Jesus speaks to us that we must eat His flesh and drink His blood or we have no life in us. His body and blood are eternal life in us. Whoever eats the flesh of Christ and drinks His blood dwells in Christ and lives by Christ, and Christ dwells in him. The life of the flesh of Christ is the blood of Christ. Therefore we must eat His flesh and drink His blood if we wish to share in His eternal life.

The Communion service represents and calls attention to the fact that the Christian believer must partake of the body and blood of Christ. By means of sharing the common body and blood the believers are made one by Him and in Him.

Christ is the High Priest over the household of God, and we of the Body of Christ also are priests. Only the priests were allowed into the Holy Place where the Table of Showbread was. We Christians are priests and bear witness to that Bread:

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) (I John 1:1,2)

The showbread was kept fresh. The concept of freshness is an important one for us to consider.

The quality of freshness of the showbread is not in the dimension of time. God moves in the past, present, and future. Time is not the consideration.

The quality of freshness depends on constant, immediate contact with Christ. It is the communication of resurrection life with which we are concerned. Eternal life either is present in our experience and testimony or it is not.

What matters is this: is resurrection life present in the area of immediate concern? The absence of resurrection life is an invitation for the forces of decay and death to move in. We must keep our experience fresh by maintaining contact with the Life of the Spirit of God. Contact is maintained by faith, obedience and prayer.

The Lampstand

And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same. (Exodus 25:31)

Whether one starts from the Mercy Seat or from the Altar of Burnt Offering, the golden Lampstand is number four in order. The Lampstand represents Pentecost, the fourth Levitical feast (Leviticus 23:15-21). The Lampstand speaks of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in Christ and in the Body of Christ.

When the priest entered the door of the Tabernacle, the Table of Showbread was on his right. On his left was the golden Lampstand.

The Lampstand was beaten from one piece of gold and, to a greater extent than the other pieces of furniture, was very ornamental. The Lampstand and its lamps, tongs and censers were all beaten from a talent of pure gold (approximately seventy-five pounds).

The ornamentation suggests to us that the manifestation of the Holy Spirit is attractive, whereas the cross of Christ is a reproach.

To be continued.