LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The Table of Showbread
In the tabernacle was the table of the showbread. What message does it give us today?.
Gino Iafrancesco
Reading: Hebrews 9:1-12.
This passage from Hebrews describes the main features of the ordinances of service in the sanctuary, the ordinances of the furniture that the Lord placed in the Holy Place and in the Holy of Holies. In a wider context, they speak of things characteristic of the New Testament. God uses the figures of the Old Testament to speak to us of things characteristic of the New Testament.
Certainly that which we have read here, in that short passage, is extremely rich. We would not even have time to consider more than a little bit of it, but it was necessary to read the context so as to underline some things that -with the help of the Lord- we would like to read together with the brothers and sisters. "Now these things having been thus prepared.". God prepared these things. And then verse 8 tells us: "...the Holy Spirit this signifying...". Those ordinances were there so that the Holy Spirit -through those ordinances, those ordinances of service- could explain something to us today, living as the people of God, in the New Testament. For that reason, in verse 9 it says: " which is a figure for the time present ".
Now we go to chapter 25 of Exodus, where what was said in Hebrews 9 appears in a more detailed way. In chapter 25, the Lord requests a voluntary offering from his people, so that his people might make a sanctuary for him, because he wanted to live among them. And he gives his people the pattern so that they could prepare that sanctuary for him. And it begins to describe the furniture of the sanctuary from the Holiest of Holies to the Holy Place. We enter from outside to the inside, but God speaks from inside toward the outside. He begins by describing the ark, then he describes the table, then the candlestick; then the tabernacle, then the brass altar, and then the priesthood.
It describes the house and the priesthood, just like the apostle Peter: " unto whom coming, a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect, precious, ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. " (1Pe 2:4-5) Here Peter kept the same sequence that appears in Exodus. In chapters 25, 26 and 27 the house is described, and in 28- 29 the priesthood is described. We are the spiritual house and we are also the Kingdom and priests. So all these figures from the Old Testament were ordered to help us to understand the spiritual things characteristic of the New Testament.
The burden that the Holy Spirit has placed on my heart to share with my brothers and sisters is the following step after the ark. It is clear that we cannot begin to speak about the second step without implying the existence of the first one. There is a table of showbread but only if there is first the ark of the covenant. To understand the table a little, we also have to understand the ark a little.
God looks for the participation of his people
Then we go to Exodus 25:23: " And thou shalt make...". Throughout this whole description, God constantly tells his people, through Moses: "And thou shalt make...". Notice how verse 10 begins: "And they shall make...". And in 23: "And thou shalt make...". And in the 31: "And thou shalt make...". And in 26:1: "And thou shalt make...". God wants to have something from his people, in which his people spontaneous and voluntarily participate in union with him. He will provide everything, but he is not a determinist. When God created man, before the fall, he wanted the man to act responsibly. God wants a responsible man. Before man fell, he was not sold to the power of sin. He had the responsibility and the capacity to decide. After the fall, man continues being responsible, but became unable. Then redemption comes by the grace of God to return the capacity back to man so that he can fulfill his responsibility.
Grace doesn't make the decision for us; grace qualifies us once more to make a determined decision in grace. "Be strong in the grace", Paul tells to Timothy. It is necessary to make a decision. Before the fall we had responsibility and capacity. The fall came, and our capacity was lost. Now we 'must', but 'cannot ' what we 'must.' We are unable, because we were sold to the power of sin.
What does grace do? As Paul says to Titus: " For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men ". So the grace of God comes and helps us to decide, together with us, like when we are rowing with two oars. Because if you are in a kayak, and you row with a single oar, you just go round in circles one way, and if you row with the other oar you do the same the other way round; but you don't advance. So in order to advance, you need to row with two oars. The Lord in us, and we in the Lord. Like a coffee with milk. You put the coffee in the milk and the milk in the coffee, and it is the coffee with milk. You can no more separate the coffee from the milk, than the milk from the coffee. This is how it is with us; we in Christ and Christ in us.
