The Bible does not teach us that the Table must be protected from unfaithful people. Rather, the Bible teaches us that unfaithful people must be protected from the Table.
This Table is a winnowing fan, a fan that separates the wheat from the chaff. This Table deals with us as we come to it. To think that sinners could successfully defile the Table is to think that Uzzah could successfully manhandle the Ark of the covenant. To think that this Table needs protection is to think that the altar needed protection from Nadab and Abihu—but it was the other way around. Nadab and Abihu needed protection from the altar, and the presence of the Lord there.
We in our folly think that the holiness of God needs to be put under glass. We think that it is a delicate flower. We think that our grimy hands pose a threat. But the only threat posed is to our grimy hands, and what they are threatened with is cleansing.
But here is the next thing, baffling to us. Once we learn that the Table of the Lord needs no protection from us, we shrink back. But this is also wrong-headed. We are told to approach, consistently, regularly, confidently, approaching the throne of grace with boldness. In order to brought to this conviction, we need the gift of faith. We may not come with an insouciant swagger, but neither may we hesitate out of false and introspective piety.
At this Table God is dealing with our cowardice and timidity. We are not given a spirit of timidity. And how is He dealing with our cowardice? He is doing it by teaching us to fear—work out our salvation, we are told, with fear and trembling. There is a fear—fear of the Lord—that drives out every fear. What is the nature of that fear? Come and taste. Come and drink, and you will see.