Mishteh - Simultaneous Blessing/Judgment in a Single Feast

 

There is a concept in the Old Testament Hebrew word “mishteh” helpful in understanding God’s interaction with men in the past and which foreshadows events yet to come.  The word mishteh, usually translated “feast” in English, and carries its own special meaning in the Hebrew.[1]  It literally means “to drink” and is more than just a meal but a drinking feast of significance.  This word occurs some 40 times in the Old Testament.  Nearly half of these are in the book of Esther, where it forms the theme and framework for the entire book and which we will look at later in this paper.  I believe that mishteh embodies a concept that is difficult to understand in Western cultures, the concept of simultaneous blessing and judgment occurring in a single event to two different people.  Instead of a typical “either/”or” monolithic perspective, an event is either good or bad, we see scriptures using a single mishteh feast to simultaneously convey diametrically opposing results on individuals who attend the same event.

 

The word mishteh is first used in Genesis 19:3 when two angels sent from God visited Sodom and Lot prepared a mishteh.  This angelic visitation resulted in Lot being saved and the entire city of Sodom being utterly destroyed.  We see this described in God’s covenantal faithfulness to Abraham and his judgment on Sodom in verse 29. “Thus it came about, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.”  The next time we find mishteh is in Genesis 21:8 at the fulfillment of God’s promise of Isaac, the child of His covenant.  Abraham made a great feast-mishteh on the day that Isaac was weaned, which resulted in Ishmael being expelled from Abraham’s presence.  The same mishteh event resulted in Isaac’s confirmation as the heir of the promise of God and Ishmael being expelled from Abraham’s family and sent into the wilderness.

 

Another example that highlights this simultaneous blessing/judgment concept is found in the mishteh of Pharaoh in Genesis 40:20.  “Thus it came about on the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast-mishteh for all his servants; and he lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. He restored the chief cupbearer to his office, and he put the cup into Pharaoh’s hand; but he hanged the chief baker, just as Joseph had interpreted to them.”  Same feast with two diametrically different outcomes.  We find mishteh blessing/judgment again in the story of Abigail and Nabal in 1 Samuel 25:36.  

“Then Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding a feast-mishteh in his house, like the feast-mishteh of a king. And Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk; so she did not tell him anything at all until the morning light. But in the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him so that he became as a stone. about ten days later, the LORD struck Nabal and he died.” 

We are told earlier that Abigail, “was intelligent and beautiful in appearance, but the man (Nabal) was harsh and evil in his dealings.”  The result of Nabal’s kinglike mishteh was that God struck Nabal dead and Abigail married David, God’s chosen king.  Same feast with two separate and opposing outcomes.

 

We see that even good intentions of the one giving the mishteh do not necessarily negate the outcome.  In 2 Samuel 3:20 Abner comes to David at Hebron to negotiate peace and work out the details of David becoming king over all Israel. 

“And David made a mishteh for Abner and the men who were with him. ²¹Abner said to David, “Let me arise and go and gather all Israel to my lord the king, that they may make a covenant with you, and that you may be king over all that your soul desires.” So David sent Abner away, and he went in peace.

What happens?  We here of Abner in verse 27:

Joab took him aside into the middle of the gate to speak with him privately, and there he struck him in the belly so that he died.

And we find the outcome for David in 2 Samuel 5:

³So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them before the LORD at Hebron; then they anointed David king over Israel.

David was innocent and prepared his mishteh for Abner with good intentions.  After Abner’s death David states, “I and my kingdom are innocent before the LORD forever of the blood of Abner the son of Ner.  May it fall on the head of Joab and on all his father’s house.”  The contrasting outcomes for David and Abner are in spite of David’s good will towards Abner.

 

We also find that the resulting blessing or judgment is not just due to attending the mishteh itself, but may be based upon the appetites of the one feasting.  The Prophet Daniel’s service to the Babylonians begins and ends with a mishteh. A mishteh occurs and becomes a “crisis” in which the appetites of those feasting determine their future as found in the opening chapter of Daniel. 

“The king appointed for them a daily ration from the king’s choice food and mishteh, and appointed that they should be educated three years, at the end of which they were to enter the king’s personal service…But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or mishteh.” 

At this initial mishteh Daniel only has an appetite for the vegetables and ends up blessed.  The next mishteh is found in chapter 5 with Belshazzar holding a drinking party using the sacred vessels from God’s temple. 

