Read 1 Corinthians 10:16-22
There are three fellowships given us in this chapter into which the world was divided, represented by the Jews, the Gentiles and the Church of God (see v. 32). The symbols of these fellowships are given us as follows:
(1) The Jewish Altar (v. 18), as representing Judaism.
(2) The Table of Demons (v. 21), as representing Heathendom.
(3) The Lord’s Table (v. 21), as representing Christianity.
Much is learned by contrasts, and by briefly considering what is to be understood by “the Jewish Altar” and “the table of demons,”* we shall get help as to what is meant by “the Lord’s Table.” Note that we follow the divine order (1) “The Jews”; (2) “The Gentiles”; (3) “The Church of God.”
{*In Scripture there is only one devil, viz. Satan. All his supernatural agents are called demons, so we will adhere to this distinction throughout this article.}
The Jewish “Altar”
The Jewish “altar” is typical of “the Lord’s table”; and two great thoughts are connected with the Jewish “altar,” the same two thoughts are connected also with both “the table of demons” and “the Lord’s table.”
These two thoughts are—
(1) Sacrifice,
(2) Food.
With the thought of (1) sacrifice the word “altar” connects itself; with the thought of (2) food the expression “the Lord’s table” connects itself. The altar, from the divine standpoint, sets forth the way of approach to God, whilst the table sets forth the blessings that those who are there enjoy in common the favours dispensed by the One who is thus approached.
The Altar Character
Let us see how this is so. We do not need to labour the point that sacrifice and altar go together. The constant sacrifices on Jewish altars are before the reader’s mind at once. A sacrifice demands an altar, an altar demands a sacrifice. It presents the deeply touching thought that the death of our adorable Lord and Saviour is the centre of everything for God’s glory in relation to the blessing of poor fallen man. It brings out too that from that death all blessing flows out, whether typically (Judaism) or antitypically (Christianity).
“The Lord’s Table” Character
Not only on Jewish altars were the sacrifices offered, but certain parts of them were for the food of the priest, and thus the Jewish “altar” was also known as “the table of the Lord.” For proof of this turn to Malachi 1.
“Ye offer polluted bread [food, N.T.] upon mine ALTAR; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, THE TABLE OF THE LORD is contemptible” (v. 7).
This is a very interesting expression as showing clearly that the “altar” and the “table of the Lord” are convertible terms, each presenting a different aspect of the same thing.
Again:
“But ye have profaned it, in that ye say, The table of the Lord is polluted, and the fruit thereof, even His meat [food, N.T.] is contemptible” (v. 12).
This again is a most important verse as connecting Jehovah’s table and Jehovah’s food with those who served.
Judaism then can be defined as a system, the very centre of which was the altar, setting forth in type and for faith God’s disposition towards man, how in sacrifice God could be met in all His holiness, and His desire to bless in the disclosure of Himself find a righteous channel, but the altar also furnished a table from which He could dispense His meat, His food, His bounty, His blessing for the support of His people.
The first time the word “table” is used in Holy Scripture is in connection with the table of showbread. Now that table is only possible because of the altar. Everything in Judaism flowed from the altar, it was the blood of the altar that was sprinkled on and before the mercy seat, so that the table of showbread owed its being to the altar in that way. On it were twelve loaves covered with frankincense, This was a memorial before the Lord, and in due course became the food of the priests, and that as identifying themselves in eating with all Israel.
Then again in Ezekiel 41:22 we find that the altar of wood is described as “the table that is before the Lord.”
So we see that the expression “the table of the Lord” is not a new one, though used in 1 Corinthians 10 in a new connection altogether, that is in connection with Christianity, which is as superior to Judaism as the substance is superior to the shadow.
The Syrophenician woman—a Gentile—had a good idea of the bounty of “the Lord’s table” as connected with Judaism, though she recognized it as bound up in the Lord’s person and not with a dead system whose leaders had rejected Him, without whom the shadows and types were indeed meaningless. When this woman cried to the Lord for help for her afflicted daughter, He tested her by telling her, “It is not meet to take the children’s [Israel’s] bread, and to cast it to the dogs [Gentiles, of which this woman was one]. Her wonderful reply was, “Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs” (Mark 7:28); How wonderful must the bounty of Jehovah be upon His table, when in her estimation a fallen crumb or two would suffice to meet her need. And if this poor woman had such a sense of “the Lord’s table” in her day, what sense have we of the bounty of “the Lord’s table” today in the full light of a triumphant risen ascended Christ at God’s right hand, and of all that is consequent on the outpoured gift of the Holy Spirit?
