3. We now come to a part of the parable, which must of necessity receive a prophetic interpretation: “When the King heard thereof, he was wroth, and he sent forth his armies and destroyed those murderers, and burnt up their city.” This plainly points out the Roman armies ravaging Judea, destroying Jerusalem, and putting the inhabitants to the sword; an event, which did not take place till many years after. Neither, in truth, is there mention made, in the gospel history, of the Jews having slain any of the disciples, whilst their Lord was with them. They were murderers of the Son of God, and of many of His apostles and disciples after Him; thus “filling up the measure of their iniquity,” and drawing down upon themselves, and their nation at large, the most tremendous visitation of divine wrath, ever inflicted in this world upon a rebellious people.
4. We are next carried forward to another period in the gospel dispensation; a period in which we ourselves are deeply and peculiarly interested; from which we date all the spiritual mercies and advantages, all “the means of grace and hopes of glory,” which have been vouchsafed to our souls. “Then saith the king to his servants, the wedding (the wedding feast) is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.” The Israelites who were honoured, as the people of God, with the first invitation and call to the gospel, shewed themselves unworthy of it, by their ungrateful and obstinate rejection. “Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage” feast: go ye, as we may interpret the words of our Lord, go ye, My ministers and messengers, into the world at large, and carry My invitation to the Gentiles; to as many as ye shall find; and proclaim to them that My table is spread for all: since the people, who were first bidden, have “not heard when I spake, nor answered, when I called,” the “kingdom of heaven is now thrown open to all believers,” so that “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved:” My kingdom shall no longer be confined to one peculiar race; the time is come, when the blessedness of it shall be diffused abroad as “the waters cover the sea:” I am ready to “make a covenant with all flesh”—a covenant of peace—of benefits and mercies, such as their “eyes have never seen, nor ears heard;” the universal banquet is spread; bid them all to come. “So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding (table) was furnished with guests:” for it was not unusual, we must observe, in those countries, for men of the highest rank and distinction to admit to their tables, on remarkable occasions, persons of the lowest condition.