Tabernacle Truths
The Table for the Showbread
Exodus 25:23-30
One Sunday morning an old cowboy entered a church just before services were to begin. Although the old man and his clothes were spotlessly clean, he wore jeans, a denim shirt and boots that were very worn and ragged. In his hand he carried a worn out old hat and an equally worn out bible.
The church he entered was in a very upscale and high brow. It was the largest and most beautiful church the old cowboy had ever seen. The people of the congregation were all dressed with expensive clothes and accessories, and as this old cowboy walked in, while every eye was on him, no one greeted or spoke to.
Most of them were appalled at his appearance and made no attempt to hide it. After the service, as the old cowboy was leaving the church, the preacher approached him and asked the cowboy to do him a favor. "Before you come back in here again, have a talk with God and ask him what He thinks would be appropriate attire for worship."
The old cowboy assured the preacher he would. The next Sunday, he showed back up for the services wearing the same ragged jeans, shirt, boots, and hat. Once again he was completely shunned and ignored.
The preacher approached the man and said, "I thought I asked you to speak to God about what you should wear before you came back to our church."
He said, "I did." The preacher said, "So what did he tell you about what you should wear when you come to this church?"
The old cowboy said, "Well, sir, God told me that He didn't have a clue what I should wear because He's never been here before!"
There is a great truth found in that simple little story and that is if God isn't here, it ain't church! In fact, if God isn't here, we're not worshipping. Because the most essential element when it comes to worship is God.
It doesn't matter about the style of music or the way we're dressed or how long the preacher talks because if God isn't here, we're just wasting our time.
Now, the good news is God is here! And He wants to be here! In fact, when worship is done rightly, He takes great pleasure in being here with us!
That was the principle message of the Tabernacle that we are studying. The Tabernacle was designed and given to the Jews by God after their release from Egyptian bondage, and when God gave Moses the plans and instructions for building it, He said, "I want you to do this because I want to be near My people."
And not only did God want to be near His people, He wanted His people to realize that He was near them also. So the Tabernacle was placed directly in the middle of the Israelite encampment. It was the wheel hub of all their activity and especially their worship and relationship with God.
From a New Testament perspective, that tabernacle was a copy of the one in heaven, and it continues to be used by God to teach His people heavenly truths about Himself, and in particular, the life and ministry of Jesus.
In our previous studies, we've seen the courtyard that surrounded the tabernacle. It was made of white linen and supported by posts that were topped with brass. It served as a reminder of the holiness of God and His judgment on sin and pictured how sin separates us from Him.
They entered through a gate, and Jesus said the only way we could get to God was through Him. Like that gate, He is the way to get to where God dwells. And coming to God requires a sacrifice. Someone has to shed blood for the sacrifice to be acceptable.
With the Old Testament Jews, God instituted a sacrificial system that allowed them to substitute an animal sacrifice as an atonement for their sins. Those sacrifices would prevent the judgment of God from being executed. But they had to be repeated.
Every sacrifice they ever offered was pointing forward to Jesus, who came to make a one-time sacrifice that would atone for the sins of all men for all time. And those who allow His sacrifice to stand in their place are forgiven and can come to God.
Next we talked about the laver that was used for washing the feet and hands of the priests who did the dirty work in the tabernacle. They were consecrated to the Lord in a one-time ceremony that established their position as priests, but they needed daily cleansing.
So they would wash at a basin that was made of polished brass that had been given by the women. They gave their mirrors so this laver could be made. That is a picture of God's Holy Word. We look into and we see the dirt in our lives. And according to Ephesians 5:26 the church is cleansed "by the washing with water through the word."
So all of that happened outside of the tabernacle. We've entered through the gate, offered sacrifices on the altar, washed our hands and feet in the alter of cleansing, and now we come to the Tabernacle itself.
It was 45' long, 15' wide and 15' tall. It was made out of acacia wood that was overlaid with gold. Those boards fit down into what the King James Bible calls tenons. They were sockets that were made out of silver. Those sockets would be set in the sand of the wilderness, then the boards would be fitted into them to form the side of the tabernacle.
So what you wound up with is a box-like structure that was embedded in a foundation of silver. By the way, in the Bible, silver is a picture of redemption, which pictures our salvation.