“The Table of Demons”
Heathendom was Satan’s counterfeit, established with the view of opposing God, and to hold men in the darkness of that thrall in which he had bound them, and we are prepared to find in it these same two ideas of
(1) Sacrifice.
(2) Food.
(1) Sacrifice. This is borne out by the passage, “The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God” (v. 20). (See also Deut. 32:17.) Here we get the “altar” character of heathendom—the sacrifice being procured by Satan working on the darkness of the heathen mind, picturing their gods as about to wreak vengeance on them—their crops would fail, their children die, their animals be devoured by wild beasts, unless they were appeased.
(2) Food. This is borne out by the expressions, “The cup of demons,” “the table of demons” (v. 21). Alas! Satan feeds the flesh, and “the table of demons,” on that side of it may be defined as a system by which he feeds the passions and unholy lusts of men in order to enslave their souls, ruin their bodies, and encompass their eternal destruction. “The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty” (Ps. 74:20). The records of heathen lands bear this out to the full.
“The Lord’s Table”
In the same way as we have seen in connection with Judaism and Heathendom we shall find in Christianity the same two leading ideas:
(1) Sacrifice.
(2) Food.
It is remarkable how the prominent thought in the Old Testament is the altar, and flowing out of it the table, first the slab whereon the sacrifices were offered, second, the table from which the ministering priests received their food, which had first been presented to Jehovah; whereas in the New Testament the prominent thought is the table of the Lord for the reason that Christ has made a complete sacrifice for sin “once for all,” and that now the results of that wondrous death are flowing forth to those, who have a link with Christ.
Yet in Christianity it is said, “We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle” (Heb. 13:10). Here we have the word altar, but eating connected with it, The Jews had been occupied with meats, and not with grace. Now we have a spiritual altar—a spiritual table—with spiritual food on it. The sacrifice is complete, but the food is our portion now and for ever.
“The Lord’s table” then is a term expressive of Christianity, that system having for its centre the death of Christ (sacrifice), and from which flows the revelation of God in all His blessedness. There are food, support, sustainment, bounty for His people today.
It is the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, to which God who is faithful has called us. It sets forth our identification with the death of Christ and our communion together on that basis.
By Christianity, we should say, we mean that which is set up of God through Christ, called “the faith,” that which is real and not merely profession.
We now ask the question,
When was “The Lord’s Table” set up?
We answer unhesitatingly, On the day of Pentecost. That vast and blessed system of light and blessing consisting of the knowledge of God in Christ could only come into existence consequent on the death of Christ. To bring it into being took no less than the death of Christ—the resurrection, ascension and glorification of Him who died, and the sending of no less a person than God, the Holy Ghost, who has taken in sovereign choice the place of Servant to the Father and the Son—though no whit less God than the Father and the Son—in order that all this bounty might be ours for our sustenance, for the feeding of our souls, thereby forming them according to God’s thoughts for His own.
This leads us to another question.
How does the Believer get to “The Lord’s Table”?
There again the answer is very simple. When a sinner believes the gospel and is indwelt by the Holy Spirit and thereby “added to the church” he is at “the Lord’s table.” To be “added to the church” is God’s work and not man’s, and consists in God reaching a sinner by His grace and power, communicating life to him and justifying him, and sealing that work by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost.
If the believer were a Jew before conversion he was identified with the Jewish “altar”; if a Gentile with “the table of demons,” but when he received the Holy Spirit he became identified with “the Lord’s table.” If he was not there, where is he? He could not be with anti-Christian Judaism; nor with demoniacal heathendom. He must be at “the Lord’s table.”
Can a Believer be put away from “The Lord’s Table”?
Assuredly not; Scripture never says so. If the discipline of the assembly must go to the sad length of putting away, the exhortation is “Put away from among yourselves that wicked person” (1 Cor. 5:13).
But seeing it is God’s act and not man’s to receive to “the Lord’s table,” it cannot be man’s act to put away from “the Lord’s table.” To put a Christian away from “the Lord’s table” would be to UNchristianize a man altogether, which no man can do, and which God won’t do. Doubtless the predominant thought connected with eating, whether looked at in connection with the Jewish altar, the Lord’s table or the table of demons, is fellowship. “Behold Israel after the flesh; are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of [in communion with, N.T.] the altar” (1 Cor. 10:18).
The reason is very apparent. The food in the Jewish system is derived from the sacrifice offered. The sacrifice speaks of death as the only means of meeting man’s state before God, the only means of approach to Him, and stands as the centre, and from which all radiates, of the system it is connected with. Spiritual eating is one life-long expression of fellowship.
