Eating And Drinking On The New Earth

Eating and Drinking on the New Earth

Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.

— Luke 14:15

Are symbolic banquets and symbolic wine and symbolic rivers and trees somehow superior to real banquets and real wine and real rivers and trees in God’s eternal plan? These things are just some of the excellent features of the perfection and final goodness of the physical creation that God has made.^a

— WAYNE GRUDEM

Words for eating, meals, and food appear more than one thousand times in Scripture, and the word translated “feast” occurs another 187 times. Feasting involves celebration and fun. Great conversations, storytelling, relationship building, and laughter all happen around the table. The Jewish feasts, including Passover, are spiritual gatherings that draw attention directly to God, his greatness, and his redemptive purposes.

People who love each other like to eat meals together. Jesus said to his disciples, “I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom” (Luke 22:29-30).

Scripture says, “On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine—the best of meats and the finest of wines” (Isaiah 25:6).

The resurrected Jesus invited his disciples, “Come and have breakfast.” He prepared them a meal, then ate bread and fish with them (John 21:4-14). He proved that resurrected bodies are capable of eating food, real food. Christ could have abstained from eating. The fact that he didn’t is a powerful statement about the nature of his resurrected body—and by implication, ours. “The Lord Jesus Christ . . . will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:20-21).

Other passages indicate that we’ll eat at feasts with Christ in an earthly Kingdom. Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes” (Luke 22:18). Where will the Kingdom of God come? To Earth. Where will God’s Kingdom reach its ultimate and eternal state? On the New Earth.

Jesus said that “many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8:11).

An angel in Heaven said to John, “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” (Revelation 19:9). What do people do at any supper—especially a wedding supper? Eat and drink. Talk, tell stories, celebrate, and laugh. Have dessert. Wedding feasts in the Middle East often lasted a full week. (And we won’t only be guests—we’ll be the bride!)

On one occasion, Jesus said to his dinner host, a prominent Pharisee, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, . . . invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:12-14).

When Jesus made this reference to the resurrection of the righteous, a man at the same dinner said to him, “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God” (Luke 14:15). Because they were eating together at the time, the man was obviously referring to literal eating and feasting. If he was mistaken about literally eating after the final Resurrection, Jesus had every opportunity to correct him. But he didn’t. In fact, he built on the man’s words to tell a story about someone who prepared a banquet and invited many guests (Luke 14:16-24). Clearly, both the man and Jesus were talking about literal eating at literal banquets, like the one they were attending.

I don’t always take the Bible literally. Scripture contains many figures of speech. But just because the Bible uses some figures of speech in describing Heaven, it doesn’t mean that everything the Bible says about Heaven is figurative. When we’re told that we’ll have resurrected bodies like Christ’s and that he ate in his resurrected body, why should we assume he was speaking figuratively when he refers to tables, banquets, and eating and drinking in his Kingdom?

We’re commanded, “Honor God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:20, NASB). What will we do for eternity? Glorify God in our bodies. We’re told, “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). What will we do for eternity? Eat, drink, and do it all for the glory of God.

The food we eat is from God’s hand. We can trust that the food we’ll eat on the New Earth, some of it familiar and some of it brand new, will taste better than anything we’ve ever eaten here. We won’t need fine meals in Heaven; we don’t need them now, but we enjoy them now for the same reason we’ll enjoy them then—because God made us to enjoy food and to glorify him as we eat and drink (1 Corinthians 10:31). God tells us that he “richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment” (1 Timothy 6:17).

On the New Earth, we will “drink . . . from the spring of the water of life” (Revelation 21:6). God will prepare for us “a banquet of aged wine . . . the finest of wines” (Isaiah 25:6). Not only will we drink water and wine, we’ll eat from fruit trees (Revelation 22:2), and there’s every reason to believe we’ll drink juice made from the twelve fruits of the tree of life.

Along with water, wine, and fruit juice, is there any reason to suppose we won’t drink coffee or tea in Heaven? Can you imagine having a cup of coffee or tea with Jesus on the New Earth? If you can’t, why not?

Those who suffer from food allergies, weight problems, or addictions—and thus can’t consume certain foods and drinks— may look forward to enjoying every good thing on the New Earth. To be liberated from sin, death, and bondage on the New Earth will not mean we’ll enjoy fewer pleasures, but more. And the God who delights in our pleasures will be glorified in our grateful praise.

You and I have never eaten food in a world untouched by the Fall and the Curse. The best-tasting food we’ve ever eaten wasn’t nearly as good as it must have tasted in Eden, or as it will on the New Earth.

Does your mouth water for the tastes and smells of food in the world to come? Do you think that God wants us to look forward to eating at his table and enjoying the bountiful foods and drinks he has in store for us?

Father, we’ve eaten many things in many places, but we’ve merely sampled the vast array of foods available on this present Earth. We may not have yet tasted our favorite food—and if we have, it has never tasted as good as it will in your coming Kingdom. Remind us that our best meals, our best conversations, our deepest laughter, and the most engaging stories are still ahead of us, to be experienced at feasts on the New Earth. Thank you, our kind and extravagant Father, that these things are not trivial and incidental; you not only created them for our pleasure in this world but promise them for our abundant lives in the far better world to come.