Isaiah 25:6

And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things,.... Which is to be understood, not of the ultimate glory of the saints in heaven; which is sometimes

And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. In this mountain - Zion.

In this mountain; in Mount Zion, to wit, in God’ s church, which is very frequently meant by the names of Zion and Jerusalem, both in the Old and in the New Testament. Make unto all people, both Jews and Gentiles, who shall then be admitted to the participation of the same privileges and ordinances, a feast of fat things; a feast made up of the most exquisite and delicate provisions; which is manifestly meant of the ordinances, graces, and comforts given by God in and to his church. Of wines on the lees; which have continued upon the lees a competent time, whereby they gain strength, and afterwards drawn off from the lees, and so refined, as it is explained in the next clause.

Isaiah 25:6 And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.Ver. 6. And in this mountain,] i.e., In the Church, God’ s court, as the table stood in the sanctuary. Shall the Lord of hosts make.] Instead of that tree of life in paradise. See Revelation 2:7. Unto all people,] i.e., To the elect among all people, for reprobates are not worthy. A feast of fat things.] The very best of the best. "Fat things, and marrow of fatness; wines," and the most refined; so that "the meek shall eat and be satisfied"; "Their soul shall delight itself in fatness." In the life to come, especially where there shall be solidum huius convivii complementum ac plena perfruitio. Meanwhile the saints have here, at the Lord’ s table especially, their dainties and junketting dishes, their celestial viands and most precious provisions: "fat things marrowed," as the Hebrew word is; not only full of marrow, but picked, as it were, and culled out of the heart of marrow. Wine, first, in "the lees," that keepeth the smell, taste, and vigour, vinum cos, as they call it; next, of "the finest and the best," such as at Lovain they call vinum theologicum, because the divines there, as also the Sorbonists at Paris, drink much of it. Jesus Christ, in his ordinances and graces, is all this, and much more. And yet men had rather, as swine, feed on swill and husks, than on these incomparable delicacies. Convivium opimum, et munificentissimum, convivium medullatorum. Vina probantur odore, colore, sapore, nitore. Convivium faecium - Heb., "Shemarim" - faeces, enim vina ipsa conservant.

(6) And in this mountain shall the Lord . . .—The mountain is, as in Isaiah 2:1, the hill of Zion, the true representative type of the city of God. True to what we may call the catholicity of his character, Isaiah looks forward to a time when the outlying heathen nations shall no longer be excluded from fellowship with Israel, but shall share in its sacrificial feasts even as at the banquet of the great King. In the Hebrew, as even in the English, the rhythm flows on like a strain of music appropriate to such a feast. The “wines on the lees” are those that have been allowed to ripen and clarify in the cask, and so, like the “fat things full of marrow,” represent the crowning luxuries of an Eastern banquet.

Verse 6. In this mountain] Zion, at Jerusalem. In his Church. Shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast] Salvation by Jesus Christ. A feast is a proper and usual expression of joy in consequence of victory, or any other great success. The feast here spoken of is to be celebrated on Mount Sion; and all people, without distinction, are to be invited to it. This can be no other than the celebration of the establishment of Christ's kingdom, which is frequently represented in the Gospel under the image of a feast; "where many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven;" Matthew 8:11. See also Lu 14:16; Lu 24:29-30. This sense is fully confirmed by the concomitants of this feast expressed in the next verse, the removing of the veil from the face of the nations, and the abolition of death: the first of which is obviously and clearly explained of the preaching of the Gospel; and the second must mean the blessing of immortality procured for us by Christ, "who hath abolished death, and through death hath destroyed him that had the power of death." Of wines on the lees - "Of old wines"] Heb. lees; that is, of wines kept long on the lees. The word used to express the lees in the original signifies the preservers; because they preserve the strength and flavour of the wine. "All recent wines, after the fermentation has ceased, ought to be kept on their lees for a certain time, which greatly contributes to increase their strength and flavour. Whenever this first fermentation has been deficient, they will retain a more rich and sweet taste than is natural to them in a recent true vinous state; and unless farther fermentation is promoted by their lying longer on their own lees, they will never attain their genuine strength and flavour, but run into repeated and ineffectual fermentations, and soon degenerate into a liquor of an acetous kind. All wines of a light and austere kind, by a fermentation too great, or too long continued, certainly degenerate into a weak sort of vinegar; while the stronger not only require, but will safely bear a stronger and often-repeated fermentation; and are more apt to degenerate from a defect than excess of fermentation into a vapid, ropy, and at length into a putrescent state." Sir Edward Barry, Observations on the Wines of the Ancients, p. 9, 10. Thevenot observes particularly of the Shiras wine, that, after it is refined from the lees, it is apt to grow sour. "Il a beaucoup de lie; c'est pourquoi il donne puissemment dans la teste; et pour le rendre plus traitable on le passe par un chausse d'hypocras; apres quoi il est fort clair, et moins fumeux.

6–8. This section attaches itself directly to the concluding thought of ch. 24. The feast of Isa 25:6 may be regarded as a coronation-festival, inaugurating the reign of Jehovah on Mount Zion (Isaiah 24:23), although of course the state of things which is thus symbolised is not transitory but eternal. What is signified is the admission of all nations to communion with the one true God, and, as a consequence of this, the cessation of all the evils of human life. The whole passage, standing out as it does from a gloomy background of judgment and terror, is one of the most remarkable and fascinating in the Old Testament.

And in this mountain - In mount Zion, that is, in Jerusalem. The following verses undoubtedly refer to the times of the Messiah.

6. Will destroy… the face of the covering — The fulness of the Messianic times will remove the veil that rests on the Gentiles, hitherto living in darkness. Isaiah 9:2; Isaiah 42:6-7; Luke 1:78-79; Acts 26:17-18.