Lord’s Day, Vol. 10 No. 47
Worship in Ancient Israel (3)
Picture the scene of Israel encamped in the wilderness. The 12 tribes surrounding the Tabernacle on the four sides with the very presence of God in the centre and the barrenness of the wilderness outside this encampment, a vivid picture of God’s assurance to Israel of His leadership and His willingness to be a part of Israel’s everyday life.
He is their Creator, Sustainer and Saviour! With Him is life. Without Him is the lifeless desert! With Him, the message of protection, provision and purposefulness/profit and without Him, the scene of danger, deprivation and destruction.
Very much like the Chinese character for blessedness. God with one man in the garden is the picture of blessedness as was depicted in the Book of Genesis before the fall! God is the source of man’s existence, our existence. He is the source of our blessedness. The study of God draws us nigh to the source of blessedness.
Consider the Chinese character for blessedness is pronounced “Fu”. If you dissect the left radical it is the shortened form of the radical for “God”, given below.
The right radical of “fu” begins with “one”
The radical for “mouth” signifies a “man”
The radical for “farm” signifies the “garden”
When a man is in close connection with His Creator God, this is true blessedness. Yet because of sin, the man was driven from the presence of God (Genesis 3:24). The amazing thing is that the Lord didn’t give up on man at this point. He still desires to dwell with man, to be God to man. In the tabernacle, there is a kind of re-creation going on by which God will dwell with men once again.[1]
The Tabernacle was a rectangular structure divided into sections. The holy place was 30 ft. long and 15 ft. wide, and the holy of holies was 15 square ft. The holy place and the holy of holies were divided by a huge, heavy veil made of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen, richly embroidered with figures of cherubim (Ex. 26:1-33). Three pieces of furniture graced the holy place. The golden lampstand stood on the left side (south); the table of showbread stood on the right side (north) and the altar of incense stood in front of the veiled entrance to the holy of holies, which contained the ark of the covenant.[2]
We have studied the Ark of the Covenant which symbolized the very presence of God with His people and the Altar of Incense which symbolized Israel’s communion with God. The incense represents the prayer of God’s people (Rev. 5:8; 8:3-4). It is likened to sweet incense offered to God. The priests entered the Holy Place daily to minister to the LORD. The table of showbread stood on the right (north side of the holy place, Ex. 40:22), the 7-branched golden candlestick or lampstand stood on the left (south side; Ex. 40:24), and the altar of incense stood in the Holy Place right in front of the veiled Holy of Holies (on the west side before the veil).[3]
The Tabernacle was erected at Sinai in the 2nd year after the Exodus, 2 weeks before the Passover (Ex. 40:2, 17).
Exodus 40:17 And it came to pass in the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, that the tabernacle was reared up.
Table of Showbread (v23-30)
These verses give the blueprint for the construction of the table of showbread.
It was 2 cubits long, 1 cubit wide and 1½ cubits high (3 ft. long by 1 ½ ft. wide and 2 and 3/10 ft. high or 92cm by 46 cm by 69 cm). The Holy Place was as we said earlier 10 cubits wide and 20 cubits long (15 ft. by 30 ft. or 4.6m by 9.2m). So, the table is 1/7 about the length of the tabernacle.
The table of showbread was made of shittim wood covered with gold. A gold rim encircled its top; gold rings were placed at each corner; and staves of shittim were placed through the rings to carry it (Ex. 25:23-28).
29 And thou shalt make the dishes thereof, and spoons thereof, and covers thereof, and bowls thereof, to cover withal: of pure gold shalt thou make them.
Dishes (bread pans) were made for carrying the bread into the holy place. The spoons (incense cups) were filled with frankincense, which was poured on top of the bread and burned on the altar of incense (Lev. 24:7; Num. 7:14).
Leviticus 24:7 And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto the LORD.
The covers (jug, vessel, container) and bowls (cups) were used for drink offering that accompanied the meal offering in the Tabernacle (Lev. 23:18; Num. 6:15).4
30 And thou shalt set upon the table shewbread before me alway.
The term showbread “לֶ֥חֶם פָּנִ֖ים(Ex. 25:30)” literally means bread of the face or bread of presence, because the loaves were set before the face or presence of Jehovah (who dwelt in the holy of holies) as a meal offering from the children of Israel (Lev. 24:8). It was bread, then, which was laid in the presence of God.[5]
Let’s see the specific instructions that God gave to Moses, included also is the instruction concerning keeping lamps on the lampstand lighted perpetually, the burning of incense morning and evening and fresh showbread to be placed weekly on Sabbath day. God gazed with delight on the pure bread offering that sat continually before His face (Lev. 24:7-8).[6]
The loaves were placed in two piles of six and changed each week. After the loaves were placed on the table, they were sprinkled with frankincense as a memorial, and the remainder was burned on the altar of incense as an offering to Jehovah (Lev. 24:7).
The loaves were gathered from the 12 tribes each Sabbath and used in two ways. Firstly, they were brought as a unit by the tribes as a portion of their labour to be dedicated to the Lord’s service each week.
On the top of each row, there was a golden dish with frankincense, which was burned before the Lord, as a memorial, at the end of the week, when the old loaves were removed and replaced by new ones, the priests taking the former for their domestic use. The tabernacle was God’s house, and in it He had His table, His bread, His wine, and candlestick, taken up His dwelling among them. (Clarke)
Matthew Henry gave this insightful thought for the purpose of the table of showbread when he wrote that this bread was designed to be:
(1) A thankful acknowledgement of God’s goodness to them, in giving them their daily bread, manna in the wilderness, where he prepared a table for them, and, in Canaan, the corn of the land. Hereby they owned their dependence upon Providence, not only for the corn in the field, which they gave thanks for in offering the sheaf of first fruits but for the bread in their houses, that, when it was brought home, God did not blow upon it (Haggai 1:9). Christ has taught us to pray every day for the bread of the day.
(2) A token of their communion with God. This bread on God’s table is made of the same corn as the bread on their own tables, God and Israel did, as it were, eat together, as a pledge of friendship and fellowship; he supped with them, and they with him.
(3) A type of spiritual provision which is made in the church, by the gospel of Christ, for all that are made priests to our God. In our Father’s house there is bread enough and to spare, a loaf for every tribe. All that attend in God’s house shall be abundantly satisfied with the goodness of it (Psalm 36:8). Divine consolations are the continual feast of holy souls, notwithstanding there are those to whom the table of the Lord, and the meat thereof (because it is plain bread), are contemptible (Malachi 1:12). Christ has a table in His kingdom, at which all His saints shall for everyone to eat and drink with Him (Luke 22:30).
Yours lovingly,
Pastor Lek Aik Wee
[1] http://www.pbc.org/system/message_files/10446/exo024.html
[2] David M. Levy, The Tabernacle – Shadows of the Messiah, The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, 1993, 41.
[3] Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps and Time Lines, Rose Publishing, 146.
[4] David M. Levy, The Tabernacle – Shadows of the Messiah, The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, 1993, 51.
[5] http://preceptaustin.org/maclaren_on_exodus_part_2.htm#tbotp
[6] David M. Levy, The Tabernacle – Shadows of the Messiah, The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, 1993, 52.
[7] Ibid., 42.
[8] Ibid., 47.