The top of the Tabernacle was a series of skins or clothes and there were 4 of them. The outer one was badger skin. The next one, moving toward the interior of the Tabernacle, was ram's skin that had been dyed red. The next one to that was goat's hair, and the inside one was fine linen, with embroidered cherubim and other details.
There are two rooms in this Tabernacle. The innermost room is what is known as the holy of holies. It wa3 15' x 15' x 115', a perfect cube.
It housed the ark of the covenant along with the mercy seat which sat on top of it, and we'll be in that room in just a few weeks.
The first room you come to as you enter through the door is known as the holy place. It was 15' tall, 15' wide and 30' long.
Now remember, I told you last week that once you passed the altar, everything changed. Where you once stood on the outside as a sinner separated from God, because of the sacrifice, the relationship with God was changed.
Now we have the privilege of approaching God as a believer with a priestly position. And nothing pictures that change in position any more than moving from the outside of the tabernacle to the inside.
On the outside everything was brass. The tops of the fence posts were brass. The altar was brass, as well as the laver of cleansing, and all of that brass speaks of divine judgment.
None of us can approach God apart from a sacrifice that has been made for divine judgment. God is a holy God, and as such, he will punish sin. And as the altar demonstrates, either you will be punished for your sin, or a substitute will take your punishment for you, but nobody gets away with sin.
The Bible reminds us that "the wages of sin is death." But the good news of the Bible is that Christ died as our substitute. He who knew no sin was made sin for us. And that's why we see all this brass of the outside.
But when you get on the inside, everything changes and all you see now is gold. And while the brass represents divine judgment, the gold indicates divine
glory.
On the outside, when you look at the tabernacle, you see a drab, unattractive brown badger skin. But on the inside, when you look up, you see a a beautiful embroidered linen cloth with angels.
And to be honest, some person just walking by that tabernacle and seeing it, would see nothing that was
intriguing or interesting to him. They just saw a brown tent sitting in the desert. Nothing attractive about it at all.
By the way, that's the way lost people look at the church and Jesus and people of faith. There is nothing attractive about it to them. In fact the Bible says of Jesus, that there is no beauty that we should desire Him.
From the outside there was nothing that would attract. But when you got on the inside it was a whole different story! Everywhere you looked, there was gold and finery and angles and beauty! See, that's the difference between being out of Jesus and in Jesus.
On the outside you don't' understand what's so wonderful about it, but when you get on the inside and find out who Jesus is and what Jesus did for you and how wonderful He is to you and how He ministers to you, then you begin to see the
beauty and the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, when you went through that beautiful fabric door into the first room, the Holy Place, you would find three articles of furniture in there. To the right there was a table, to the left, there was a candlestick and in the middle, immediately in front of the veil, there was an altar.
Today we'll concentrate on the table. We find its description in
Exodus 25:23-30
First, we are given its dimensions and you will note that it's not a large table. It was about 3 feet long, about a foot and ½ wide and about 2 1/2 feet high. Along with some other details that we'll look at in a moment, we are told that the primary function of this table is to display twelve loaves of bread called showbread.
Every Sabbath, twelve freshly baked loaves of bread representing the twelve tribes of Israel were laid on that table. The next Sabbath they took the old loaves off and replaced them with freshly baked loaves.
Unlike other religious structures of the day, the bread is not placed there to feed God, but rather as a reminder that God provides for His children.
Remember, everything we see in the tabernacle was not only representative of God's involvement with the Israelites, but it finds its ultimate fulfillment in Christ, therefore all these articles of furniture will teach us something about Jesus and something about the Christian faith.
For instance, the altar teaches the lesson of
substitution. There had to be a substitutionary animal laid on that fiery altar, just like Christ was laid on Calvary for us.
The laver speaks to us of sanctification. You had to be washed before you could enter in to the Tabernacle.
The table on the inside teaches the lesson of satisfaction. It teaches us that Jesus Christ satisfies the deepest needs of the human soul. All that you ever desire, all that you have ever needed in the very depths of your being is supplied for us in our wonderful Lord Jesus Christ.