If things were normal eating in connection with the Lord’s table would be solely and alone an expression of fellowship with the death of Christ and all that flows therefrom. And that is as it should be. But when the believer attaches himself to a sect or party his eating often degenerates into an expression of fellowship with that particular sect or party. This may not be openly stated, but tacitly this is often so. What is of God, mixed up with the sect or party, lasts; what is not, and that is a revival in some shape or another of the man condemned and set aside at the cross of Christ, will perish.
For when God saves He saves for ever, and when He gives the Spirit it is “until the day of redemption,” that is to say, until the Lord comes. Doubtless when a Christian is under discipline, or cold and worldly at heart, or ensnared by legality as the Galatian assemblies were, there is a lack of appreciation and appropriation of what “the Lord’s table” really is, and practically such a one is out of touch with its fulness and blessedness.
It may be asked, Is it not possible for a mere professor to be at the Lord’s table! We answer yes and no. Yes, in an outward way; no, if one thinks of what is vital and real in the matter. It is interesting that Hebrew 6:4-6, which shows how far a mere professor may go, speaks twice of tasting, but never of eating. This is very suggestive and may help to guide our thoughts in this matter.
An Illustration of the Lord’s Table
“And when the Queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he had built, and
(1) The meat [food, N.T.] of his table, and the sitting of his servants,
(2) The attendance of his servants and their apparel,
(3) His cupbearers also, and their apparel; and
(4) His ascent by which he went up into the house of the Lord; there was no more spirit left in her” (2 Chr. 9:3-4).
If we use this as an illustration of what comes out in 1 Corinthians 10 to 14, we shall get a very good, if not exhaustive, idea, of what “the Lord’s table is.”
(1) Meat [Food, N.T.] of His Table
What precious food is to be found on “the Lord’s table.” As 1 Corinthians 11 follows 1 Corinthians 10, it is clear that the central point in Christianity as to our response is being gathered in the Lord’s name, and with His blessed presence in the midst answering to the desire of His heart in the remembrance of Himself. But let it be clearly understood that we do not go to the Lord’s supper to get, but to give. We do get, and nowhere more richly do we enjoy the love of God, and all that the death of Christ means than there, but we go because we are blessed. To treat the Lord’s supper as “a means of grace,” that is, to put the getting of blessing first is foreign to Scripture. Indeed the more distinctly we go to give the more we get, for the Lord will be no man’s debtor. His way is to give in order to get. What grace!
1 Corinthians 10:16 speaks of the cup as the communion of the blood of Christ, and the loaf as the communion of the body of Christ—in the former the Jew and Gentile, to be blessed as such in the day to come, will have their part. For the present that cup is in the custody of the church of God. The Lord in instituting the supper says of the cup, “This is the blood of the new testament [new covenant], which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matt. 26:28).
The “new covenant” is yet to be made with Israel, but meanwhile the blessings of it are antedated and are enjoyed in connection with Christianity, which, needless to say, goes much further in blessing than “the new covenant.“
But the loaf speaks of a fellowship which is exclusive to Christianity, for it immediately says, “For we being many are one loaf and one body: for we are all partakers of that one loaf” (1 Cor. 10:17). How truly affecting it is to have these emblems before us, the Lord’s presence affecting every heart. What a feast of divine love, though, as we must insist, we go to remember the Lord, not to receive, or be edified, or hear a sermon or anything of the kind. How the “altar” side comes out, the death of Christ in all its wondrous meaning affecting each heart.
But let it not be thought that the Lord’s supper, precious and special as it is, exhausts the provision and scope of “the Lord’s table.”
It is the materializing of “the Lord’s table”—a thing quite foreign to the truth—that has led to its being confused with the actual table on which the bread and cup rest at the supper. In the same way to talk of “setting up the Lord’s table,” is to express a totally wrong idea. Then again “received at ‘the Lord’s table’” and “putting away from ‘the Lord’s table’” have their origin, we believe, in the same limitation of thought. Surely it is in grasping the very largeness and breadth of God’s thoughts that we shall be kept from that which is the denial of that largeness and breadth—from sectarianism, from saying “I am Paul, Cephas, or Apollos.”
It will deliver us also from that worst of sectarianism, which says “I am of Christ,” that is, daring to monopolize Christ as the badge of a party, even more a party because it refuses to admit it, instead of being simply gathered in the Lord’s name with all that that means to all who are subject to His word.