It is not Christ alone, nor us alone. He can do it alone, but he doesn't want to. He wants us with him. He wants our co-operation, but we are unable to work together with him if he doesn't help us. But if he helps us, he wants our co-operation. We need to row with the two oars; with the Lord in us, and we also in the Lord. The Lord already entered into us. Now, we have to enter into the Lord; to put our foot on the land. He already gave us the land: "I have given you the land"; it is a fact, it is ours; but we have to put our foot on it. " Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, to you have I given it ". That is to say that a co-working exists.
The capacity is returned by grace, and grace qualifies us to co-work with God. Nobody can co-work with God without grace.
But grace doesn't come to substitute you. Grace will use you. It will be God in you, you in the Lord, in Christ. That's why, when you see this ark that we have to make, the ark represents the Lord. How will we make the Lord? But the Lord says that we have to make an ark and we have to put it in the Holiest of Holies.
Why does God ask us to make an ark, a table, a candlestick, an altar, a sanctuary? Because God doesn't want anything that is not voluntary and spontaneous from his people. He gives us everything, but doesn't remove the responsibility. It is necessary to co-operate with God, being strong, in the grace of God.
"And thou shalt make...". We have to co-operate so that the ark be placed in the Holiest of Holies. We have to co-operate with God, submit him, commend all our uselessness in his hands, and to ask him to help us to ask him, so that Christ be formed in us. Without his help, we cannot do anything to make Christ be formed in us, but he can and will form his Son in us. But he doesn't want to do it against your will. Your will alone, abandoned by itself, cannot do anything. So, he helps you. The Spirit of grace comes to sustain you, but not to replace you. It comes to help you. God wants you to be there; him in you, and you in him.
The ark of the covenant
Let us look at verse 10: "And they shall make an ark of acacia wood: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof."(Ex. 25:10) What curious measurements the ark has! Compare them with the measurements of the brass altar, in chapter 27. God is telling us something! Verse 1: "And thou shalt make the altar of acacia wood - it is the brass altar, where the lamb was sacrificed, where atonement was made. It is something that only the Lord could do for us-five cubits long, and five cubits broad; the altar shall be foursquare: and the height thereof shall be three cubits." Made to the height of God; a sacrifice to satisfy the heart of God. "Father, it is finished". The measurements: five by five, three high. The number 5 in the Bible is the number of God's grace.
Notice this: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are the Trinity. There is the number 3. Then, God wanted creation to exist. There is the number 4. The number 4 is the number of creation. That's why those cherubim that represent the creation had four faces. That's why in Revelation chapter 4, God is worshipped by creation. "...because of thy will they were, and were created". But in chapter 5 he is praised for redemption.
After the honor of creation - number 4, what was God's other work? After the work of creation, God rested from the work of creation, but he continued working in another way. "My Father worketh even until now, and I work." (John 5:17). The following work after the creation was redemption. Grace, the number 5, appears in chapter 5 of Revelation. The Lamb now appears and is praised because "for thou was slain, and didst purchase unto God with thy blood men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation ". Number 5 is the number of grace. And there the altar appears, representing the cross of Christ. Five cubits by five cubits; a sacrifice made to the height of God: it is three cubits high.
But, returning to the ark, we realize that the measurements of the ark are half measurements. It is not 5 x 5 x 3. It is 2,5 x 2,5 x 1,5, that is to say, half. Do you see? Its width, its longitude will be two cubits and a half, half of 5. Its height is one cubit and half, half of three. That is to say that the ark has measurements that are cut in half. And what does that mean? If you find half an orange, you understand that somewhere else there has to be another half an orange. If there is half an orange here, there has to be another half elsewhere. What is this ark called? The ark of the covenant. "Covenant" means alliance, made of two halves. What is the tabernacle called? The tabernacle of the tent of meeting. It is to meet God with man. For that reason the measurements are halves.
