Matthew 22

Matthew 22  •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 10
Note the difference of judgment here on the nation, judging it, and destroying their city, putting an end to the whole dispensation of man under law, and setting aside the people under the old covenant, as rejecting their Messiah, and that on the ground of the refusal of the grace which He presented to them (the grinding to powder comes afterward, in connection with their antichristian place). This was present judgment by Titus. Then, when the mass are brought in of Christendom, the judgment is individual, fitness for the place they were brought into, the partaking of the Son's joy. What is added shows there would be many such, many called but few chosen. But the judgment is individual.
It seems to me that this chapter supposes invitation before Christ's death (v. 3), and after it (vv. 4-7); then (v. 9) to the Gentiles, and the judgment of professing Christendom. Luke (chap. 14) as usually, more generally in principle. But I think it begins after His work is accomplished, when all things were ready, as Matt. 22:44Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. (Matthew 22:4). Then the chiefs having rejected it, He calls the poor of the flock (Luke 14:2121So that servant came, and showed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. (Luke 14:21)), then the Gentiles. But save the national exclusion, we have not positive judgment; it is the dispensation of grace. Neither is the city burned up, nor he who had not the wedding garment, cast into outer darkness.