day 1123

“… the table of demons …” (1 Cor. 10:21, NKJV)

Our last teaching concluded with the question – what happens when a believer partakes of “the table of demons” (1 Cor. 10:21), and then necessarily needs to engage in fellowship with demons (verse 20)?

In Scripture we find that to sit at a table and eat together often carries the connotation of the cutting of a covenant, and the meal is thus often referred to as a covenant meal. In Dennis J McCarthy’s two books Old Testament Covenant and Treaty and Covenant, he explains, in a bit of detail, how blood brothers (in other words brothers who are in a covenant relationship as they are born again, both from the womb of God) seal their covenant with one another by means of a covenant meal. Eating together after the formal cutting of the covenant has occurred is much more than just a celebration of the event – it was an actual part of the ritual: “The covenant meal was a sign that the weaker is taken into the family of the stronger, a reassuring gesture on the part of the superior toward the inferior and not a pledge by the latter.” (McCarthy, 1978: 254). After this event their relationship is of the same order as that shared by family members.

In Isa. 65:11 the scenario is presented of how a covenant meal can take place within the demonic realm: “But you are those who forsake the Lord, who forget My holy mountain, who prepare a table for Gad, and who furnish a drink offering for Meni.” To thus “eat at Jezebel’s table” (1 Kings 18:19), literally means to have fellowship with demons, and cut covenants with them. 1 Cor. 10:18-21 explains it beautifully: “Observe Israel after the flesh: Are not those who eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons.”

The “Lord’s table” is not necessarily a physical meal – in the next teaching we will look at this in greater detail, exploring the mystery of this concept, and its wider interpretation.

In Jer. 17:1 we find the following: “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with the point of a diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of your altars …” (Judah, we know, is a typology of the Bride.) It is of great importance that we realise that this “fellowship with demons” leads to the cutting of a covenant WITHIN our bodies. If this has been written on the tables of our heart, it influences the believer’s entire being: “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” (Prov. 4:23).

 

  • Selah: Pray and ask God what type of table you are presenting within yourself.
  • Read: Acts 17:1-18:18.
  • Memorise: Acts 17:3.

For a more in-depth understanding: Read the two books m