THE TABLE OF SHEW-BREAD
THE TABLE OF SHEW-BREAD
In apprehending the spiritual realities of which the tabernacle is a figurative representation, we have to entertain first the thought of the ark and the mercy-seat. They set forth what is made known of God in Christ. The next thing presented is the table; it speaks of Christ as the One who sustains before God that which is for His pleasure. It thus suggests an answer for God’s delight to the blessed revelation in the ark and the mercy-seat. “Thou shalt set upon the table shew-bread (literally”bread of the presence”) before me continually”. We know from another scripture that the cakes of shew-bread were twelve in number, corresponding to the twelve tribes. But we do not get the number of the cakes in Exodus, which [p. 167] seems to indicate that the thought of administration is not prominent here, but rather what is before God for His pleasure. The bread represents Christ as identified with the people of God, and seen in them; it speaks of the saints viewed as having Christ as their life — for the cakes were to be of “fine wheaten flour” — and as having been subject to the action of fire.
The set feasts in Leviticus 23 are repeatedly spoken of as “an everlasting statute”, and so are the dressing of the lamps, and the eating of the shew-bread by Aaron and his sons. But placing the shew-bread before Jehovah is “on the part of the children of Israel: an everlasting covenant”. There is in it the thought of a bond between God and His people; it seems to indicate the pleasure of God in having Christ thus before Him as identified with His people, and also their pleasure in taking up and answering to His thought.
The word “continually” suggests to me what abides under the eye of God. “And it shall be a bread of remembrance”. The saints in divine order, as typified by the cakes of shew-bread, become the memorial of Christ before God. It is said that Moses “arranged the bread in order” upon the table before Jehovah, or, as it is literally, “set in order upon it the order of bread” (Exodus 40: 22, 23). The “order” is emphasized, and I think we are justified in saying that any order which is pleasing to God must be a spiritual order, and not merely outward correctness. The bread on the table does not typify what is before men, nor does it speak quite of what the saints are as set together in fellowship for the support of the testimony in a hostile scene. We shall come to that presently in other types. But here it is what the saints are as sustained by [p. 168] Christ, having Him as their life, and carrying His fragrance — as having frankincense upon each row (Leviticus 24: 5 - 9) — under God’s eye for His pleasure. It is in keeping, if I understand it aright, with the truth as presented in the Epistle to the Colossians — the spiritual order of the saints as under God’s eye. “I am with you in spirit, rejoicing and seeing your order”. What was before Paul was that the Colossian saints should hold fast “the head, from whom all the body, ministered to and united together by the joints and bands”, should increase “with the increase of God”. He would have the body to come into view, and a spiritual order that was in keeping with the mystery, not exactly for testimony but for the pleasure of God.
Christ is presented in Colossians as “the head of all principality and authority”. The universe will be set in order for the divine pleasure under His headship, but before He is manifested in this character “He is the head of the body, the assembly”. He sustains a spiritual order of things which is for the pleasure of God — the continuation of Christ here in His body for God’s delight — the bread of remembrance before Him. There is no spiritual order for God’s pleasure in Israel yet; there will be in another day; but in the meantime Gentile saints as sustained by Christ and holding Him as Head, are before God, having Him as their life, and having His fragrant grace upon them (Colossians 3: 12 - 17), and they are for God’s delight — His elect, holy and beloved. They will soon be manifested with Christ in glory to be in universal administration — the number twelve speaks of this — but all that is in divine order, and suitable to be in administration for God, has come before His eye already in His saints.
[p. 169] I am speaking of the divine thought; I do not say how much or how little it has been spiritually made good in us. We see the deep exercises of the Apostle as to this. But God puts it before us as His thought in regard to us that we may be exercised about it. If Paul and Epaphras agonized for the saints it might be well if we, too, laboured fervently in prayer that we and all saints might stand perfect and complete in all that is in God’s will for us.
