The Banquet Hall for the Love-Sick
Merry Friday by Parris Bailey
“He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.” SOS 2:4
Cora MacIravy said, “All who are redeemed must enter into some of the chambers of the King. All who are redeemed have more or less desire to go on with the Lord and to know him better. All who are redeemed sit with Him in the green pastures, though they may not abide there, though they partake of but little and have only a little Spikenard to give forth fragrance. At times, every soul that is saved, beholds Christ as lovely and desirable. But only those virgins who go all the way with Him and abandon themselves to Him, does He take into HIs banqueting house.”
A Christian life deserves this deeper walk. We must continually ask for a desire and hunger for more. When the same mind that is in Christ is in us, we too can join in and say, “I delight to do thy will O God.” Oh, its time to go to the Banqueting house. The Banqueting house literally means the house of wine, and wine is the scriptural symbol of life, of blood, of the richest form of life. Love attracts, unites and therefore produces communion. Drink and eat deep my friend, His love is rich and satisfying.
We go from resting under the apple tree learning to live on His fruit that He provides into a banquet house of love. Spurgeon asks us this question. “Oh! beloved, Come, bethink thyself, how little hast thou seen thy Lord this week! Perhaps he has been absent the greater part of the time; and hast thou not groaned? hast thou not wept? hast thou not sighed after him? Sure, then, thou canst not have loved him as thou shouldst, else thou couldst not have borne his absence; thou couldst not have endured it calmly, if thou hadst the affection for him a sanctified spirit has for its Lord. Thou didst have one sweet visit from him in the week, and why didst thou let him go? Why didst thou not constrain him to abide with thee? Why didst thou not lay hold of the skirts of his garment, and say, Oh! my lord, thou shalt dwell with me; I will keep thee; I will detain thee in my company; I cannot let thee go; I love thee, and I will constrain thee to dwell with me this night and the next day; long as I can keep thee, will I keep thee.” But no; thou wast foolish; thou didst let him go.”
When my Beloved sits at his table, and He brings me into his banqueting house, and His banner over me is His love, then indeed I do believe. This is more than being at Deanie’s Seafood ordering the seafood platter. This is Christ and you sitting together at His Banquet, feasting with you surrounding you with His emblem of love. Oh taste and see that the Lord is good.