The table of the showbread is the table of fellowship
I don't want to speak about the ark, but about the table. But, to understand the measurements of the table, we had to understand those of the ark: the measurements of the table are smaller than those of the ark, because the ark is first. Between the first thing and the second there has to be a difference. You cannot place that which is second, first, nor that which is first, third.
When God wanted to reveal the authority, the order and authority that he set down in the creation, he said that the man would have to pay a certain amount of shekels (tribute) of the sanctuary, and the boy, another amount, and the woman, another amount. Although we are all the same before God, in the authority of God, God put a different measure of shekels for atonement to each, showing an order and an established authority in his Kingdom, the creation. And here, if you notice, in verse 23 of Exodus 25, it says: "Thou shalt also make...". If you make an ark, if you co-operate so that Christ is formed in you, you also have to co-operate with the second part. If there is a head, there has to be a body as well. "whosoever loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him". So, after the ark comes the table.
And, what does a table speak of? A table is for eating together; a table speaks of fellowship. The Lord said: "... I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me" (Rev. 3:20). The Lord, when he wanted his people to have fellowship, gathered them together at feasts, and then they had to exchange gifts and they had to eat together. And that is what a table speaks of to us.
The Lord, besides forming Christ in us, that is, in each individual, also wants us to be one. "...even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us..." (John 17:21). If after the Head the body comes, after the ark the table comes.
So, we will read a little more about the table. "... made of acacia wood". How astonishing! I don't know if you have seen the acacias. They are not so straight. The acacias are very badly bent trees. Do you think that we are anything but distorted? Well, at least I am, and I realize it more every day. However, God took hold of badly bent people, and I don't understand how he's able to make such straight boards out of them! Such badly bent people are used to make boards and other instruments. Notice that in that wooden table of acacia, which represents us, the human nature is the wood. John said that the axe was at the root of the trees. Were those trees not people? That wood represents us.
"...two cubits shall be the length thereof,- notice that it doesn't reach the length of the ark-, and a cubit the breadth -nor the breadth -, and a cubit and a half the height thereof" - it has the same height as the ark. This does have to be same, because " Even as the Father hath loved me, I also have loved you: abide ye in my love.". Made to the height of God. The height is the same height, a cubit and a half, the same as the ark.
"And thou shalt overlay it...". Do you know why it had to be covered? So that it is not seen. The boards had to be covered. In the temple, the stones had to be covered with boards. The boards had to be covered with gold. We came from that twisted state, and have to be straightened and covered so that we do not appear. Only the gold appears and we are behind it. Covered with gold, so that what is seen is the gold of God.
"...and make thereto a crown of gold round about. ". The crown is to reinforce it, so that it doesn't twist. First, it adorns the table; second, it reinforces it. " and thou shalt make unto it a border of a handbreadth round about; and thou shalt make a golden crown to the border thereof round about. ". The border also has to have a molding (a crown), and the border is a handbreadth wide. God asks us to make a border. What are the showbread? Are they not the tribes of Israel, the people of God, and in the New Testament they are the churches. The border exists so that the showbread don't fall off the table; the table has a border a handbreadth wide. We are in the hands of the Lord so as not to fall. " and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who hath given them unto me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand ". Because sometimes it was necessary to move the table, therefore the breads could slide off, and so they had to have a border to prevent this from happening. And this border is a handbreadth wide which speaks to us of the Lord's hands protecting, and maintaining his church.
"And thou shalt make for it four rings of gold, and put the rings at the four corners that are on the four feet thereof. Close to the margin shall the rings be, as receptacles of the staves to carry the table. ". The table can't to stay in Temuco, it has to go to Valdivia. From Valdivia it has to go on to Puerto Montt, and later to Punta Arenas. And toward the north, to Arica, and beyond; the table has to reach Colombia.
If you have the table here; the table is not for standing still, it has to be taken elsewhere! It must be carried! You will do whatever it takes to carry it elsewhere. You will take the rings, you will take the staves, but all covered with gold. And you will carry them. Everything has to be taken. The table is to be taken with you.
