Passage: Exodus 25:23-30
The Big Idea
In the Holy Place stood a gold-covered table holding twelve loaves, the “bread of the Presence,” set before God continually and eaten by the priests. It pictures daily communion with God through Jesus: He is both the table where we meet and the bread we eat. Like Mephibosheth at King David’s table, we’re welcomed not because of who we are, but for the sake of the Beloved. The table’s rim kept the bread from falling; in Christ, our fellowship is secure as we keep trusting Him.
God Provides
We keep saying it: God provides for His people. Story after story shows His power and deliverance, and in the tabernacle we see pictures of that same provision.
Why do you think God keeps reminding us how willing He is to provide?
Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving instructions for the tabernacle, to help His people know God. It helps us know Him too. Each part becomes a picture in our minds of what God is like, what He does for us and how He feels about us.
We’re truly blessed to have a God who cares for us so perfectly.
God started with the Most Holy Place: the ark and mercy seat, a picture of the person of Jesus. The high priest entered there only once a year. It pictures perfect intimacy with God through Jesus.
Now we move out to the Holy Place, which priests entered every day. This teaches us how daily communion with God through Jesus works.
The Design (Exodus 25:23-30)
“Also make a table of acacia wood, two cubits long, a cubit wide and a cubit and a half high. Overlay it with pure gold and make a gold molding around it.”
- Two materials again: wood and gold, picturing Jesus as fully man and fully God.
“Make a rim a handbreadth wide around it, with a gold molding on the rim. Make four gold rings for the table and fasten them to the four corners where the legs are. The rings are to be close to the rim to hold the poles used in carrying the table. Make the poles of acacia wood, overlaid with gold, and carry the table with them. Make its plates and dishes of pure gold, as well as its pitchers and bowls for pouring out offerings. Put the bread of the Presence on this table to be before Me at all times.“
Leviticus 24:5-9 fills in the details:
- The priests baked twelve loaves of fine flour.
- They set them in two rows (or stacks) of six.
- Frankincense was placed along each row.
- Each Sabbath the bread was replaced, and the priests ate the old loaves in the Holy Place.
Every Believer a Priest
The priests used this table every day as part of representing God to the people and the people to God.
That system was good, but not perfect. In Jeremiah 31, God promised a New Covenant in which people wouldn’t need others to teach them to know the Lord, because all would know Him. God wanted to relate directly to every person, because He loves them.
God’s solution wasn’t to get rid of priests. It was to make everyone a priest!
Peter says that we, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own possession, to proclaim the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:5, 9).
So understanding the table helps us see that we’re meant to come to it every day.
“Also”: Communion
The word “also” at the start links the table to what came just before: the mercy seat, where God said, “There I will meet with you” (Exodus 25:22).
The table is about communion: sharing life and heart together, especially on a spiritual level.
A Seat at the King’s Table (2 Samuel 9)
Look at another table in Scripture.
King David asked, “Is anyone left from Saul’s family to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” A former servant of Saul’s, Ziba, told him, “There’s still a son of Jonathan; he’s lame in both feet.” He was living in Lo Debar (“no pasture,” a barren place). David sent for him.
When Mephibosheth arrived, he fell on his face. David said, “Mephibosheth!” “Your servant.” David said, “Don’t be afraid. I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I’ll restore to you all the land of your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.“
Mephibosheth bowed and said, “What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?”
David gave him all of Saul’s property, with Ziba’s household to farm it. “But Mephibosheth will always eat at my table,” like one of the king’s sons. So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem and ate at the king’s table continually. And he was lame in both feet.
- What a picture of God’s grace!
- The king showed kindness to the grandson of his former enemy, for the sake of his beloved friend.
- David brought Mephibosheth into continual, intimate fellowship.
- This “dead dog” had nothing to offer David. But David’s heart overflowed with love for Jonathan.
- Mephibosheth simply became the object of David’s love, for Jonathan’s sake.
