With this understanding of idolatry as a background, we need to ask what Paul means by the expression “the Lord’s table.” Our understanding of this may be too narrow. What is the Lord’s table? The Chinese version of the Bible speaks of the Lord’s feast. According to this translation, the table is a feast. However, not even the word feast conveys the full significance of the Lord’s table. What is included in the term the Lord’s table is a matter of great significance. As we shall see in the next message, the Lord’s table is actually the good land.
The first section of chapter ten is a record that shows how the history of Israel is a type of the church. In verses 1 through 11 Paul describes this type in its various aspects. Then in verse 12 he says, “So then, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” In verse 13 he goes on to give a word of encouragement and comfort. If we study this chapter carefully, we shall realize that there is a gap between verses 13 and 14. At the end of verse 12, Paul seems to make a sudden stop, and then he gives a word of encouragement. The careful reader of this chapter, however, will realize that Paul has not yet finished describing how the history of Israel is a type of the church. Thus, we have the definite impression that Paul has not finished this matter. Perhaps he did not have the time to go on in more detail. Nevertheless, he did have the burden to present the consummate thought regarding Israel as a type. This consummate thought is the children of Israel entering into the enjoyment of the good land.
The enjoyment of the good land is the goal of God’s salvation. Would you he happy with a God who simply delivered His people out of Egypt, brought them into the wilderness, and then allowed them to fall in the wilderness? I would not be happy with such a God, for this would not be a saving God. God had promised to bring His people out of the land of Egypt into a good land, a land flowing with milk and honey. This promise had been made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. If God had not brought the people into this good land, He would not have fulfilled His promise.
As far as the children of Israel were concerned, the enjoyment of the land flowing with milk and honey was the ultimate goal of God’s salvation. But as far as God was concerned, the ultimate goal was not reached just by the enjoyment of the land. There was still the need for the kingdom and the temple. The children of Israel needed the enjoyment, but God needed a kingdom and a temple.
Because Paul wrote in a very economical way, he made a leap in his composition from the failure in the wilderness to the enjoyment of the good land. If we get into the depths of this chapter, we shall realize that this is Paul’s concept. Both idolatry and the Lord’s table are much more inclusive in meaning than what is indicated by the letters in black and white.
First Corinthians 10:12-22, we need to remember, is part of a long section which deals with the matter of eating. Eating is related to enjoyment. Whenever you eat something, you enjoy it. Furthermore, what we eat becomes us. On the one hand, eating is for our enjoyment; on the other hand, we become what we eat. These basic concepts should be applied in understanding this portion. To eat idol sacrifices actually means to enjoy idols and eventually to become one with idols. In the same principle, to partake of the Lord’s table is to enjoy this table and to become one with it; that is, to enjoy the Lord and become one with Him. In these verses Paul first speaks of one kind of table and then, apparently making a leap, of another kind of table. In verse 21 he clearly says, “You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons.” Actually, in this portion there are three tables: the altar (v. 18), the table of demons, and the table of the Lord. All these terms are inclusive, and we should not understand them in a narrow way.
As we read this Epistle, we realize that Paul was truly a marvelous writer. His aim, his purpose, in writing 1 Corinthians was to bring the distracted Corinthian believers back to Christ and back to the central focus of God’s economy. As we have seen, in dealing with divisions, Paul unveils a great deal concerning Christ. In no other book is Christ unveiled in such a rich way as He is in the first four chapters of 1 Corinthians. Even when Paul deals with a problem involving gross sin, the matter of incest, he reveals Christ in a marvelous way. Furthermore, we have pointed out that in dealing with married life, Paul also covers important matters related to being one spirit with the Lord. But in chapters eight, nine, and ten, a section concerned with the eating of idol sacrifices, the revelation reaches the peak. It comes to a consummate point. Most readers of 1 Corinthians, including Bible teachers and theologians, have not touched the full significance of what Paul deals with in this section. Therefore, it is crucial that we do not take these chapters for granted, but get into them in a thorough way in order to see the marvelous revelation presented here.