The Table of Showbread

The Table of Showbread was placed in the Holy Place, on the north side—to the right as the priest entered the Tabernacle. It was constructed from the hard, close-grained acacia wood used for many purposes in the Tabernacle. The wood was then covered with refined gold. The table was three feet long; one and one-half feet broad; two feet three inches high.

And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake. And thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the Lord. (Leviticus 24:5,6)

Each cake, or loaf, had about four quarts of fine flour in it. Every Sabbath day hot loaves were placed on the table in two rows of six each, and the past week's bread was eaten by the priests in a place set aside as holy.

When a drink-offering was poured out by the priest on behalf of all Israel, such as on the Levitical convocations, new moons, and the morning and evening offering of the daily lamb, the wine was poured out in the Holy Place, evidently on the floor of the Tabernacle, close to the Table of Showbread. Here we have the bread and the wine, a portrayal of the Communion service—the body and blood of the Lord Jesus.

As the lamb was being burned on the Altar of Burnt Offering at the opening and closing of each day, the wine was being poured out in the Holy Place by the priest. Can you see Calvary in this ceremony?

When Israel went on the march the Table of Showbread had to be prepared in a specific manner:

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: And they shall spread upon them a cloth of scarlet, and cover the same with a covering of badgers' skins, and shall put in the staves thereof. (Numbers 4:7,8)

The cloth of scarlet represents the atoning blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. The showbread, or Presence Bread, portrays the body of the Lord, and the wine poured out as a drink offering near the table reveals His blood. We have our sharing together in the body and blood of Christ at the Table of Showbread, to speak symbolically. It is a picture of the Communion service.

The "continual bread" remained on the table even when the children of Israel were on the march.

The term "continual bread" reminds us that the body and blood of Christ are always available to whoever will come and receive. No one has ever come to Christ for the bread of life and been turned away hungry.

I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. (John 6:51)

Christ is the bread from God we must eat if we would live. Christ is being formed in us continually, and that new life must be nourished continually by contact with the living bread.

To be continued.