In recent studies based upon The Parable of the Wedding Feast (Matthew 22:1-14) I have demonstrated that the wedding motif, which Jesus used, and which the writers of the New Testament used, comes out of the Old Testament. The ten northern tribes or the House of Israel had been married to God by virtue of the Sinai Covenant (Jeremiah 31:32), but she was given a bill of divorcement (Jeremiah 3:6-8). Yet, although the House of Judah witnessed what the Lord had done to Israel, she refused to repent and continued in her adulterous ways, even to the point that the House of Israel was more righteous than she (Jeremiah 3:8-11).
Since God had promised to send the Messiah through Judah, he couldn’t divorce her as he did the ten northern tribes until the Messiah came. However, once that promise was fulfilled, then the Lord promised a day of reckoning for Judah would occur, and he would divorce her (Hosea 6:7-11).
As I claimed in a previous study,[1] the Lord had promised to remarry the House of Israel in the latter days (Hosea 2:18-23; 35). Yet, not only would he remarry the ten northern tribes, but the Lord would join both Israel and Judah together, making them one nation once more under one King, the Messiah (Ezekiel 37:11, 22-24), through the preaching of the Gospel (Ezekiel 37:26).
Nevertheless, the New Covenant wouldn’t be consummated as the Old Covenant was (Jeremiah 31:31-33). Rather, the second covenant would be established in the hearts of men. Therefore, the Lord would establish his covenant with the righteous remnant of the Houses of Israel and Judah (Isaiah 1:8-9, 27), and that would occur when Jerusalem was destroyed (Isaiah 1:27-31; cf. Hosea 6:11).
Thus, the context of The Parable of the Wedding Feast (Matthew 22:1-14) proves the Olivet Discourse is one united prophecy. It is not, as the futurists claim, a divided prophecy about the Lord’s judgment upon Jerusalem in 70 AD (Matthew 24:3-34), and, secondly, about the Second Coming (Matthew 24:36 and following). Matthew 22 shows that the wedding was not postponed!
It is absolutely critical to understand that New Testament eschatology is controlled by Jesus’ parables. In Matthew 22 a king made a wedding feast for his son. He sent out his servants to tell those he had invited to the wedding that all things were ready. Come to the wedding. However, the invited guests persecuted and slew those men who were sent to them. Therefore, the king sent out his armies and slew those he had invited and destroyed their city. Who can read this without thinking of the Lord’s judgment upon the Jews in 70 AD? Was the wedding delayed, because the guests wouldn’t come? Not according to the parable! All things were ready, so the servants were sent out to the highways and they invited everyone to come to the wedding, enjoy the banquet and witness the wedding of the king’s son (Matthew 22:8-10).
Notice that in Matthew 25, still the Olivet Discourse that began in Matthew 24:3, we have a wedding planned and the 10 virgins (betrothed wives) waited for the coming of the bridegroom. This is the same wedding that is described in Matthew 22. If the wedding of Matthew 22 was not delayed but occurred in 70 AD at the destruction of Jerusalem, how is it possible for the wedding of Matthew 25 be delayed for nearly 2000 years? If both wedding parables are the same wedding, then Jesus had to have returned in 70 AD to judge Jerusalem (Matthew 26:64) and marry his bride (Matthew 25:6), and the Olivet Discourse, therefore, is a single united prophecy that was fulfilled in 70 AD.
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[1] See my study, Why Postpone the Wedding
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