Now there is a lot to see and learn from the table of showbread, and I probably won't be able to cover all of it, so let me just point out some things for you to see.
First, this table is a place of
1. Enjoyment
For anyone who's ever participated in a family dinner at grandma's house, you know what I'm talking when I use the word "enjoyment". A table is a place, not only where you enjoy good food, but a place where families gather and spend time with one another.
Now that name, the table for the Showbread" literally translates as "the table of presence". The bread was continually there. That reminds me of Psalm 16 where we are told that in the presence of God, there is fullness of joy.
This table is telling us about the enjoyment we have in the presence of our Heavenly Father and in the family which has been brought together by being born into the family of God. It is a picture of the Lord Jesus.
Now the table was made out of Acacia wood which was a hard, durable wood. It was overlaid with gold, and as we've seen before, that is a beautiful picture of the two natures of the Lord Jesus Christ. The wood reminds us of His holy humanity, while the gold speaks to us of His holy deity. There you have it fused together in one person—the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ was man and yet, Jesus Christ was God. Jesus Christ was God and yet, Jesus Christ was man. He was as much man as if He had not been God. He was as much God as if He had not been man. He is the God-man.
In fact, you will notice in verse 24 we are told this table was not only overlaid with pure gold, it also had a decorative molding of gold. Then verse 25 tells us about an additional molding that I think we can safely call a crown molding.
Now a crown is a symbol of royalty. Sometimes we describe a meal as being "fit for a king." Here we have a table that is fit for a king which is appropriate because it is the king's table.
This table is all about
- our salvation
If you want an illustration of that, then you should read 2 Samuel 9 where a young crippled boy named Mephibosheth is given the privilege of sitting at the table of King David. Mephibosheth was the son of King David's childhood friend Jonathan, and for the sake of Jonathan, Mephibosheth was given the privilege of eating at the King's table.
In fact, if you read the story, you'll discover that no less than four times in the chapter, David says, "He'll eat bread at my table always."
You do realize that when you come to the Lord Jesus Christ, He gives you the privilege of being seated at the King's table, and that is an eternally right. You are one of the king's children and you are sharing the joy of the salvation which has been provided for you in the Lord Jesus Christ, and it will never end. It's a salvation table.
Not only does this table tell us about out salvation, it also tells us about
- our security
Verse 25 says there was a border on the table that was the width of a handbreadth. That means it was as tall as your hand.
The purpose of that border was very practical in that it kept the bread from falling off.
That reminds me of what we read in John 10:28-29 where Jesus said, "I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. No man shall be able to pluck them out of my Father's hand."
Of all the things people argue and debate about from the Bible, the one that perplexes me the most is the security of salvation. It is so obvious and plain I wonder how anyone could miss it!
Listen: according to what I just read to you in this one passage alone. you are as secure as the hand of the Lord Jesus and the hand of the Heavenly Father.
Now I don't know about you, but if I'm in the hands of the Lord Jesus and He's in hands of the Heavenly Father, then I feel extremely secure. Jesus says, "I give them eternal life and they shall never perish because they are in My hand and they are in the hand of my Father."
Do you really want to question that? Are you willing to say to God the Father and God the Son, "I just don't think I can trust you! Beyond being in your hands, there are some things I have to do to secure my salvation. Just exactly what is it you intend to do that would make you more secure than being in the hand of God?
As this table indicates, when God saves you, He builds a fence around you and will never fall off the table! There's salvation on this table. There's security on this table. And there's
- satisfaction
on this table. This table satisfies. It is all because of what Jesus Christ did for us and we'll get to that in a moment, but understand, there, is fellowship with the Father at this table.
And there is fellowship with the family. Remember, you had to be a priest to come inside the tabernacle, and all of the priests were from the same family. And as the family of priests, they all shared this table together.
Listen to what we read in 1 Corinthians 10:17:
"For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread."
We have unity in the family, and according to
Ephesians 1:6, "we are accepted in the beloved."
Now watch this: There were 12 identical loaves of bread on that table representing every tribe of the children of Israel. That means that all of God's people share equally in the family of God.
In New Testament terms that means nobody has any more or less access to the Lord Jesus Christ than you do as a born again child of God. God doesn't have "favorites". Everyone is on the table and everyone is equal on the table.