^“Suddenly the fingers of a man’s hand emerged and began writing opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, and the king saw the back of the hand that did the writing. Then the king’s face grew pale and his thoughts alarmed him, and his hip joints went slack and his knees began knocking together…The queen entered the mishteh hall because of the words of the king and his nobles; the queen spoke and said, ‘Let Daniel now be summoned and he will declare the interpretation.’… Daniel answered and said before the king, ‘Keep your gifts for yourself or give your rewards to someone else; however, I will read the inscription to the king and make the interpretation known to him.”

That same night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was slain and Darius the Persian King, appointed Daniel over the entire kingdom.  The same feast, two diametrically different outcomes.

 

Sometimes this concept is more obscured or difficult to see at first as in Proverbs 15:15

All the days of the afflicted are bad,

But a cheerful heart has a continual mishteh.

It seems at first to indicate that a cheerful heart is a good thing and a worthy goal.  It is a parallelism couplet that contrasts the bad days of the afflicted to the mishteh of the cheerful heart.  I remember singing, “A merry heart does good like a medicine,” but a closer look at the Hebrew gives us clues that this is different.  In this proverb there seems to be an underlying meaning that is somewhat nefarious or dark in the specific combination of Hebrew words used.  The Hebrew words translated “cheerful heart” are tob leb.  A study of all the times these specific two words are used together reveals an interesting pattern and the results shocked me as I considered that the proverb linked tob leb (cheerful heart) to mishteh.  Several examples of the link between a tob leb “cheerful heart” and a dark outcome include:

1.   The “cheerful hearts” of the Philistines when Sampson was paraded in Dagon’s temple prior to their destruction in Judges 16:25.

2.   Nabal’s “cheerful heart” at his mishteh feast prior to his demise in 1 Sam 25:26.

3.   Amnon’s (the rapist) cheerful heart before he was murdered at Absolom’s feast in 2 Sam 13:28.

4.   King’s “cheerful heart” before deposing Queen Vashti in Esther 1:10

6.   Haman has a cheerful heart on his way to the mishteh feast where he was condemned to the gallows he made for Mordicai in Esther 5:9

The other clue that we find is that the Hebrew word for “afflicted” does not mean something “evil.”  In fact, it is just the opposite.  In passage after passage, in the scriptures the afflicted are cared for and defended by God.  Their days may be bad while they are afflicted but God offers them hope, and especially an eternal hope.  The rich and haughty, those who typically oppress the afflicted, are often those who mishteh to their demise.  Thus, in 2 Samuel 22:28 we find:

²⁸       And You save an afflicted people;

          But Your eyes are on the haughty whom You abase.

And Psalm 9:18,

¹⁸       For the needy will not always be forgotten,

          Nor the hope of the afflicted perish forever.

And Psalm 18:27

²⁷       For You save an afflicted people,

          But haughty eyes You abase.

Thus it is easy to conceive that “A tob leb has a continual mishteh” is describing that the specific state of tob leb, and its continual mishteh, is something to avoid rather than to pursue.  This same perspective on mishteh in this context can be found more clearly in Ecclesiastes 7:2.  God has salvation waiting for the repentant but resists the proud revelers. 

²It is better to go to a house of mourning

Than to go to a house of mishteh

Because that is the end of every man,

And the living takes it to heart.

³Sorrow is better than laughter,

For when a face is sad a heart may be happy.

 

There is also an eschatological concept of mishteh that especially appears in the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, the concept of an ultimate mishteh in which all are invited and experience either ultimate blessing or judgment.  In Isaiah 25:6,  

⁶The LORD of hosts will prepare a lavish mishteh for all peoples on this mountain;

A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow,

And refined, aged wine….

And the Lord GOD will wipe tears away from all faces,

And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth… And Moab will be trodden down in his place… the Lord will lay low his pride together with the trickery of his hands.

Jeremiah 51 speaks of God’s mishteh in which the proud enemies become jubilant with cheerful hearts at God’s mishteh and are led away in a stupor to slaughter and judgment while God offers salvation to his sober people to escape his anger and live.

 “When they become heated up, I will serve them their mishteh

And make them drunk, that they may become jubilant

And may sleep a perpetual sleep

And not wake up,” declares the LORD.

⁴⁰“I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,

Like rams together with male goats.

⁴¹“How Sheshak has been captured,

And the praise of the whole earth been seized!

How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations!

⁴² “Come forth from her midst, My people,

And each of you save yourselves

From the fierce anger of the LORD.”

