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Thanksgiving is coming up soon and I'm really looking forward to having dinner with all of our family. With every passing holiday it's yet another opportunity to show the ones you love how much you care. At our families get together the meal is planned with all the fixings and the table has a spot for everyone. There is always room no matter how much we have to crowd together.

God is setting up His table and he has prepared so much for us, there is room for everyone and he has sent messengers to all the ends of the world to send invitation. I gave my RSVP the day I asked Jesus to be my Lord. We read in John 14 that Jesus has gone to make a place for us:



John 14

The Road

1-4 "Don't let this throw you. You trust God, don't you? Trust me. There is plenty of room for you in my Father's home. If that weren't so, would I have told you that I'm on my way to get a room ready for you? And if I'm on my way to get your room ready, I'll come back and get you so you can live where I live. And you already know the road I'm taking."
5Thomas said, "Master, we have no idea where you're going. How do you expect us to know the road?"
6-7Jesus said, "I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life. No one gets to the Father apart from me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him. You've even seen him!"


I choose this scripture instead of the banquet verse to show the contrast between this verse and 1 kings 8. In chapter 8 Solomon holds a festival and brings the Ark to the temple that he had erected and prayed a beautiful prayer and offered many sacrifices and offerings, the Lord showed up but on the condition that he would leave if the people turned away from him. What Solomon had said though really caught my eye:

10 When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the LORD. 11 And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled his temple.
12 Then Solomon said, "The LORD has said that he would dwell in a dark cloud; 13 I have indeed built a magnificent temple for you, a place for you to dwell forever."


Solomon clearly recognized that he had built the temple of the Lord. I like that Solomon had later clarified his position by saying that no earthly place could contain the whole of God(v.27). Since it was built by mans hands instead of God it would ultimately pass away and as we know it was destroyed. Since the new temple has been crafted by the eternal one Jesus we share into His eternal kingdom . Solomon did what he was supposed to do and fulfilled the prophecy(v.24) but without grace what is built by man does not last.

Solomon had prayed that anyone who would pray towards the temple that the Lord would hear them and see there need and answer them. The Lord agreed on condition that Israel needed to follow him. People around the world saw the significance just think what stands in place over Solomon's temple now, and does not the Islamic faith believe that if you pray towards Mecca that Allah would hear your prayer? The fact is with the new kingdom it does not matter which way we face because the Lord will hear you from heaven from wherever you are because he is everywhere.

So this thanksgiving as you set your table or sit at a family dinner with a place set for you, remember the place that Jesus has prepared for you.

"He brought me to his banqueting table, and His banner over me is love."