And when the king came in to see the guests… – Matthew 22:11
“The king came in to see his guests.” This, I say, was the crowning point of the entire banquet. Observe that he came in after they were in their places. They did not see him before they had entered his halls. When an inferior entertains a superior he always advances to the door to meet him and waits until he comes…but when a superior entertains an inferior the inferior may take his seat at the table, and when all is ready the noble host will come in. It is so in the banquet of mercy. You and I see nothing of God, by way of communion with Him, until first we have been brought in by the message of mercy to the marriage-feast of the gospel; for, indeed, until then a sight of God would strike us with terror-
“Till God in human flesh I see,
My thoughts no comfort find;
The holy, just, and sacred Three
Are terrors to my mind;
But when Immanuel’s face appear,
My hope, my joy, begins;
His name forbids my slavish fear,
His grace removes my sins.”
When I get to the banquet of mercy, then it is that I can dare to look at the King of kings, but not until then. What a joyous sight, a vision of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory as He appears in the gospel, feasting us upon His fatlings. An incarnate God makes God visible to us and makes us happy in the sight. “How canst thou see My face and live?” was the old question, but, behold, it is answered this day. At the marriage union of Christ with His people we see the face of the King in His beauty, and our souls not only live, but we have life more abundantly. ~ C.H. Spurgeon
He Hath Said 