That means you have the privilege, as an equal with all of God's children, as priest yourself into the very presence of God. There's equality. Little Benjamin had just as big a loaf of bread as big old Judah did on that table. You are just as able to go to God as any other child of God. So, there's enjoyment on this table.
Here's the second truth. This table is also a place
of–
2. Enlightenment
I mean by that, you can learn a lot at the table. Have you found that to be true in your life? As a child, did you ever just sit and listen to the old-timers at the table?
The table is a great place to teach and learn, and God knows that. Let me show you what I mean:
In Leviticus 24, we are told about how this bread was prepared and presented on the table.
Now don't miss this: Not only is the this table a picture of Jesus, but the bread on the table is a picture of Jesus.
In fact, after you study the showbread on the table in the Tabernacle, you will better understand all those references and incidents in the New Testament of ministry that involved bread.
For instance, in John 6, we read about Jesus feeding the 5,000 with five loaves and two fishes. In particular, we are told He "took the bread, broke it, and He fed those 5,000 people." Then the Bible says they gathered up 12 baskets of leftovers. In the details of that story, Jesus talks about the manna, bread that God provided, from heaven.
And it is in that setting that He refers to Himself as "the Bread of Life." Understand: Jesus is the bread on the table and as such, this bread enlightens us about the Lord Jesus. It tells us who Jesus is and what Jesus has done.
By the way, the manna is a picture of our salvation in the Lord. Remember, the bread on the table is called the "showbread" and it represents our satisfaction in the Lord Jesus. Jesus is the bread, He is the manna that saves, but He is also the showbread that satisfies. Jesus both saves and Jesus satisfies.
Now to better understand what I mean when I say Jesus is the bread, let's see how from Leviticus 24 how this bread was prepared.
verse 5
First of all, this bread was made out of fine flour. That means there was no roughness or coarseness in that flour. It was smooth and pure and even—not a lump in it. That is a picture to us of the perfect
life of the Lord Jesus Christ. There was not one lump of sin in Jesus.
So the bread tells us about the perfect life of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
But that wasn't all. Verse 5 also says they used this fine flour to bake 12 cakes. So the bread had to be baked in an oven. In other words, to be correctly prepared, the flour had to go through the fire and be baked in an oven.
That teaches us about the painful death of Jesus on
the cross of Calvary. Jesus went into the oven of
Calvary,, endured the fire and the suffering and the judgment and the wrath of a holy God in the fires of Calvary in order to be made the bread of life that can feed your hungry soul and satisfy your life.
By the way, the word cakes indicates a perforated cake. As a matter of fact, the Hebrew dictionary that I referenced called it a "pierced cake". In other words, it had holes in it. What a striking reminder that when Jesus died on the cross of Calvary He was pierced for your iniquities.
Notice, verse 7 tells us when the bread was finished baking, they anointed it with frankincense.
Anyone who's studied the life of Jesus is familiar with frankincense. It shows up at His birth and it shows up at his death. The wise men bring it as a prophetic gift to a new-born King, and after His death, women come on that first Easter morning with frankincense to anoint his body, only to be surprised that He was not there.
And on any given day, anytime a priest entered the Holy Place, he was immediately greeted with the aroma of frankincense, an Old Testament reminder that one day the Lord Jesus Christ, the sinless son of Mary, would rise from the dead.
And notice, verse 8 tells us how the bread was to be presented and placed on the table. It was continually there before the Lord.
Did you know that's exactly what happened when the Lord died? Listen to what it says in
Hebrews 9:24
In other words, there came a day when the real bread entered into the real tabernacle and appeared before the face of God.
Remember, the showbread is the bread of presence" and when we read that Jesus Christ appeared in the presence of God for us, that word, presence, means "he appeared face to face with God for us."
When Jesus Christ went back to the heavenly Father, having died on the cross for our sins, having been raised again from the dead for our justification, the Bible says He went right back into the very presence, face to face, with God for us, and He is continually there!
That's why the Bible can say of us in Ephesians 1:4 that we are "holy and without blame before Him."