The loaves on the “pure table” suggest that it is God’s will that all His people should be before Him in spiritual order as a remembrance of Christ. This order and memorial would come out very much in the way we walk together, and in all our mutual relations as saints. I am not thinking, for the moment, of testimony, but of those holy bonds and relations in the divine nature, and that mutual flow of nourishment, encouragement, increase, and knitting together which are delightful to God as developing before Him the present fruit of the Headship of Christ in the saints as His body. It is this side of things which I believe to be suggested in the table and “the bread of the presence”. It is a great thing when exercise is found with saints as to what is before God for His pleasure. “Shew-bread before me continually”. The consideration of this would give an entirely different character to the exercises of many of us.
The table is typical of Christ as the One who can sustain His saints in a divine and spiritual order for the pleasure of God. But for this to be brought about in reality He must be held as Head. I think the way that Paul enlarges upon the greatness and glory of Christ in Colossians 1 very much answers to the “border of gold round about” the table. He would have us to [p. 170] know the divine glory of the Head. Then, again, it is said, “Thou shalt make for it a margin of a handbreadth round about”. The word here translated “margin” is found in Psalm 18: 45 and Micah 7: 17, where the marginal reading is in each case “fortified places”. It suggests a necessity for the defence and safeguarding of all that the “pure table” represents. Paul says, “To the end that we may present every man perfect in Christ. Whereunto also I toil, combating according to his working, which works in me in power. For I would have you know what combat I have for you ... to the end that their hearts may be encouraged, being united together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the full knowledge of the mystery of God; in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge. And I say this to the end that no one may delude you by persuasive speech ... . See that there be no one who shall lead you away as a prey through philosophy and vain deceit, according to the teaching of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ”. All this seems to me to be in keeping with the thought suggested by the “margin” or “fortified place” round about the table. And then he adds what may answer to the “border of gold for the margin thereof round about” when he says, “For in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; and ye are complete in him, who is the head of all principality and authority”.
In the spiritual order which Christ sustains for the pleasure of God, everything is really of Himself. “Christ is everything and in all”. If we have before us that there is such an order, it becomes a deep exercise that nothing should be admitted that is contrary [p. 171] to it. Hence the combating of Paul and Epaphras for the Colossians. The enemy has ever sought, and ever will seek, to bring in that which would mar the spiritual order by the introduction of elements which are not according to Christ, so as to spoil God’s pleasure in His saints. If the will and wisdom of man are kept out, and nothing allowed but what is of Christ, the saints as holding the Head would be for God’s pleasure; they would be sustained in holy and divine order.
God would teach us by the “pure table” the ability of Christ as Head to sustain the saints in a spiritual order for His pleasure. His body, deriving from Him, carries His graces for God’s pleasure. To hold the Head is an exercise of affection. We do not become pleasurable to God by effort, but by holding Christ as Head in reverence and affection. It is as much the mind of God that we should be before Him for His pleasure in a spiritual order as that we should be justified. The more we see this, and perceive the greatness and divine glory of Christ who can sustain His saints in such an order, the more jealously shall we watch against every intrusion of what is unholy and of man’s mind. In that which Christ sustains in all the grace of Headship there is nothing but what is of Himself. “Wherein there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman; but Christ is everything and in all” (Colossians 3: 11).
It is the aspect of the table God-ward that is the subject in Exodus. It has not only the shew-bread, but “the dishes thereof, and cups thereof, and goblets thereof, and bowls thereof, with which to pour out: of pure gold shalt thou make them”. These things [p. 172] speak of the saints as holy vessels for the outpouring before God of joy and praise, everything in His service being by the Spirit of God and thus answering to “pure gold”, and all sustained by Christ. All is seen in the type according to the purity and perfection of the divine thought, that we may know the true character of what is pleasurable to God. To answer to it spiritually requires the taking up of the exercises of Colossians 3: 5 - 15.
