Articles
You Prepare a Table Before Me In The Presence of My Enemies
Luke 7 describes for us a scene in which a Pharisee invites Jesus to his house to dine with him. While dining, a woman from the city described as a “sinner” learns that Jesus is there. She enters the house and because of her godly sorrow proceeds to kiss Jesus’ feet, wash them with her tears, and anoint His head with perfume. Though unwelcome at the table by the Pharisee, Jesus “welcomes” her by forgiving her sins.
Many pastures grow poisonous plants which are fatal to sheep if eaten. Some pastures grow plants with sharp thorns that can inflict horrible cuts on the nose of the sheep. So each spring, the shepherd will take his mattock and dig out these “enemies” of the sheep, pile them up, and burn them; this makes the pasture safe for the sheep to graze. The pasture becomes, as it were, a table prepared.
God has “prepared” a table for us. This preparation started in eternity (Eph 3:11) and continues through today as He stretches out His rod and staff for our deliverance. The Pharisee with whom Jesus dined could not prevent Him from forgiving this woman’s sin and the joy and peace that would come with it. Likewise, when our heart is right and we respond appropriately to God’s plan of salvation, no one can take it away from us. He has given us a door “which no man can shut” (Rev 3:8).
Only someone in God’s favor can truly understand this peace and joy in the midst of so much conflict. This is why the woman could “go in peace” (Luke 7:50b). It is why Paul, in prison, could say “I will rejoice” (Phil 1:18). It is why Habakkuk, realizing the impending terror coming from Chaldea, could say, “Yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation” (Hab 3:18). No enemy is too great, no persecution is too much, and no distress is too powerful that God cannot prepare us a table in its very presence with all of the peace and joy that accompanies it.
