The Table and Those Cut Off

Most of us grew up with a gentle picture of the Lord’s table: bread and a cup, a quiet song, and a moment of prayer. Whatever the Torah once said about approaching holy things, we were taught, belonged to the age of altars and priests. Under grace, no one is struck down for the way he comes to the table.

That belief is sincere, and it comes from a right love of grace. But Paul wrote a sentence to the church in Corinth that does not fit it, and that sentence stands on the Torah, so the Torah comes first.

Cut Off

The Torah had a rule for anyone who ate holy food while unclean:

Leviticus 7:20-21 And the soul (nephesh נֶפֶשׁ neh'-fesh) that eats flesh (basar בָּשָׂר baw-sawr') from the sacrifice of the peace offerings which is to the LORD, with his uncleanness upon him, that soul (nephesh) shall be cut off from its peoples. And a soul (nephesh), when it touches anything unclean — the uncleanness of man (adam אָדָם aw-dawm'), or an unclean beast, or any unclean detestable thing — and eats of the flesh (basar) of the sacrifice of the peace offerings which is to the LORD, that soul (nephesh) shall be cut off from its peoples.

And for anyone who came near the holy things in the same state:

Leviticus 22:3 Say to them: Throughout your generations, any man (ish אִישׁ eesh) from all your seed who approaches the holy things, which the sons of Israel sanctify to the LORD, with his uncleanness upon him, that soul (nephesh) shall be cut off from before me: I am the LORD.

The key phrase is “with his uncleanness upon him.” No one was punished simply for being unclean. Uncleanness came from ordinary life, from childbirth, contact with the dead, or a discharge, and the Torah gave a way to be cleansed from it. A person was cut off for bringing that uncleanness to what was holy.

The Day of Strange Fire

Two of Aaron’s sons died on the day the priests began their service:

Leviticus 10:1-3 And the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, took each man (ish) his censer, and put fire in them, and laid incense on it, and brought near before the LORD strange fire, which he had not commanded (tzivvah צָוָה tsaw-vaw') them. And fire came out from before the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD. And Moses said to Aaron, "This is what the LORD spoke, saying, 'Through those near to me I will be sanctified, and before the face of all the people I will be glorified.'" And Aaron was silent.

Fire had just come out from before the LORD to consume the first offerings (Leviticus 9:24), and now the same fire came out and consumed two of Aaron’s sons. Moses’ explanation was brief: “Through those near to me I will be sanctified.”

Then, in the same chapter, God spoke to Aaron the words first read in Chapter 21:

Leviticus 10:9-10 "Wine and strong drink you shall not drink, you and your sons with you, when you go into the tent (ohel אֹהֶל o'-hel) of appointed time (moed מוֹעֵד mo-ade'), that you do not die; it is a statute (chuqqah חֻקָּה khook-kaw') forever throughout your generations; and to make a distinction between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean;

Some readers conclude that Nadab and Abihu were drunk, but the text does not say so, and what it does say is enough. The command about wine comes in the same chapter, soon after their death. It carries the words “that you do not die,” and it states its own purpose: “to make a distinction between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean.” Wine before the holy, and the blurring of that distinction, were a matter of life and death.

The Levites were told the same: “the holy things of the sons of Israel you shall not profane, that you do not die” (Numbers 18:32). And of the priests God said, “lest they bear sin for it and die by it, because they profane it” (Leviticus 22:9).

Consider the fence around an electrical substation. The current inside lights a whole city, warming homes and running hospitals. The warning sign on the fence does not call the power evil. It says that the power is strong, and that a person who climbs in carelessly will not walk out again. In the same way, God’s holiness cannot be handled as common.

Hezekiah’s Passover

Centuries later, King Hezekiah called all Israel to Jerusalem to keep the Passover. Many came from the north who had not purified themselves:

2 Chronicles 30:18-20 For a multitude of the people, many from Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover not as it is written; for Hezekiah prayed for them, saying: "May the good LORD make atonement on behalf of everyone who has prepared his heart to seek God, the LORD, the God of his fathers, though not according to the purity of the holy place." And the LORD listened to Hezekiah, and healed the people.