At God’s mishteh we see His blessing of salvation expressed for His people and His wrath poured out upon the wicked – simultaneously.

 

This eschatological concept may be taken even further such that the two contrasting outcomes of the mishteh involve one for rebellious humanity and one for God Himself.  We find this aspect in Isaiah 5:12.

¹¹     Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong drink,

Who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them!

¹²     Their mishteh are accompanied by lyre and harp, by tambourine and flute, and by wine;

      But they do not pay attention to the deeds of the LORD,

      Nor do they consider the work of His hands.

What happens is shown in verse 15.

¹⁵   So the common man will be humbled and the man of importance abased,

The eyes of the proud also will be abased.

¹⁶   But the LORD of hosts will be exalted in judgment,

     And the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.

At this mishteh proud humanity is universally humbled, both the common and the important, and God alone is exalted.  This mishteh is similar to the ultimate mishteh we consider at the end of this paper and the statement in verse 30 “in that day” invokes the eschatological concept of the “day of the Lord.”

 

Now I wish to consider Esther, the book of mishteh.  It is also the book of God’s hidden providence outworking itself on behalf of His people.  Esther is the only book of the Bible that doesn’t mention the name of God.  God is hidden in Esther and providentially accomplishes His purposes in Esther through the mishteh.  The very words 'Purim' and 'Esther' suggest a lack of order. Purim, as the third chapter of Esther mentions, means 'lots' (random selection). The rabbis relate the Persian name 'Esther' to the Hebrew root meaning hidden[2].  The book of Esther begins and ends with a mishteh and we find that there are 7 feasts or mishtehs in Esther.

• 1:3, 5 the feasts of the king
• 1:9 the feast of Vashti
• 2:8 the king’s feast for Esther
• 5:4 Esther’s first feast for the king and Haman
• 7:2 Esther’s second feast for the king and Haman
• 8:17 Feast of Mordicai’s edict
• 9:17 Feasts of Purim celebrating triumph over their enemies

In the first 3 mishteh’s we find that Vashti is deposed and Esther is raised to become queen.  Then an enemy of God’s people comes forth in the person of Haman, a type of the antichrist.  Haman is elevated by the king and becomes the second most powerful person in the kingdom.  Because of his pride, he plots the destruction of the people of God.  Esther risks her life to invite the king and Haman to her first feast.  The tension builds when she simply uses the first feast as an occasion to invite the king and Haman to a second feast.  At the second feast Haman is exposed as an enemy of the king and Mordicai is elevated to second in the kingdom.  The last feast celebrates the salvation of the people of God and the destruction of their enemies. 

 

Throughout Esther we see that the mishteh is the crisis point and results in simultaneous blessing/judgment unpredicted or hidden until the feast.  In the first feasts the beautiful reigning queen is deposed and Esther raised in her place.  In the second set of feasts Haman, the king’s regent and enemy of the Jews, is destroyed and lowly Mordicai raised in his place.  In the third set of feasts, the enemies of the Jews throughout the empire are all destroyed and God’s people find rest and safety.  Many Rabbis interpret the book of Esther in an eschatological context as looking forward to the fulfillment of the promises of God where the enemies of God’s people are finally destroyed and they live in rest and safety.

 

Does the New Testament contain this same theme or concept?  While the Hebrew word mishteh is not in the New Testament, we do find the concept in several Greek words from the gospels through to Revelation.  The two Greek words I considered were deipnon and gamos.  Gamos is typically translated marriage or wedding feast while deipnon is translated dinner or banquet.  We find this theme in Jesus’ first miracle at the gamos in Cana where He turned the water into wine and his disciples saw His glory awhile the other guests kept drinking unaware and unbelieving.  The similarities become clearer in the parables of the Wedding feast gamos which a king prepared for his son as told in Matthew 22.  All are invited to the gamos; those who refuse to come are destroyed.   Even when all the guests are seated at the table and the table is filled, the king arrives and notices one who is not dressed in wedding clothes.  He says “Friend, how did you come in here without gamos clothes?  The king then orders this “friend” bound and thrown into the outer darkness.  Thus at this gamos, among the guests that fill the table, some are blessed and some are called friends, bound hand and foot and cast into the outer darkness.  The Greek word for “friend” used here, hetairos, occurs 3 times, all in Matthew.  We will see this type of friend later in Matthew to describe another guest at a supper.

