Guest Post by Jacob Gucker
There are patterns in the meta-narrative of the Bible. The crossing of the Red Sea is a recapitulation of the great flood. The passion of the Christ is the greater Exodus. This post assumes the priest —> king —> prophet pattern of redemptive history and will discuss observations about the similarities among three prophetic moments in the Bible and how they relate to the function of the Lord’s Supper in the life of the church.
Israel became a nation when God brought them up from bondage in the land of Egypt. Israel was a child under the tutelage of Torah, a nation of priests with a special class of priests to guard the community practice of Torah. In time, Israel would gain a good king who would reign with wisdom to do justice. The wisdom literature of the Bible is the literature of kings, who make decisions based not only on Torah but by the maturity and wisdom that begins with fearful obedience to Yahweh. After the period of the kings came the period of prophecy. Prophetic times are times of judgment. If Israel’s kings had been Christlike, the prophets would have gone to the nations only, to tear down the world of the Gentiles and rebuild it with prophetic speech. Prophecy is both an end and a beginning. Prophets oversee the judgment of one world and the recreation of the next. In this, they are like God who created the world with divine speech.
This pattern is repeated throughout the Bible. Adam was a failed priest. His firstborn son, Cain, was a father of tyrant kings who filled the earth with blood, requiring judgment and rebirth through Noah and the flood. The cycle begins again with Abraham being priest, Jacob ascending to kingship by wrestling with God and man to become Israel, and Joseph ascending to a throne over the rest of his brothers. For the purpose of this post, we want to juxtapose three prophetic moments and compare them: Joseph in Egypt, Daniel in Babylon, and the Church in Corinth.
We observe that Joseph and Daniel are in very similar situations. They are both exiled to a foreign land where they ascend to prominence among the Gentiles despite their Hebrew heritage. They are both nearly killed for their faithfulness, facing the dangers of pit, dungeon, furnace, and lions’ den. They both rise to prominence by advising kings through dream interpretation. The kings call upon them because they are known to have the “spirit of the gods” in them. The same is true of the apostles and first century Christians. The first-century was a period of judgement upon Israel and the nations. They have the Spirit. They suffer persecution. They rise to prominence among Gentiles, even in Caesar’s household (Phil. 4:22). The major difference in Corinth is that Jesus is Lord, having ascended to the right hand of God. Corinth is in Christ… or at least they are supposed to be, but let’s go back to Daniel and Joseph.
James Jordan has shown that Belshazzar’s feast in Daniel 5 is a sort of anti-Christian communion feast, the result of which is that the king of Babylon is found wanting as a king in the eyes of God. The word for “feast” is actually “bread.” Belshazzar’s feast is a feast of bread and wine, and he orders the vessels stolen from the temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem to be used to drink the wine. The lampstand, the symbol of Yahweh’s vigilance, is brought in to observe this feast. Belshazzar has manifested the Jerusalem temple within Babylon and has drunk judgment upon himself. The temple vessels are in exile and symbolize the people of God as vessels of worship. The body of Israel is being used to prop up a wicked head. The divine response: “This is not my Son, and I am not well pleased.”
Something similar happens in Genesis 42-44 when Joseph’s brothers appear before him looking for grain during a famine. Joseph’s brothers were not brother-keepers, having sold him into slavery. Now, Joseph is in the place of God and he wants to see what these men will do. Joseph divides the brothers for the purpose of reassembling them, for this is the end of prophetic judgment. Joseph wants the brothers to prove their brotherhood, so he keeps Simeon and sends them for Benjamin. They go home, but the only way to get more bread and restore Simeon is to also bring the youngest brother to the table.
When the eleven brothers come before Joseph, he tests them again by hiding his wine cup of divination in Benjamin’s grain sack. Wine has been added to bread; now is the hour of judgment. Joseph’s steward pursues them and accuses them of stealing his master’s sacred cup. The life of the thief is forfeit. However, when the cup is discovered in Benjamin’s sack, Judah returns and offers his own life for Benjamin’s. Joseph breaks down at this and reveals himself to his brothers, for Judah has laid his life down for the youngest. Judah has washed his own garments in the wine of judgment and thus all the brothers in Israel are found faithful. It is for this reason that the scepter of rule did not depart from Judah, but was given to Jesus, who washed His own garments in the wine of judgment by taking up His cross and laying down His life.
The lesson that Paul teaches the Corinthians is the same. The factions in Corinth are the opposite of brotherhood and kingship. The rich feast while the poor go hungry. However, communion is a manifestation of the new temple of God and the body of the King. In order for the church to pass as Christ, the youngest or poorest brothers and sisters must be welcomed to the table, whether poor of pocket or poor in theological understanding. To fail in this area is to fail to discern the body of the King.
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