In the words of the prophet Ezekiel, we read this: “I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God” (Ez. 34:15). The Lord really is our Shepherd, and the Lord really does see to it that the flock is fed.
It is striking that in the passage from Ezekiel, in the next breath, God promises to feed us with judgment. We naturally tend to assume that all judgments are negative, but the Bible is full of judgments that God exercises in order to vindicate His people. We are to cry out to God for this kind of vindication and deliverance, and as we partake of the Lord’s Supper together, this is one of the times we should be doing so. This is because one of the “foods” that God promises to feed us with is the food of judgment.
As we are seated here at this Table, we are ruling together with Christ. He has made us kings and priests on the earth, and He nourishes us by means of His interventions and judgments. We are living in a time when we are in great need of Him to rise up and scatter His enemies, and so, as we partake now, we should be asking God to build us up, to establish us, to settle us—by means of His great and glorious judgments. And so we come to eat and drink.