(2) “The Attendance of His Ministers and their Apparel”
This brings us up to 1 Corinthians 12, where the gifts, their distribution, and their work are spoken of. The Lord has His ministers at His table, even as King Solomon had at his table. The word of God is indeed the substance of all ministry. In addition to the Old Testament, so largely in type, biography, and direct prophecy, prophetical of what was to come, we have the New Testament containing the inspired written ministry of the apostles and prophets, and the foundation of all ministry laid thereby. All subsequent gifts must come to that source of supply as dependent on the direction of the Lord and the supply of the Spirit in their ministry.
There are gifts distinctly given by Him, who led captivity captive and gave gifts to men, but there is room for all in this administration which must not be separated from the “Lord’s table.” We would heartily deprecate “clericalism” as being opposed in principle and practice to the teaching of Scripture. But on the other hand we would just as much insist that there should be the recognition of distinct gift and ministry, and the opportunity for the exercise of it among saints given, or else they will be the losers, and a slight put upon Him, who has given these gifts. Let there be much prayer for them that they may be kept in lowliness and above all in love.
That all may take part in this blessed service brings us to chapters 13 and 14. At the end of chapter 12 the apostle exhorts the saints to covet earnestly the best gifts, yet he shows them a more excellent way, that is LOVE—true DIVINE LOVE, whilst in chapter 14 he shows that one word would govern those who truly help—EDIFICATION.
On this line the apostle in another epistle speaks of the body edifying itself IN LOVE.
Happier and more profitable by far to have love and no gift, than to have gift and no love—happiest of all when there are both.
And as to the apparel of the ministers, it seems to bring out the truth that what should mark every servant of Christ is the being practically governed himself by the truth he ministers, that he should be the living exponent of his own ministry.
How true this was in all its absolute perfection in the case of the blessed Lord.
(3) “His Cupbearers and their Apparel”
The cupbearer bore the wine, which makes the heart rejoice. Is not the true ministry of the Lord’s things, especially of that which relates to Himself, His person, and His work, calculated to stir up and warm and draw out the affections of the Lord’s people. Eating and drinking go together. If we really appropriate the food on the “Lord’s table” there is sure to be the result—joy, delight, and worship springing up in the heart.
(4) “His Ascent by which He went up to the House of the Lord”
It is remarkable how in this picture there is a connection between eating and worship. Psalm 22:29 helps as to this. “They that be fat upon the earth shall eat and—WORSHIP.” That is those who are characterized by appreciation of the spiritual food on “the Lord’s table” are characterized by worship. How is it that there is so little worship? Because there is so little spiritual eating.
When the Queen of Sheba saw all these things in connection with King Solomon there was no more spirit left in her, so when the believer comes to the true end of appropriation and assimilation of the Lord’s thoughts for us, the presentations of Himself and His love, he is emptied of himself, and so filled with His goodness and glory that he becomes a worshipper. John 4 brings out in a deeply touching way that the Father is seeking worshippers. What will heaven be but worship? What is the great poverty today among Christians? Worship! But behind that, there is a cause, that is lack of exercise of soul in appropriating and assimilating God’s bounty, that is of divine eating, which always results in worship.
All Spiritual Food comes from “the Lord’s Table”
It follows from what we have laid down that all spiritual food comes from “the Lord’s table.” Do I get any help from my personal study of the Scriptures, do I receive any blessing from any ministry of the world, whether oral or written, or even in private conversation—all food comes from “the Lord’s table.”
But says someone, What about this day of ruin? We are in the presence of sects, parties, divisions? What are we to do?
Doubtless this state of things is the enemy’s attempt to rob us of the full blessing of “the Lord’s table,” and alas! to a large extent he has succeeded. Many gifts are in associations where we cannot avail ourselves of them, many of the Lord’s people deliberately follow in sectarian paths and on party lines. The remedy for this state of things will not, alas, be general, but individual. The more individuals are affected the more the recovery will be. The great point for the moment is to be right oneself.
This brings us to our last point.
“The Lord’s Table”
The remedy is to be subject TO THE LORD. Am I implicitly bowing to His word, and following His leading? As 1 Corinthians 14:37 puts it so solemnly and forcibly, “If any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write to you are THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE LORD.” If every saint and every minister of the Lord were thus subject ten thousand difficulties would vanish, unscriptural and unrighteous barriers would be removed, the flesh and self-seeking would be judged, the Lord would have His place, and nothing but blessing would flow.
May the Lord give us true enlargement of soul in the contemplation of these truths.
“God is faithful, by whom ye were called to the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:9). There is no other fellowship, no other bond, and this alone will survive.
We are conscious how feebly this great subject has been presented, but enough has been said to exercise us upon this most important matter. May God give us right thoughts by His Spirit.