 

Later in chapter 25 the same thing happens to the waiting virgins

“and those who were ready went in with him to the gamos; and the door was shut. Later the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open up for us.’  But he answered, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you.’”

The exact same feast with some virgins blessed and some excluded and judged.  In a similar but contrasting perspective, in Mark 6 we have the narrative of a banquet-deipnon given by wicked king Herod with the same kind of dramatic results of simultaneous favor to the king’s entertainer and death to his enemy John the Baptist. This event is typifies an anti-deipnon with the roles temporarily reversed.  Again, in John 12 we see another deipnon where Mary anoints Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume and Judas complains.  We all know the result of this deipnon, Mary commended and Judas rebuked as a betrayer and a thief.

 

This leads us to an extremely important deipnon in John 13 which is also mentioned in 1 Corinthians 11.

²During deipnon, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him…²¹When Jesus had said this, He became troubled in spirit, and testified and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you will betray Me.” ^… So when He had dipped the morsel, He took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. ²⁷After the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Therefore Jesus said to him, “What you do, do quickly.” ^{… 30}So after receiving the morsel he went out immediately; and it was night.

We have a deipnon and all the guests partake, including Judas.  We find that this same event simultaneously is a blessing to the eleven disciples and results in Judas being accursed forever as a betrayer.  Ironically, in Matt 26:48 we find another hint linking Judas, who was counted among the disciples and received his share in their ministry, to the unclothed guest at the wedding feast in Matt 22.

^“48Now he who was betraying Him gave them a sign, saying, “Whomever I kiss, He is the one; seize Him.” ⁴⁹Immediately Judas went to Jesus and said, “Hail, Rabbi!” and kissed Him. ⁵⁰And Jesus said to him, “Friend-hetairos, do what you have come for.” Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and seized Him.”

Thus, we find Jesus addressing Judas using the same word for friend, hetarios, as the king to the unclothed guest in chapter 22 who was bound and cast into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

 

Is the Last Supper really a mishteh where we find both blessing and judgment simultaneously?  1 Corinthians 11 provides us additional insight in light of the other passages we have reviewed.

²³For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; ²⁴and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” ²⁵In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” ²⁶For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.

²⁷Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. ²⁸But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. ²⁹For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. ³⁰For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.

The same feast, the same bread, the same wine – simultaneously some are blessed and some are judged.

 

In fact, the entire scriptures culminate in the ultimate mishteh found in Revelation 19.

⁷“Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage-gamos of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” ⁸It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.  ⁹Then he said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the gamos deipnon of the Lamb.’” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.”… His name is called The Word of God… He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. ¹⁶And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

¹⁷Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in midheaven, “Come, assemble for the great deipnon of God, ¹⁸so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great.”

This passage is rather graphic and is a different description of a wedding feast similar to Matthew 22.  The bride comes clothed in wedding garments and is blessed.  God prepares the feast.  Jesus Himself treads the winepress and those assembled without wedding clothes become a carrion feast in the presence of Christ and His bride.

 

The ultimate mishteh, the marriage supper of the Lamb, is still a future event.  Since the time of Jesus’ ascension we have seen a continual mishteh of God unfolding in the Earth.  This mishteh is the preaching of the gospel to all men for God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, for there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.  I believe that the message that we see demonstrated in the Lord’s Supper, the preaching of the gospel and repentance for the forgiveness of sins is a mishteh that God has prepared for us and commanded us to proclaim to all men.  The gospel of Jesus Christ, meaning that:

• God out of love sent His Son to become man.
• This man claimed to be God Himself, lived a sinless life,
• submitted Himself to be killed by evil mankind so that His blood was offered in exchange for the lives of wicked men.
• God raised Him from the dead proving that the words and claims made by this man were true. 
• This man, Jesus, then appeared bodily as raised from the dead to many witnesses before they saw Him ascend into the clouds to heaven where He sits at the right hand of His Father until He returns. 
• He will return to attend the mishteh His Father is preparing for His marriage.  This ultimate mishteh which will result in either the blessing or judgment of every individual.

When the gospel is preached people either believe and are eternally blessed or the reject it and are children of wrath.  The same event, the same message, the same offer with two simultaneous diametrically opposing outcomes, eternal life or eternal death.  There is an ultimate mishteh that is promised that we would do well to use this time to prepare ourselves in the proper wedding garments so that we look eagerly to the blessing side of the blessing/judgment outcome spoken of in Philippians 3.

¹⁸For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, ¹⁹whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. ²⁰For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;