A few Saturdays back, our small Tishrei Beccles group had its monthly evening meeting for Bible study and prayer, with a ‘pot-luck’ supper. The supper time stood out and got me particularly excited, as people were sharing and discussing during the meal about our understanding of Scripture. Each contribution made my understanding become clearer. Then, the following morning I read a passage in Romans which surprised me.

In the passage, Paul had just shown that God has not repudiated Israel but spoken of Israel’s then-present dullness, blindness and deafness to Him (Rom 11:1-8), not pursuing His Torah through trusting but by legalistically following a set of instructions. It was about these people that Paul used the following quotation:

Let their dining table become for them a snare and a trap. (Romans 11:9, quoting Psalm 69:23)

‘What does this mean? Is it a relevant word of caution to me?’ I asked myself.

The Blessing of Meal Times

I then found that meal times have the potential to be incredibly beneficial for the spiritual growth of followers of Jesus.

Meal times have been, for me and my family, an important time of coming together that I always look forward to. Thomas O’Loughlin writes:

Nothing bonds us as human beings like sharing a meal. We are the only animals who cook our food – and this indicates that eating is always something more significant to us than just inputting nourishment. Around the table we become families, friends, and communities. Meals mark what is significant in life: a life without festive meals marking the events of our lives would point to a very dull life indeed. Meals make us human.¹

From the days of the Torah, meals have been an important positive in the life of Israel. For instance:

• Moses and a company of Israel’s leaders had a meal literally in God’s presence on Mount Sinai (Ex 24:9-11).
• In Deuteronomy 11:19 Israel was told to “store up these words of mine in your heart and in all your being…talking about them when you sit at home…” I reckon this would especially be around a meal table, the one activity that brings a family together during any day.
• In the gospels we frequently find Jesus teaching around a meal table. For instance, while at Bethany Jesus had a meal in the home of Simon the Leper where, through the action of a woman pouring expensive oil over his head, Jesus explained more about both his forthcoming death and the future proclamation of the Gospel to the world (Mark 14:3-9). Then of course there was the Last Supper – the meal to end all meals!
• The first followers of Jesus “Continuing faithfully and with singleness of purpose to meet in the temple courts daily, and breaking bread in their several homes, they shared their food in joy and simplicity of heart, praising God and having respect for all people” (Acts 2:46-47).

The Danger of Meal Times

But I also saw that meal times have the potential to be incredibly damaging, when faith disappears and people fall into simply adhering to a written-out belief system.

Paul aimed his warning at the non-believing part of Israel in particular - a people who had become dull, blind and deaf to God, not pursuing God’s Torah through trusting: “Let their dining table become for them a snare and a trap.”

People in this state might well have been discussing the scriptures over the dinner table, but in their blindness sticking rigidly and legalistically to a theology set up by the big names of their own sect. Not understanding its true meaning dependent upon trusting as Jesus taught, they were likely to lead and encourage one another down the road of further blindness. The snare and the trap.

Fear and Trembling

So what is this to us who are trusting in our Lord Jesus?

Paul, later in v20, says to those of us who are Gentile believers and might be feeling quite smug at this point, “you keep your place only because of your trust. So don’t be arrogant; on the contrary, be terrified!”

Back to my ‘pot-luck’ supper. I think my excitement was due to the finding of searched-for truth through a communal, trusting obedience, mixed with humility and fear lest we should get it wrong, to understand and thereby grow to know God better. This, I believe, is how meal times should be – to God’s delight and our benefit.

Does this resonate with you?

Author: John Quinlan

Reference

1 O’Loughlin, T, 2010. The Didache: A Window on the Earliest Christians. Grand Rapids, Baker, p103.