Hezekiah did not pretend that eating “not as it is written” was a small matter. He prayed for mercy, and God answered: “The LORD listened to Hezekiah, and healed the people.”

The word for “healed” is rapha רָפָא raw-faw', the same root as “I am the LORD your healer” in Exodus 15:26. The people needed healing because eating the holy meal in uncleanness had brought sickness on them. God’s mercy did not declare the rule empty; it healed the damage that the broken rule had done.

The Table in Corinth

In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul sets the Lord’s table beside Israel’s altar:

1 Corinthians 10:16-21 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a koinonia κοινωνία koy-nohn-ee'-ah(sharing, participation) in the blood of Messiah? The bread which we break, is it not a koinonia(sharing, participation) in the body of Messiah? Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread. Look at Israel according to sarx σάρξ sarx(flesh): are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar? What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to an idol is anything? Or that an idol is anything? No, but I say that the things which the nations sacrifice, they sacrifice to demon(individual evil spirits to be expelled)s and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demon(individual evil spirits to be expelled)s. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demon(individual evil spirits to be expelled)s; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demon(individual evil spirits to be expelled)s.

Paul reasons from the altar of Israel to the table of the Lord: whoever eats is a sharer in what is on that table. There was another table in Corinth as well, the table of demons, and no one can share in both.

In chapter 11 he describes how the Corinthians were actually eating:

1 Corinthians 11:20-22 Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper, for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk. What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the ekklesia ἐκκλησία ek-klay-see'-ah(called-out community) of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I will not praise you.

Each one took his own supper first, so that some went hungry while others got drunk, and this at the Lord’s Supper. They had split into divisions and despised “the ekklesia(called-out community) of God.” Paul then gives the result:

1 Corinthians 11:27-32 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For the one who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner, eats and drinks krima κρίμα kree'-mah(verdict) to himself if he does not diakrino διακρίνω dee-ak-ree'-no(active: discern) the body of the Lord. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we diakrino(active: discerned) ourselves, we would not be krino κρίνω kree'-no(judged). But when we are krino(judged), we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be katakrino κατακρίνω kat-ak-ree'-no(condemned) along with the world.

In Paul’s letters, to “sleep” is to die.

Two words carry this passage. The first, “in an unworthy manner,” is anaxios ἀναξίως an-ax-ee'-oce. It has nothing to do with how much a person eats, for Paul says, “If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home” (11:34). It describes the manner of eating: treating the Lord’s Supper as one’s own supper.

The second word is diakrino (διακρίνω), to discern, to separate one thing from another, to judge between. The one who eats “if he does not diakrino(active: discern) the body of the Lord” eats judgment to himself. To fail to discern is to fail to make a distinction, the very distinction Leviticus 10:10 commands between the holy and the common.

Set beside the Torah, nothing that happened in Corinth is new:

Corinth did what the Torah said brings death, and the Torah’s result followed: weak, sick, and asleep. Paul had already warned them earlier in the same letter:

1 Corinthians 3:16-17 Do you not know that you are the naos ναός nah-os'(temple, inner-sanctuary) of God and the pneuma πνεῦμα pnyoo'-mah(spirit) of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys the naos(temple, inner-sanctuary) of God, God will destroy that person; for the naos(temple, inner-sanctuary) of God is hagio(holy), and that is what you are.

The church is God’s holy temple, and to profane it is no small thing.

We are made right with God by grace, not by keeping any rule. Yet the God who made us right is still holy, and His table is still holy. That is why “a man must examine himself.”

Paul tells us to examine ourselves before we eat at the Lord’s table, and Scripture asks something similar of us before we come to the Lord’s word. In the Torah, the holy gatherings of God’s people and the reading of His word share a single name.