This is the central meal of history. This is the meal at the world’s end, and it is the food that was set before our first parents in the Garden, and which they turned away from in search of their own food. This is the table at the center. This is the food that teaches us how to partake of all food. This is the drink that quenches our thirst forever, and enables us to drink elsewhere as free men, women and children.
Idolatry is the attempt to squeeze out of a finite thing what only the infinite can provide. When we turn away from what the infinite God has supplied for us, we are forced to try to get more from the rest of the world than it can possibly provide. This is because God has set
eternity in our hearts, and we seek out eternal things wherever we go, whatever we do. If we are out of fellowship with the God who made us, then we are not trying to put a square peg in a round hole—we are trying to draw the infinite out of a finite thing. The only one who could do that kind of miracle is God Himself, and He did it by uniting God and man in one person, the Lord Jesus from Nazareth. And He, the Lord Jesus, communes with us here.
When we grasp this, or rather are grasped by it, we cease trying to get this blessing out of things that do not contain it. To use the example of food only—you cannot get peace with God from fast food, or from healthy food, or from citrus, or from vegetables, or from meat off the grill, or from anything else in your cupboards. When you go to the grocery store, or the coop, or you order food online, you are not on trial. There is no condemnation. Here, here at this table, there is peace with God. And when you have eaten the peace offering here in faith, you may take that peace with you everywhere you go. It is yours to keep.