We learn from Leviticus 24 that the cakes of shew-bread were twelve in number. This suggests an administrative thought. It intimates that what is pleasurable to God will be set in administration for God. The holy city in Revelation 21 answers perfectly to measurement by the “golden reed”; it comes up to every requirement of divine pleasure; and hence it can become the great centre of divine administration. God intends to order and benefit the universe by setting forth all that is of Himself in His saints. The blessed knowledge of God as known in the Ark and Mercy-seat will be administered in the universe through the twelve gates of the holy city. The out-goings of the city are towards “the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel”, for their names are inscribed at the gates thereof. And on earth the twelve tribes will have an administrative place towards the nations. Divine order will appear in the universe where lawlessness has been; it will be seen in the holy and heavenly city, and it will be seen on earth in the twelve tribes, and its influence will extend to all that comes into reconciliation. All will be sustained by Christ as Head, for God’s “good pleasure which he purposed in himself for the administration of the fulness of times” is “to head up all things in the Christ, the [p. 173] things in the heavens and the things upon the earth”.
Israel will then have the Spirit of Christ, and as having the law written in their hearts they will be in divine order and administration. God will be able to say of them, “This people have I formed for myself” — that would answer to the “shew-bread before me” — then “they shall shew forth my praise” would answer to the administrative place in which He will set them.
The sabbath day prefigures the rest of God when all this will come to fruition. “Every Sabbath day he shall arrange it before Jehovah continually”. It is striking that the only two priestly activities specially connected with the Sabbath day are the offering of “the burnt-offering of the sabbath” with its meat-offering and drink-offering (Numbers 28: 9, 10), and the arranging and eating of the shew-bread. One gives the ground on which the rest of God will be brought in, and the other is typical of the divine order in which Israel will be sustained before God for His pleasure, and in administration for Him.
The table sets forth Christ, I believe, in His ability to sustain His saints in an order of things which is of Himself, and which is, in the first place, pleasurable to God, and which can then be in administration for God. Before the day when all this will have its answer in Israel, it has an answer spiritually in saints of the assembly as they hold Christ as Head. One owns with sorrow the feebleness and departure which are evidenced on all hands. But strength and recovery are brought about by a return to the divine thought. The revival of the truth of the Headship of Christ is the distinctive feature of God’s present ways with [p. 174] His saints, and as we hold Him as Head, the different features suggested as sustained by the table — the bread of the presence, the vessels for out-pouring before God, and the divine administration — will assuredly be in evidence.
At the end of each week the shew-bread became the food of Aaron and his sons. What is before God for His pleasure becomes food for the priesthood. All that Christ is as identified with His saints, and as giving character to them for God’s pleasure, is to be fed upon. The saints viewed as the priesthood are privileged to feed upon it — to appropriate what Christ is, not only in what He is personally, but in what He is as in relation to those “reconciled in the body of his flesh through death”, and whom He presents “holy and unblameable and irreproachable before” the Fulness of the Godhead. God would have us to be nourished and sustained by all that which was so perfectly to His delight as seen in Christ personally, but which is now to His delight as seen in His elect saints, holy and beloved, the continuation of Christ as His body here. If we feed on this we shall understand the mystery, and know that His body is here, which is the assembly.
We may see in 1 Corinthians 10 how Paul passes from the thought of “the body of the Christ” — referring to Christ personally — to the thought of the saints being “one loaf, one body; for we all partake of that one loaf”. The shew-bread is Christ in His continuing character. The word “continually” is to be noted, and it is “on the part of the children of Israel”. It is that which is carried on “continually” here on the part of the saints for God’s pleasure. It is good to feed on this in a holy place — to be nourished and [p. 175] strengthened by the appropriation of it into one’s moral being.
It is the privilege of the priests to feed on Christ in many different characters — as the meat-offering, as the sin-offering, as the breast and shoulder of the peace-offering, as the consecration offering — but the last to be presented in Leviticus is feeding on Him as the shew-bread. It involves for us, if we are able to take it up, the knowledge of the mystery, and personal identification with it, so that we come out here as strengthened for the expression of Christ under the eye of God. Just as we are built up and strengthened physically by what we feed on, so are we built up and strengthened spiritually by what is given to us as priestly food, so that we may take character from it.
But this is not found in Exodus. It is the table as sustaining what is upon it, whether it be the golden vessels or the shew-bread. It is Christ as the One who sustains every vessel from which there is an out-pouring of joy and praise in God’s service, and who sustains “continually” that which is a pleasure to God as the continuation of Himself in His saints.