The Tabernacle of God: The Table of Shewbread (showbread)

Exodus 25:23-30

If you were a Jewish man, the laver and the brazen altar were common sights. These lay outside the tent that was called the tabernacle. However, the tent had a door and what lay behind that door was never seen by the common person. Only the assigned priests could enter the tent. Simply being a Levite did not give you access to see what was inside. The closer one got to the presence of God, the more restricted the access became. Most people never saw what was inside the curtains. Just as the objects inside the tent were concealed, so was their understanding of how it applied to Messiah.

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“You shall also make a table of acacia wood; two cubits shall be its length, a cubit its width, and a cubit and a half its height. 24 And you shall overlay it with pure gold, and make a molding of gold all around. 25 You shall make for it a frame of a handbreadth all around, and you shall make a gold molding for the frame all around. 26 And you shall make for it four rings of gold, and put the rings on the four corners that are at its four legs. 27 The rings shall be close to the frame, as holders for the poles to bear the table. 28 And you shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold, that the table may be carried with them. 29 You shall make its dishes, its pans, its pitchers, and its bowls for pouring. You shall make them of pure gold. 30 And you shall set the showbread on the table before Me always.

Exodus 25:23-30

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The "Table of Shewbread" (Old English), "Showbread" (Modern English) or "Bread of the Presence" (perhaps more accurate) was inside the first room of the tabernacle called the Holy Place. Two other pieces of furniture were also in this room, which we will discuss later. The table was on the north side of the Holy Place. It was roughly 3 feet long, 1.5 feet wide, and 2 feet tall. We might think of it as a coffee table. On the table sat 12 cakes of bread, one for each tribe of Israel.

Jesus said in John 6:35, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst" and again in John 6:48, "I am the bread of life". It is not difficult to see that the bread is a picture of Jesus. The bread, described in Numbers 24:5-9, was very simple. The bread was unleavened because leaven is a picture of sin in the Bible. Sin was dealt with outside the tabernacle on the Altar. Also, frankincense was poured on the cakes of bread. Frankincense speaks of the deity of Jesus. This oil, used in offerings and anointing, shows us that Jesus, who was fully God, would offer his broken body as an offering to God and as the life-giving bread to mankind.

Numbers also tells us that the bread was eaten by the priests inside the tabernacle. The bread was holy, and the priests had to be clean before they could eat it. All of this is described in Numbers. Luke tells us, "And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me" (Luke 22:19). This is taken from what we call "The Lord's Supper" or "Communion". Jesus connected the unleavened bread with the sacrifice He would make on the cross. Just as the priests had to be clean to eat the bread, Paul says that we must be as well (I Corinthians 11:27-34).

Think about this for a moment. The priest who was going to change the bread of the presence on the table had to first offer a sacrifice at the brazen altar. Then, he had to wash at the laver, literally removing physical pollution, but also symbolic of removing spiritual corruption. There also had to be an abstinence from worldly pleasure and even personal intimacy to be in preparation for this service. The priest had to be intentional about serving God. It wasn't just something that was an afterthought. He couldn't say, "Oh man! Today is the Sabbath. I have to go change the bread. Hey honey, I will be back in a few minutes". Dare I say, like how some of us approach going to church to sing songs and "worship" in the presence of God, or how we approach our prayer life.

The blood of Christ was offered one time for sin (Hebrews 9:11-15). We should continually wash away the grime of this world with the Word of God (Ephesians 5:25-26). If we do this, and we too are intentional about our service to God, making it a priority rather than an afterthought, then we do not have to worry about taking the Lord's Supper unworthily as Paul discussed in I Corinthians 11. Our relationship with God will be right, and so will our relationship with other people. We will also live a life in which we remember the sacrifice that Jesus made when His body was broken for us because it will be precious to us, which is what the bread is all about; a constant reminder of His body being broken for us.

Father, thank You for sending Your Son to die for our sins. He is the bread of life, but we go through so much of our lives ignoring that. We live for ourselves and then try to rush in at the last minute and "worship" as though it is doing You a favor. Help us to live a life in which we are constantly reminded of Jesus's sacrifice and that this remembrance would drive us to our knees in confession of sin and worship of You.