- That’s us. God welcomes us to His table for Jesus’ sake. And our lameness is hidden under the table.
You Can’t Sit at Two Tables
Paul warns that what pagans sacrificed was offered to demons, not to God. “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot share in the Lord’s table and the table of demons” (1 Corinthians 10:20-21).
- The table is about communion, real relationship in which we agree.
- You can’t have communion with Jesus while disagreeing with Him.
- Is it hard to agree with someone who’s always right about everything? It takes humility, and faith: “I don’t know everything, and I trust that You do.”
Jesus Is the Table and the Bread
A table is a place for food. Jesus is our table, and He’s also our food.
“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows” (Psalm 23:5).
- Jesus was prepared for us, “baked” in the fire of God’s wrath against sin, and served to us.
“It wasn’t Moses who gave you bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6:32-33).
- His life is our bread.
- Nothing will ever satisfy you like the life of Jesus, taken in daily.
Paul speaks of both “the Lord’s table” (1 Corinthians 10:21) and “the Lord’s Supper” (1 Corinthians 11:20).
- The table pictures Jesus as the solid, consistent place of communion with God.
- The bread pictures Jesus as the always-fresh substance of that fellowship. It should never get stale or boring.
The bread of faces
The “bread of the Presence” is literally “bread of the face.” Faces speak of conversation and closeness.
“God… has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).
Pierced bread
Leviticus calls these loaves “cakes,” and some teachers connect the Hebrew word with the idea of being pierced or perforated. Whether or not that’s the root, the picture fits: Jesus is the bread that was pierced for us (Zechariah 12:10; John 19:34). Feed on His sacrifice every day. And the loaves were baked in fire, as He bore the fire of God’s judgment.
Why twelve loaves?
- There were twelve tribes of Israel, some large and some small.
- This was God identifying with all His people.
- “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all share the one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:17).
- God identifies with every one of His children, even the ones who seem to fail constantly.
- Every one is special and valuable to Him. The smallest tribe got the same loaf as the greatest.
- His provision extends to every believer. His grace is for you.
Eaten in the Holy Place
The priests ate the bread, and that’s where communion became real. They could only eat it in the Holy Place, the place of agreement with God, the place where you’ve believed everything God has done for you. You may eat all you need at His table if you believe.
“What If I Fail?”
“Will the bread slide off the table if things get rocky?”
Remember the rim around the table, with rings close to the rim for carrying it. The bread was held secure, even on the move through the wilderness.
- Our fellowship is protected and secure.
- Jesus said, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand” (John 10:28). (The rim was a “handbreadth” wide.)
What’s our security in our spiritual life? Jesus.
- In Christ, we’re secure.
- We’re in Christ by faith alone.
- So Scripture’s warnings point us to keep trusting Him, and not shift our hope to anything other than Jesus Himself.
Paul tells the Gentile believers to consider God’s kindness and severity: kindness to them, provided they continue in His kindness (Romans 11:22). And he says Christ will present us holy and blameless, if indeed we continue in the faith, established and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel (Colossians 1:22-23).
Our security is as sure as Jesus. He can never fail us. The “condition” is simply faith: will we keep trusting Him?
- What are you trusting to get you to heaven? Jesus alone.
- What are you trusting to meet your daily needs? What bread are you eating? What’s the source of your life? Jesus alone.
What if I realize today that I haven’t been trusting Jesus alone? Simply turn back. Agree with God that Jesus alone is your bread, and come in by faith.
Grace Takeaway
The table in the Holy Place says that God wants daily, intimate communion with His people, and that He has set the bread of His Presence before you continually. Like Mephibosheth, we have nothing to offer, but for the sake of the Beloved we’re seated at the King’s table like His own children, and held there securely. Come to Jesus in faith and humility, and give thanks for the bread of life: whoever comes to Him will never hunger, and whoever believes in Him will never thirst (John 6:35).