The utensils
"And thou shalt make the dishes thereof...". That is to say that those breads cannot be touched by hands. They have to be put on plates. The plate is the place for the bread. The table had two sets of six plates, and the showbread was placed on each plate. Each one of the tribes of Israel is represented. And now, in the New Testament, that bread is the church. "We, who are many, are one bread". The church of the Lord in each town is one bread.
But here it says: " and the spoons thereof ". Those spoons were not for soup, but to carry the bread. Look at the care that was needed to take hold of the bread. It had to be put in the appropriate place. You cannot put a bread between two plates, nor two breads on one plate, nor ten breads on five plates. No; one showbread for each plate. For each town, one church. So, the bread is not manipulated by human hands, but with instruments of gold. With those big smooth spoons, the bread could be moved from one place to another. And the bread also had a cover, so that the mice and flies didn't come and eat it, as seen in verse 29: " and covers thereof " (KJV).
That is to say that the bread mustn't be uncovered, but covered. And in the church, God protects the church. God gave elders to the church, to protect to the church, to feed her, to care for her, so that the hungry wolves don't come, nor the mice nor the flies, to pollute the bread. No, that bread has to be cared for. It has to be on a plate, to be moved by spoons, and under a covering.
There are also "the bowls thereof, wherewith to pour out", because those bowls were like jars from which they poured the wine. That wine was poured out on the sacrifice, and also on the bread, just as incense was also placed on the bread. And that incense on the bread is the prayer life of the church, the ministry of prayer in the church. And the church has to give up its life even unto death. The final sacrifice was the drink offering.
Paul, in Philippians, says that although he was poured out as a drink offering in service of the faith of the church; he gave his life and poured out the blood, like the wine that is poured out unto the last as a drink offering. This is how we must give our life, to be willing to die for Christ and to serve the church. That's why they have bowls.
"And thou shalt set upon the table shewbread before me continually". God always wants to see those breads. The bread of Temuco must never be absent. When God looks down, He must constantly find that bread. And that has to do with us. We are those that have to co-work with God, so that these breads are always before God.
The showbread
Let us go on to Leviticus chapter 24. Notice that in Exodus 25 the table appeared first and then the lamp-stand. And here the lamp-stand appears first and then the breads of the table. The order is reversed. Why? Because in the Holy Place, the table and the lamp-stand are opposite one another, that is to say, on the same level, representing two aspects of the same thing. To the north you have the table; to the south, the lamp-stand. It is like in the Acts it says that the church persevered in the doctrine of the apostles, which is about the Son of God - the ark- in fellowship and the breaking of the bread -the table and the lamp-stand- and the prayers -the altar of gold incense.
So here, considering that those two things are opposite one another to show that they are equivalent, the Holy Spirit begins with the lamp-stand this time, and then the breads, to show their equivalence, comparing it with Exodus 27.
Now read Leviticus 24, from verse 5: " And thou shalt take fine wheaten flour...". Ay ay ay! We know what fine flour represents. The flour comes from the wheat mill. Our Lord Jesus is like the grain of wheat who was crushed for our sins. But he not only had to be crushed. When he spoke of the grain of wheat, he said that the one who loses his life will gain it, but the one who gains it will lose it. But he wasn't referring only to himself. If he went through the mill, it was to also to help us go through the mill; if he was crushed to be made into fine flour, we also have to be crushed to be made into fine flour.
We have to take that fine flour, we have to appropriate of Christ to be able to be crushed with him, and also to be as soft as fine flour, because fine flour no longer has the sheaves attached. What the wind had to take away was taken; and now all that remains is the sifted flour, that of Christ in us. We have to take that, that fine flour.
"...and bake...". Oh, that phrase, that verb. That is to say, you will be cooked. That is to say, that fine flour that has to be kneaded, also has to go through fire, through the oven. We are only grains of wheat, but to be able to be together and make a showbread for the Lord as a church, we have to be crushed. Our ego is dealt with in the life of the church. Because if we continue to be hardened we won't be bread. Now we understand why we are here: to learn how to become a showbread for the Lord together. We all have to be crushed. All those hard shells have to be taken away by the wind of the Holy Spirit, to remain only with fine soft flour.
