Broad meadows

In part 3, we saw in Psalm 16 the prophetic division in the church to come over the substance of the Lord’s supper with one a “libation of blood” that is equated to idolatry (verse 4) and a cup that is “secure”. How serious of a problem then are we talking about? I’ll begin the examination of that today starting in Psalm 69:22-28.

When I am following symbols through the Bible, there are multiple ways you can proceed. As you’re going, you should be looking for other symbols or phrases that seem unusual. At that point, you can stop temporarily to look at those other symbols or phrases and follow them and what you will find is more context. In the last couple of installments we were looking specifically at the words of institution the Lord spoke at the last supper. In Matthew 26, the symbol I’m going to branch off into is table.

The first instance of the symbol table appears in Genesis 43, shortly before Joseph hides the cup in the sack of grain (the unformed church, from part 1). For the sake of brevity, though, I’ll jump ahead to Psalm 69:22-28.

May the table set before them become a snare;
may it become retribution and a trap.
May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see,
and their backs be bent forever.
Pour out your wrath on them;
let your fierce anger overtake them.
May their place be deserted;
let there be no one to dwell in their tents.
For they persecute those you wound
and talk about the pain of those you hurt.
Charge them with crime upon crime;
do not let them share in your salvation.
May they be blotted out of the book of life
and not be listed with the righteous.

In the above verses, we see some very serious consequences associated with this “table”. Number one, it’s a snare, a trap. Two, it’s a retribution for something. Wrath is to be poured out (notice the same phrase as in the last supper). They are criminals who are blotted out of the book of life. Sounds very serious.

Isaiah 51:17 says this:

Awake, awake!
Rise up, Jerusalem,
you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD
the cup of his wrath,
you who have drained to its dregs
the goblet that makes men stagger.

There is a cup of wrath, as stated in Psalm 69, a goblet that “makes men stagger”. Jeremiah 25:15-17 continues this theme.

This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. When they drink it, they will stagger and go mad because of the sword I will send among them.”

You must understand that the ceremonial meals in the Bible like the Passover and the last supper offer compelling evidence as to the veracity of the reports. The Passover, instituted by Moses to commemorate the Exodus, was abandoned by the Jews and subsequently readopted by them many years later, showing the Devine nature of that institution. Once things like that are forgotten, they almost never reappear.

By the same token, we have the words spoken by Jesus at the last supper and an account from someone who was there, Matthew. In this case, we have an unbroken chain of practitioners of the Lord’s supper from those words to the present day, a powerful testimony to its authenticity. So why this cup of wrath? Well, the devil likes to corrupt things. He can’t stop it, but he can try to get people to believe the wrong things. And God uses this to trap those polluting the church with idols. But there is even more that we can get from this line of symbols that we are following. I hope to wrap up this study in a couple more installments, bringing it to its shocking conclusion.