“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)
The Basket Case Chronicles #116
“Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?” (1 Cor. 10:21-22).
At the very beginning, the Lord established the antithesis in the world between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. We see the same reality spoken of here. There are only two tables in the world—God’s and that of the devils. God says that it must be one or the other, and we find this radical necessity of choice too confining. Many want to have it both ways, and to be able to partake from both tables. But God forbids it, and regards all such attempts to eat from both tables as a provocation to His jealousy. Jealousy, we must never forget, is a divine attribute. His name is Jealous (Ex. 34:14), and His strength is unlimited. Why, Paul asks, would we pick a fight with Him?
This is the central temptation that unbelieving man has—he wants to say one where God has said two.