All the hardness of the flesh in us has to go. It has to become fine flour and has to be kneaded, together with others, and then cooked. Whenever somebody makes bread, they cook it. My wife, when she makes some bread, puts one side on-top and the other underneath. Then when one side is better cooked she has to take it out, and turn it over.
Our Lord takes us out and puts he who is on-top underneath. It is not comfortable. And those that are underneath are placed on-top. So that which was raw is turned over to be cooked. Do you remember that passage of Hosea? Those that don't remember should turn with me to the book of Hosea. We will return to Leviticus 24, but look at Hosea 7:8. "Ephraim, he mixeth himself with the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned. ".
What is a cake not turned? It means that one side is over-cooked and burnt and the other side is raw. And this sometimes happens to us. Perhaps we are already burnt in some things. We spend years doing the same things whilst we remain raw in others. It is because the cake has not been turned. What is underneath needs to be put on-top, and that which is on-top needs to be put underneath. It will be a revolution, so that what is raw becomes cooked.
The showbread represents the tribes. And now in the New Testament, it is the church. We, being many, are one bread. Today, we are this bread. And these breads are called the showbread ("bread of proposition" in Spanish version).
What is a proposition? There are a lot of people who have their own proposals. It is a proposition, a proposal. For example, Karl Marx had a proposal. "We will make an ideal society, we will do it this way and this way". You know how many millions of people died, and nothing remained. And Hitler had another proposal, and look how that ended. Today, many people have their own proposals. But God has His own proposal.
God's proposal is the life of the church. It is the bread of the proposition; to take those grains, to crush them, to purify them, to cleanse them, to knead them, to put them through fire. But not so that they burn, but so that they are cooked to perfection as bread, like cakes, and then put on the table of fellowship. That is God's proposal. "So that they see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven". The life of the church is God's proposal for humanity; that they be saved, receive Christ, and come to be part of the bread of the proposition. The proposal of God that must be presented before God, at God's table. And this is how it is accomplished.
"And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth parts of an ephah shall be in one cake. " (v. 5). Two tenth parts each cake, and they are twelve cakes; twenty-four tenths. The number 24 in the Bible is the number of the priesthood. Do you remember when David established those songs, those shifts? They were twenty-four classes. Zachariah, John the Baptist's father, was of the eighth class, of the class of Abijah. Each class had fifteen days of service, and in the year there were twenty-four classes, twenty-four priestly shifts. That's why there were twenty four elders before God. And here they are twenty-four tenths.
All those cakes represent the priestly Kingdom of the church. A kingdom and priests. That's why incense was put on the bread, as you can see. " And thou shalt set them in two rows, - because that number means testimony-, six on a row, upon the pure table before Jehovah. And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row". In each row there were six cakes and incense was placed on them: the life, the ministry of prayer of the church. When the church meets together to pray, to intercede in a spirit before the Lord, that is when incense is placed on each bread.
"...it shall be a bread of remembrance, an offering by fire to Jehovah. Every sabbath day he shall arrange it before Jehovah continually, on the part of the children of Israel: it is an everlasting covenant.". That was the bread: a remembrance before God. We also have to remember others, to pray for one another; to constantly remember them before God, it is the prayer life of the church.
"And it shall be Aaron's and his sons'; and they shall eat it in a holy place; for it is most holy unto him of Jehovah's offerings by fire: it is an everlasting statute.". What do we see here? It is God's right to have the church that lives the life of the church in Christ to glorify God. God is entitled to this. Aaron and his sons were those that were entitled to eat that bread. Christ is entitled to eat of this bread.
Will we do this for the Lord? "thou shalt make...". We have to make him this table, we have to serve this table to the Lord, because he is entitled to the perpetual eating of this bread.
Message shared in Temuco (Chile), in September of 2004.