feasting together fill us up spiritually. I think this is what is meant by the following scripture:

"For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up," says the Lord of hosts, "that will leave them neither root nor branch. But to you who fear My name The Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings; and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves. You shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this," says the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 4:1-3)

We will "grow fat," or we will be full, when we come with the Lord to trample on the wicked. When we break bread together, and are full, we should be reminded that we will be full on the day we participate in the marriage supper of the Lamb. Is it possible that the rise of obesity during these days might be a prophetic sign of the times in which we live? Might this not be a sign similar to the preponderance of young people in this day who are given the name of Noah? For Jesus warned us of these times:

"But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be."For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, "and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be."(Matthew24:37-39)

Is this why so many children under the age of fifteen are now called Noah? Jesus told us that we would recognize the signs of the times.

The wedding at Cana, similar to the vision of Peter, points to the marriage feast of the Lamb. When Jesus transformed the water into wine, the miracle also presents us with a double-edged sword. Jesus did not just transform a thimble-full, something the size of the little communion cups we drink in church, but he transformed six water pots that contained 20 - 30 gallons apiece. Jesus meant for the people to be full. There is enough wine here for the whole town of Cana, which by extension, becomes a symbol for the entire world. The blood of Jesus never runs dry.

Another meaning arises from those water pots, Beloved. During the marriage supper of the Lamb, the blood in the valley of Megiddo will be so deep as to reach the bridles of the Lord's horses for a distance of 200 miles. That's a lot of blood! The miracle of Cana gains significance in the fact that the wedding feast occurs on the third day of Jesus' ministry. For two thousand years Jesus has sanctified His church by His shed blood. On the third day, however, the beginning of the third millennium, the Lord will inaugurate the commencement of His thousand year reign on the earth with the marriage supper of the Lamb, when those who are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb will in turn shed the blood of nations. The six water pots at Cana represent also the blood of the wicked shed in the valley of Megiddo. The number six is the number of man, whose redemption, and whose destruction, will be made complete on that day, referring once again to the double-edged sword that will extend from the mouth of the conquering Messiah.

At the next gathering of the saints for a barbecue or a dinner, be full and be blessed, and if you put your ear to heaven, listen to divine voice calling you to "Rise; kill and eat!"

The Double-Edged Sword of Messiah