Revelation 19:7, 17-18: Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready . . . And I saw an angel standing in the sun and he cried with a loud voice to all the birds which fly in midheaven, Come, assemble for the great supper of God.

Revelation 19 describes two feasts. The Harlot city has fallen, and the Bride is about to be revealed. The wedding of the Lamb has finally come. But in the same passage John speaks of a macabre feast of birds. At the same time the saints are invited to share the wedding feast of the Lamb, birds are invited to feast on corpses.

Sacrifice always has this double character in the Bible. An animal is slaughtered, parts or the whole are burned, sent to God in smoke, but the ashes are discarded outside the camp. Yahweh and Israel enjoy a meal, but the same meal produces refuse to be discarded.

Sacrifice is the pattern of history. God swings His sword among the nations, cutting them down in His holy war. He leaves piles of corpses behind, but He also clears the ground so that the wilderness can spring up with new growth. Sacrifice is the pattern of our lives: God cuts and dismembers us to carve off the flesh and cast it away, so as to make us acceptable sacrifices.

This sacrificial meal embodies all this. As we enjoy the wedding feast of the Lamb, we are also sent out to follow Jesus as He overthrows kings and commanders and mighty men with the sword of His mouth. As we enjoy this wedding feast, we recommit ourselves to cut out whatever is unclean with the sword of the Word and leave it on the rubbish heap outside the camp.