Food for Friday
And Levi made Him a great feast in his own house, and there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with them. Luke 5:29
You may have heard an old song called ‘Dust on the Bible’, in which a man goes into a home in which he saw no Bible in evidence. When he asked for a Bible so that he might read a portion, a family member brought to him a Bible that was covered with dust. Such a condition reveals that the family seldom read the Bible. But if they seldom read the Bible, they probably had very little time or room in their lives for the One of Whom the Bible speaks. Today, fewer homes have a Bible in them at all, and most of the people around us have very little thought or time for anything concerning God. So it is refreshing to find a man in Luke 5 who not only had time for the Lord Jesus, but who also opened up his home to make a great feast for Him. What a great idea!
Once in a while at our house, we put on a feast for our family. Sometimes it’s a breakfast, sometimes it’s a Thanksgiving Day or Christmas dinner. But those feasts are to satisfy our physical hunger, to please our physical palate. They are not specifically to honour the Lord Jesus, as Levi’s feast was. But it seems to me that if we are enjoying the person of the Lord Jesus as we should in our lives, our homes will be experiencing a great feast every day. Just as a physical feast indicates an abundance of enjoyable food, so a spiritual feast indicates an abundance of spiritual blessing and enjoyment of it. That is the great feast that our Lord wants us to enjoy in His presence.
A great feast in our own home in honour of the Lord Jesus sounds wonderful, and Levi was undoubtedly delighted that he could do so. It cost him a great deal, for sure, but it was an expense that he was more than willing to pay. It will cost us something to have a great feast for the Lord Jesus, too. It will cost us the time and effort that we put into other things, such as entertainment and hobbies and activities that have little or no spiritual value. It will cost us in time that we will need to prepare, including prayer and meditation on the Word of God. It will cost us in terms of sharing our resources with the Lord’s people, with the Gospel workers, with missionaries, and with folks we are trying to witness to. Just as Levi invited a great company to his feast, the Lord never intends for us to keep our spiritual feast to ourselves. He will make sure we have enough and to spare for all that we can entertain.
When was the last time you enjoyed a great spiritual feast for the Lord Jesus? Don’t delay; it will be worthwhile! – Jim MacIntosh