11. And when the king came in to see the guests--Solemn
expression this, of that omniscient inspection of every professed
disciple of the Lord Jesus from age to age, in virtue of which his
true character will hereafter be judicially proclaimed!
he saw there a man--This shows that it is the judgment of
individuals which is intended in this latter part of the parable:
the first part represents rather national judgment.
which had not on a wedding garment--The language here is drawn from
the following remarkable passage in
Zep 1:7, 8:
--"Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God; for the day of the
Lord is at hand: for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, He hath bid
His guests. And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord's
sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's children, and
all such as are clothed with strange apparel." The custom in the East
of presenting festival garments (see
Ge 45:22;
2Ki 5:22),
even though nor clearly proved, Is certainly presupposed here. It
undoubtedly means something which they bring not of their own--for how
could they have any such dress who were gathered in from the highways
indiscriminately?--but which they receive as their appropriate
dress. And what can that be but what is meant by "putting on the Lord
Jesus," as
"THE
LORD
OUR
RIGHTEOUSNESS?"
(See
Ps 45:13, 14).
Nor could such language be strange to those in whose ears had so long
resounded those words of prophetic joy: "I will greatly rejoice in the
Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with
the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of
righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a
bride adorneth herself with her jewels"
(Isa 61:10).
JFB.
Picture Study Bible