Eternity Present
by Blake Purcell

Here is a strange thing. "Thou preparest a table before me…back at home where I can get some peace and quiet?" No. "Thou preparest a table before me, in the presence of mine enemies." We partake of the Lord's Supper right in front of our enemies.

Joel keeps up this "eating in dangerous places" imagery. In Joel 2 and 3 we read, "call a sacred assembly… gather the children and nursing babes…Behold, I will send you grain and new wine…and you will be satisfied by them…But I will remove far from you the northern army…Fear not , O land; …the threshing floors shall be full…the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil…I will also (at the same time) gather all nations, and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will enter into judgment with them there…Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. …the winepress is full. So you shall know that I am the Lord Your God, dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain."

Isaiah 25:6-12, repeats this image. "And in this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of choice pieces…of well-refined wine on the lees, and He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord will wipe away tears from all faces…and Moab shall be trampled down under Him, as straw is trampled down for the refuse heap." Here we have worship on the mountain, feasting with God, and God mashing and tramping right in front of the supper table. These are Johnny Cash Boy Named Sue renditions of the Lord's Supper in the mud, guts and beer.

Revelation 19 and 20 echo the raucous scenario: "Let us rejoice and be glad, for the marriage of the Lamb has come…Blessed are all those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb…Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings…the flesh of all people, free and slave…Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, then I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God."

What do we make of this discordant, if not barbaric, picture? Feasting with God is always a multi-dimensional affair. At the Table: We proclaim the death of Christ (I Cor.11). We are united to Christ and one another (I Cor.10:16,17). We rejoice in our victory over our sin and eternal death (I Cor.15). We are challenged to add a fourth dimension. We rejoice in God's past, present, and future victories over sinners and the nations of the world. The above passages call us to consider this neglected aspect of the Lord's Day feast, a victory banquet over the Lord's enemies, and a dress rehearsal for the final judgment at His second coming.

Let me suggest why we should consider our weekly communion as a dress rehearsal for the final Lord's Day. First, Paul proclaims "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching…" The aforementioned passages are to catechize us in feasting with God.

Second, the Lord's Day is used in Scripture to refer to a number of unique, yet similar days. For instance, Acts 2 quotes Joel 2:30–31, "And I will give portents in heavens and on the earth, blood and fire... The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes." In Acts 2 this passage refers to Pentecost, a Sunday. Pentecost was "the great and terrible day of the Lord." Likewise, Sunday in Acts 20:7 is taken to be the Lord's Day referred to in Revelation 1:10. To confuse moderns even more, Christ in Matthew 24:29 alludes to this same symbolism, implying that the second coming and the destruction of Jerusalem are both "the Day of the Lord."

This confusing, or "multi-dimensioning" of the Day of the Lord, is confirmed in the Greek of I Thessalonians 5:2, the Day of the Lord, imera Kuriou, and Acts 2:20, imera(n) Kuriou. The final day of judgment of I Thessalonians 5 is the exact same phrase used to describe Pentecost. There is no reason to not consider each Lord's Day—Sunday, that is—as purposefully identified by the Holy Spirit with the final Lord's Day of 1 Thessalonians 5:2. Hebrews 12:22–23 solidifies this conclusion. New Testament worship is on Mount Zion and in the heavenly Jerusalem, as pictured in all three passages.

Finally, Isaiah 25 gives the most powerful evidence that every Sunday is to be a practice marriage feast of the Lamb. Isaiah 24 refers to "that day" as a day of judgment over the nations, and at the same time a day of a feast on God's mountain. Isaiah 25:7 fuses this imagery into our Sunday feasts, "And He will destroy on this mountain [in the feasting?] …the veil that is spread over the nations." II Cor. 3:15 proclaims that this veil is removed in Christ. Therefore, we safely assume that as we feast, the veil is being destroyed. Isaiah 25:9,10 reads, "We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation. For on this mountain…Moab shall be trampled down." All the evidence in Isaiah 25 implies that it is referring to the supper and to the marriage feast of the Lamb, all at once. We are mysteriously feasting with the same Lord and assembly who have their feet on their enemies' necks .

Having ministered for the last thirteen years in Russia, a country where free-ranging Moabites abound, these images have brought hope and power to the weekly communion in our churches. The "how long O Lord?" of our hearts is answered by a reassuring "now" and "not yet." We take healthy draughts of wine and hunks of bread to symbolize our readiness to "put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe."

Sunday worship is the judgment day of Christ over the nations hidden in the dust of the Church Militant. Now we feast before our enemies and boldly rejoice at their downfall by singing loud imprecatory Psalms. The Bible teaches that this is training for the great Day when we shall defeat the enemies of God as the Church Triumphant. Maranatha!

Blake Purcell is the founder of the Reformed Seminary of Saint Petersburg, Russia, and a friend.