Proposition 2

In the house of God, there is always the Lord’s table.

Just as there is a parallel between the Jewish holy place and the Christian house of God, so there is a parallel between the furniture of the first tabernacle or holy place and those who served in it, and the furniture of the Christian house of God and those who serve in it. “In the first tabernacle,” said Paul, “which is called holy, there were the lampstand, the table, and the showbread,” or the loaves of the presence. On the golden table every Sabbath day were placed twelve loaves, which were displayed there for one week, and on the next Sabbath they were replaced by twelve fresh loaves sprinkled with frankincense. The loaves removed from the table were eaten by the priests. These were called in Hebrew “the loaves of the faces,” or the loaves of the presence. This symbol of the abundance of spiritual food in the presence of God for all who dwell in the holy place always stood upon the golden table provided by the twelve tribes, even in the wilderness. The light in the first tabernacle did not come from outside, but from the seven lamps placed on the golden lampstand; symbolizing the perfect light not derived from this world, which is enjoyed in the house of God.

If, then, in the symbolic house of God, which corresponds to the Christian house of God, there was not only a table overlaid with gold, always set, and on it displayed twelve large loaves or cakes, sacred memorials and symbols of God’s bounty and grace; shall we say that in that house, over which Jesus is the Son, there is not always a table more precious than gold, covered with a richer feast for the holy and royal priesthood that the Lord has established, who may always enter into the holy place consecrated by Himself?

But we are not dependent on analogies or far-fetched inferences to prove this point. Paul, who fully understood both the Jewish and Christian institutions, tells us that there is in the Christian temple a table, appropriately called the Lord’s Table, as part of its furniture. He warns those who were in danger of being defiled by idolatry “that they could not partake of the Lord’s table and the table of demons.”7 In all his references to this table in this context, he presents it as continually approached by those in the Lord’s house. “The cup of the Lord” and “the loaf,” for which thanks were continually given, are the furniture of this table, to which the Christian community has free access.

The Apostle Paul reminds the saints in Corinth of their familiarity with the Lord’s table by speaking of it as being as common as the meetings of the brotherhood. “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not the sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not the sharing in the body of Christ?” In this way, we speak of things common and usual, never of things uncommon or unusual. It is not the cup which we have received with thanks; nor is it the bread which we have broken; but which we do break. But all that we aim to show here has now been accomplished; for it has been demonstrated that in the Lord’s house there is always the Lord’s table. It is hardly necessary to add that if it is shown that in the Lord’s house there is the Lord’s table as part of the furniture, it must always be there, unless it can be shown that only some occasions require its presence and others its absence; or that the Lord is poorer or more stingy at one time than another; that He is not always able to keep a table, or too miserly to provide it for His friends. But this is anticipating our subject, and we proceed to the third proposition.