The Dwelling Place of God with man - The Table of Shewbread
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Text: Exodus 25:23-28
The Table was placed on the Northern side of the Holy Place within the Tabernacle. It measured about 36” long, 18” wide and 27” tall. It was made with incorruptible shittim wood, and was overlaid with pure gold. It had two golden crowns that went around as a perimeter. There was a golden ring at each of the four corners so that staves could be passed through and the table could be carried.
Read: Leviticus 24:5-9
And upon the table of shewbread they shall spread a cloth of blue, and put thereon the dishes, and the spoons, and the bowls, and covers to cover withal: and the continual bread shall be thereon:
Behold, I build an house to the name of the Lord my God, to dedicate it to him, and to burn before him sweet incense, and for the continual shewbread, and for the burnt offerings morning and evening, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts of the Lord our God. This is an ordinance for ever to Israel.
The twelve loaves represented the _________________________________ of Israel.
They were a memorial unto the Lord of the twelve tribes and His covenant promises unto them. In the Old Testament it represented twelve being made one people before the Lord. All the promises to Israel are fulfilled in Christ! We do not and have not replaced Israel, God still has a plan for His chosen people. I am not belittle the promises made to Israel, nor am I trying to claim promises that are to them and not to us. That being said, we cannot deny the similarities of promise made to Israel and the church. I simply believe that, that is because Christ is at the center of both and in Him all are made one in Him!
As the table and the bread together make one __________________________________. So is the church in Christ, although we be many, we are One!
For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
The Table Upheld the Loaves:
It is Christ who upholds the Church and presents her continually as the “continual bread” before God the Father!
Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
The Table was the place that the priest would gather around and be unified together to eat:
And it shall be Aaron’s and his sons’; and they shall eat it in the holy place: for it is most holy unto him of the offerings of the Lord made by fire by a perpetual statute.
Today believer’s are spiritual priests.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.
The Table was the center of daily nourishment for the priestly family!
Jesus Christ is the Bread of Life!
Read: John 6:31-44
Of course eating of the Bread of Life is symbolic of us appropriating that Bread as food, partaking of it and it becoming part of us!
Jesus said in
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
A thing grows by what it feeds on! It is our privilege to feed on Christ day by day and grow in Him while He expands and fills us with Himself!
Let us believer, appropriate the Lord Jesus Christ day by day, let Him feed your soul and fill it with Himself! Believers that do this become more and more conscience of a living that is not ourselves but is Christ living in and through them!
Let us never forget that bread is not bread until it has first been ground between the millstones, until it has been moulded into a loaf, and passed through the test of a fire heated oven. It is thus, that Christ became living bread for all, but only after He had been ground between the millstone of the cross, felt the hand and power of the wrath of God and passed the agonizing test of His soul in the lower parts of the earth.
From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them:
He hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back:
He hath made me desolate and faint all the day.
Let it be even further be stated that the priests only had access to the bread by way of the Brazen Altar of sacrifice. He fulfilled His role as the Bread from Heaven upon the cross of Calvary so that all could be made partakers of Him!
The Table was the center of fellowship in the priestly family:
It is here that the priest came together and found unity around the table. Here they got into close and fulfilling communion with each other and with their God. This was made possible because they gathered around the same table and were each satisfied by the same bread. For us to be in harmony in this assembly which is Christs, requires us to each be occupied by the same bread.
It is only as we draw nearer to Christ that we are truly drawn closer together!
Let our church be taken up with Christ, with the glory of His eternal past, the wonder of His redeeming love, His perfect sacrificial death, His unfailing priestly intercession in Heaven, and the hope in His imminent return! Let us think Christ, talk Christ, live Christ, and serve Christ! A place of one mind, the mind of Christ!