A Perverted Sacrament

"For they eat the bread of wickedness,
and drink the wine of violence." - Proverbs 4:17

Strictly applied, the canons of grammatical-historical exegesis forbid us to find in Proverbs 4:17 any allusion to the Lord's Supper because the original writer and readers could not have found it. However, we ought also read all of Scripture as part of the Christian canon and, because of the Bible's unitary Spiritual authorship, can find intertextual references which look forward as well as back.

Proverbs 4:17, then, describes a perverted sacrament. The wicked's religion is not faith in the Cross and does not include the faith-filled act of receiving and participating in the benefits of Christ's death and resurrection. Instead, their religion is worship of self, to whom they sacrifice the lives (literally and figuratively) of those around them.

The righteous receive the blood of Christ by faith and through the Spirit. The wicked shed the blood of others and would, if they could, crucify the Lord of glory.