In Exodus, we have the instructions for making the table of Showbread:

 

(Exo 25:23-30 NKJV)  "You shall also make a table of acacia wood; two cubits shall be its length, a cubit its width, and a cubit and a half its height. {24} "And you shall overlay it with pure gold, and make a molding of gold all around. {25} "You shall make for it a frame of a handbreadth all around, and you shall make a gold molding for the frame all around. {26} "And you shall make for it four rings of gold, and put the rings on the four corners that are at its four legs. {27} "The rings shall be close to the frame, as holders for the poles to bear the table.

(Exo 25:28) "And you shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold, that the table may be carried with them. {29} "You shall make its dishes, its pans, its pitchers, and its bowls for pouring. You shall make them of pure gold. {30} "And you shall set the showbread on the table before Me always.

 

It is with the showbread that we continue our study in Leviticus:

 

(Lev 24:5-9 NKJV)  "And you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it. Two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake.

 

E'PHA, n. [Heb. properly a baking.] A Hebrew measure of three pecks and three pints, or according to others, of seven gallons and four pints, or about 15 solid inches.

 

Let’s do the math:

7 ½ gallons x 4 quarts/gallon = 30 quarts

30 quarts x 0.2 = 6 quarts/cake.

These are not small cakes! 

This is some serious eating!

“Twelve cakes”  I assume this represents a cake for each of the twelve tribes.

 

(Lev 24:6) "You shall set them in two rows, six in a row, on the pure gold table before the LORD. {7} "And you shall put pure frankincense on each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, an offering made by fire to the LORD.

 

How does frankincense, bread, and

“an offering made by fire to the LORD” mix?

I will share Albert Barnes thoughts which I think make very good sense:

 

“The frankincense as a memorial, was most likely cast upon the altar-fire as “an offering made by fire unto the Lord,” when the bread was removed from the table on the Sabbath-day.  The frankincense was put into small gold cups, one of which was placed upon each pile of bread.”  Albert Barnes

 

§     I know of no where that we are told what it represented.

§     Some, who have done the math, say that this is the same amount that the Israelites were allow to gather of the manna each day, and this was a reminder of God’s care for them.

§     Related to this, some say it is a symbolic way of showing the reality of God providing for our daily food.

§     Some say that this is symbolic of spiritual food which the priests were to provide for God’s people.

§     Some would make this symbolic of the Lord’s supper which we partake of each week.

§     I would like to agree with this last one, but if that is true, what represents His blood which is essential for our forgiveness?

§     It was a gift of the people to the priests, and may have simply served as a practical means of the people providing for the needs of the priests.

§     We do know that it was special.

(Mat 12:3-4 NKJV)  But He said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: {4} "how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests?

 

 

(1 Sam 21:3-6 NKJV)  "Now therefore, what have you on hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever can be found."

{4} And the priest answered David and said, "There is no common bread on hand;

but there is holy bread, if the young men have at least kept themselves from women."

{5} Then David answered the priest, and said to him, "Truly, women have been kept from us about three days since I came out. And the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in effect common, even though it was sanctified in the vessel this day."

(1 Sam 21:6) So the priest gave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the showbread which had been taken from before the LORD,

in order to put hot bread in its place on the day when it was taken away.

 

 

(Lev 24:8) "Every Sabbath he shall set it in order before the LORD continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. {9} "And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place; for it is most holy to him from the offerings of the LORD made by fire, by a perpetual statute."

 

 

 

§     The Table of showbread

§     The Golden Candlestick

§     The altar of incense

 

 

(Lev 24:1-4 NKJV)  Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: {2} "Command the children of Israel that they bring to you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to make the lamps burn continually. {3} [Placement:] "Outside the veil of the Testimony, in the tabernacle of meeting, Aaron shall be in charge of it from evening until morning before the LORD continually; it shall be a statute forever in your generations. {4} "He shall be in charge of the lamps on the pure gold lampstand before the LORD continually.

 

What does the lampstand represent?

 

(Psa 119:105)  Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.

Some have concluded that the lampstand represents the word of God.  Notice:

 

{2} "Command the children of Israel that they bring to you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to make the lamps burn continually.

 

 

(Deu 6:6-7 NKJV)  "And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.

{7} "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.

 

There is one other reference to lamps that I think should be considered.

 

(Rev 1:20 NKJV)  "The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand,

and the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches,

and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches.

 

So what is the lesson?  That the churches today are to be God’s lampstands.

Jesus said as much:

 

(Mat 5:14-16)  "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. {15} "Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. {16} "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

 

What else is in the Holy Place?

The altar of Incense.

 

(Lev 16:12-14 NKJV)  "Then he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from the altar before the LORD, with his hands full of sweet incense beaten fine, and bring it inside the veil. {13} "And he shall put the incense on the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the Testimony, lest he die. {14} "He shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side; and before the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times.

 

This is an interesting passage because the altar of incense is in the holy place.

The mercy seat is in the most holy place.

Incense is associated with the prayers of the saints.

 

(Rev 5:8 NKJV)  Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

 

So what is the message?

The prayers of the saints are presented to God in the Most Holy Place.

 

It contains the altar of Incense:

The prayers of the saints.

 

The candle sticks:   The light

Supplied by the word of God

We as Christians are to be the light of the world.

 

The showbread: 

God’s people providing food for the priests

God’s provision for His people

A reminder of the days of manna when God fed His people in the widerness. 

 

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