I gotta have my orange juice.

There are a number of temptations of important figures in the Bible that I believe we are intended to see as echoes of one another, and from which I think we can gain some insights.

I want to start with the temptation of Mordecai. This temptation appears to involve ease of access to political power and favor, while compromising faithfulness to God’s commands. Mordecai’s faithfulness appears to create trials for him and his people rather than relieving them. However, in the end Mordecai gains great favor with the emperor, while also preserving God’s people.

My attention was called to Mordecai’s temptation by comparison to Joseph’s temptation by Potiphar’s wife. Joseph also experiences trials in exchange for his faithfulness, but ends up gaining the favor of the emperor while also preserving God’s people.

Hebrews tells us that Moses “refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.” Moses also experienced trials in response to his faithfulness. He won only reluctant favor from Pharaoh, but God used him to deliver his people. Unlike Ahasuerus and Joseph’s Pharaoh, Moses’ Pharaoh does not seem to experience dreams, although the Passover is a kind of waking nightmare.

Daniel “purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.” I think this is not for dietary reasons but for table fellowship reasons; there is something about the fellowship at Nebuchadnezzar’s table that implied Daniel would be eating, in terms of 1 Corinthians 10, at the table of demons rather than at the Lord’s table. Daniel’s case differs slightly from the others we’ve considered so far; he is elevated to a position of power first and only later experiences trials. His labor for the deliverance of his people is also, as far as we know, primarily a labor of prayer rather than of action; although it is possible that he had something to do with Cyrus’s decree. (It is also possible that he had something to do with Nebuchadnezzar’s investiture of Jerusalem.) Daniel’s emperor experiences dreams.

Daniel’s case leads us to reflect on the place of table fellowship in this pattern. Haman and Potiphar’s wife don’t offer literal tables. But Esther and Joseph both go on to prepare tables from their positions of elevation. The same is true of Moses; the Bible does not call attention to Pharaoh’s table, but Moses does prepare God’s table in the wilderness.

If you were a prophet in the time of Elijah, you should have been eating at the table of Obadiah rather than the table of Jezebel.

Balaam is an anti-pattern, but an interesting one. God appears to him (in the night, though perhaps not in a dream), and he seems to be obedient. But, God opposes him at every step along the way. And, crucially, Balaam eats (several times) at Balak’s table rather than Yahweh’s table. Considered in this light, his fate recorded in Numbers 31 and elsewhere is unsurprising. Balaam seems to retain or regain the favor of the Midianites and Moabites, but this becomes his downfall rather than his (or their) salvation.

Seen in this light, Adam is also an anti-pattern; he has table fellowship with the serpent rather than with God, and this becomes his downfall. Importantly, part of Adam’s temptation is the pursuit of the knowledge of good and evil, which is Biblical terminology for wisdom associated with rule.

Jesus reverses Adam’s pattern exactly; he refuses table fellowship with the devil accompanied with the offer of power and authority. He appears to experience a downfall, but he is vindicated, elevated to power, and accomplishes the salvation of his people. There is even a dream involved: that of Pilate’s wife.

There are threads of this in the gospels; for example, our prayer for heavenly bread, our call to avoid the leaven of the Pharisees, and our consuming Jesus’s flesh and blood. In fact, you could say that there is now only one food law in the new covenant: do not despise God and his people in your table fellowship, either by corrupting God’s table (Romans 14, 1 Corinthians 11, Galatians 2), or by forsaking his table altogether for the table of demons (1 Corinthians 10).