When we come to God in the Lord Jesus Christ, God sees us in Him, and in the Bread, we are continually before Him.
This table is a place of enjoyment—fellowship. It is
a place of enlightenment—we learn what Jesus did for us. And finally, it is a place of
3. Enrichment
Now regardless of what the nutritionists and health gurus say, I maintain that bread is good for you. It is nutritious.
You've probably heard or seen on the wrapper the term "enriched bread". That means that many of the nutrients that were lost during milling are replaced when preparing the dough for enriched bread so that it contains the same nutrients as those in wholegrain bread.
You do realize that because of the fall in the Garden of Eden, man lost a lot of what God designed him to be. Bu the good news is, through Jesus Christ, we are enriched! Through Him, we get back everything that was lost.
That means this bread was
- sufficient
in fact, the Jewish rabbis used to maintain that if a priest could just get a piece of that showbread as big as a bean, it would completely fill him. It was totally sufficient.
If you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, then to feed upon the Lord Jesus Christ is totally sufficient in your life. You don't need anything else but the Lord Jesus. He's all you need.
Now don't misunderstand what I'm saying: If you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you don't have to have everything the world offers you to be happy.
If you'll just feed on Him through the preaching and teaching of His Word, that's about all you need to help you deal with life.
By the way, that ought to be enough to get your to church. For a priest of God that is hungry, all you need is to feed at the table of God. The bread that is found there is sufficient.
That's why all I need when I come to God's house is for someone to teach me about Jesus, sing me some songs about Jesus and then let somebody get up and preach the Bible and feed my soul on the Lord Jesus Christ. He is sufficient.
And if you're more interested in the style of music or the color of the carpet or the appetizers the church offers than you are the Bread on the Table, you've missed the point!
The bread is sufficient. The bread satisfies. By the way, they carried that table all over the wilderness as a reminder that anywhere they went in the wilderness there was something to eat that would satisfy.
Now grab on to that picture and let it speak to you. We are living in a barren wilderness. All around us are people that are starving to death. And yet everywhere we go, there is a continual supply that is more than enough to satisfy.
God forgive us when it doesn't! Follow these Israelites around in the wilderness, and before long you'll hear them bellyaching about the groceries.
The Bible says in Psalm 78:19, "Yes, they spoke against God: They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?"
The answer to that is, "As a matter of fact, He can and He did and He does!" Ask David and he'll tell you He will prepare a table before you in the presence of your enemies!
You and I are living in a cultural, moral, spiritual ethical wilderness and we are surrounded by enemies.
They are trying every bread shop imaginable in an attempt to feed their hungry souls, but you and I have a table in the wilderness. We don't just look at the table and we don't just walk around the table. We don't stand at the window and peek inside the bakery!
The Bible invites us to the table! We are encouraged to be there continually. The invitation is to "taste and see that the Lord is good." When we get a good taste of the Lord Jesus Christ it satisfies.
Jesus will satisfy your physical needs. Philippians 4:19 says, "My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in Christ Jesus."
Jesus will supply your emotional needs. Isaiah 26:3 says, thy will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee.
Jesus will satisfy your spiritual needs. If so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
Are you hungry today? Do you have some needs in your heart that haven't been met? I thought about the prodigal son. He left the father's house and went into the far country. There, we are told, he wasted his substance on riotous living. He blew his inheritance and he wasted his life.
There are a lot of people today who are following in his footsteps, wasting their life as fast as they know how to waste it.
And one of these day, they will come to themselves. For some, it will be in a jail cell somewhere. For others it may be in a hospital room. For someone else, it will be looking back at a track record of broken marriages and relationships and bad memories and regrets,
But when that time comes, they will be just like that old prodigal was. He was down in the slop staring a hog in the face, eating the husks that hogs refused to eat.
The Bible says that he came to himself and here's what he said,
"How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!"
You know what that means? There was bread available at the Father's house. That means you don't have to be hungry. You don't have to go through this old wilderness world with the deepest needs of your life unmet.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the table and He's the bread. If you'll feed on Him and take Him into your heart and into your life, you'll find that your soul will delight in his fatness. Jesus said in a parable one time, come, for all things are now ready. There's bread on the table.
Let's pray.
