So it's Exodus chapter 25 and
reading from verse 23. And thou shalt also make a table
of shittum wood, two cubits shall be the length thereof, and a
cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height
thereof. And thou shalt overlay it with
pure gold and make there too a crown of gold round about,
and thou shalt make unto it a border of an handbreadth round about,
and thou shalt make a golden crown to the border thereof round
about, and thou shalt make for it four rings of gold, and put
the rings in the four corners that are on the four feet thereof,
Over against the border shall the rings be for places of the
staves to bear the table. And thou shalt make the staves
of chytum wood, and overlay them with gold, that the table may
be borne with them. And thou shalt make the dishes
thereof, and spoons thereof, and covers thereof, and bowls
thereof, to cover with all of pure gold shalt thou make them. and thou shalt set upon the table
showbread before me always. So, may the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. I mentioned a few weeks ago now
that we would look at seven distinct pieces of furniture. or instruments
as they are called, which the Lord described and prescribed
to be placed in the tabernacle as a pattern of worship for the
Old Testament people of Israel. And these are called instruments
because they were instrumental to the proper worship of God. They picture what it means to
worship God by faith, in spirit and in truth. And each item of
these instruments or pieces of furniture that were in the tabernacle
pointed worshippers to the Lord Jesus Christ and the coming Messiah. Now, today we've come to halfway
through that list. And I wondered, who can remember
the first three items that we've spoken about? Can anyone remember
those first three items? If you can, tell them to the
person next to you. Or if you're on your own, I don't
know, tell them to your dog or just say them to yourself. But
what were they? I'll give you a clue. Two of
them were made of brass or bronze and one of them of gold. I wonder if you've got them.
So there was a brass altar. That was the first item. The
brass altar was for sacrificing and it was the first item to
be seen as a worshipper entered the tabernacle enclosure. and the brass altar stood before
him. And that talks about a sacrifice
for sin and the need for blood atonement. And it is essential
if we are to approach God who is in the tabernacle, who is
in the Holy of Holies, and who dwells amongst his people there.
So this was the picture for the Old Testament Jew, that the altar
was first to speak about the sacrifice. The next item was
the brass laver or wash basin and it was a place for washing
because true worshippers must be spiritually pure and clean
in order to enter God's holy presence. Then we spoke about
how the priests, having washed at the laver, entered into the
tabernacle proper, the tent in which God's presence dwelt. And there on their left-hand
side, which is on the south side, I believe, of the tabernacle,
was the tent or was the golden candlestick within the tent. And that golden candlestick burned
pure olive oil. It had seven branches and it
spoke to the worshipper of the fact that Christ or the Messiah
who would come is the light of the world who gives spiritual
sight and spiritual understanding to sinners. and the gold from
which the candlestick was made speaks of the holiness, the purity,
the preciousness of the Lord Jesus Christ and perhaps also
his divine nature. And now we come to this fourth
item. And directly across from the
candlestick, as the priest enters the tent, was another piece of
furniture which the Lord had specified. And we've read about
it today in our passage in Exodus 25. Here we have what is called
the Table of Showbread. It is a table upon which 12 loaves
of bread, the show bread, is continually to be set before
God. So on one side, we've got a gold
candlestick. On the other side, we have a
gold table on which are laid two rows of six round pieces
of bread, bread loaves. And these loaves speak to us
of the church and God's people throughout the ages. God's elect people throughout
the ages. And they are always before the
face of God. Now we've read a little bit about
how the table was to be constructed and once again we remind ourselves
that God gave all the instructions and he told what the materials
were. The table itself was to be a
wooden table. It was to be made of shittum
wood covered with gold. It was measured in cubits. Now,
a cubit, so I believe, was the distance between the tip of the
finger and the tip of the elbow bone. That was the sort of idea
of how big a cubit was. The length was about 20. Well, it was different. Cubits
were different sizes, but sometimes 21 inches, sometimes about 23
inches or 55 to 58 centimetres and this table,
this table made of chitin wood covered with gold, had a number
of crafted features such as a crown of gold, Perhaps that was for
decoration, perhaps it was to act like a little curtain to
keep anything that was placed on top of the table in its place
and stop it from falling off. It had rings, it had two poles
for carrying it. it had some golden utensils like
plates and bowls and spoons but once again here we find God giving
direction for this table to be placed in his presence upon which
this showbread was to be placed and we learn in other places,
about this bread. There were 12 flat loaves. They were freshly baked of fine
flour each week. They were placed on this table
in two rows of six, and the bread was baked and sprinkled with
frankincense, and it was set before the Lord's face continually. Now I read somewhere that the
Jews actually call these loaves the bread of faces, which I think
is quite intriguing, quite interesting, and perhaps that was because
they were before God's face. Or maybe it was to remind the
children of Israel that the bread represented the faces of the
12 tribes, so that there was a loaf for each tribe. And when it was placed there,
it was a reminder that each tribe was always before the face of
God. But I think the spiritual sense
is that we understand these pieces of bread as being indicative
of the church itself, the Lord's people. And the bread was replaced
each Sabbath day. And when it was replaced with
a new fresh loaf, the priest could eat the old bread. And again, as we've done in the
past, we are right to believe that these items and the rituals
that God is instituting here for the tabernacle worship point
us to the Lord Jesus. A table that is spread with food
is often a picture in scripture of hospitality and welcome and
a symbol of fellowship. And I think that there is a picture
here of the fellowship that we have with God because of the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord himself called himself
the bread of life and the bread that came down from heaven. Like
the manna was sent down from heaven to feed the people throughout
their wilderness journey. And so this is the same manna,
the same bread that the people would eat that is here in the
presence of God in the tabernacle, in the tent of his presence. The table, as we've seen, was
made of wood covered with gold. That reminds us that the Lord
Jesus has two natures, a human nature, perhaps pictured by the
chitin wood, and a divine nature, pictured by the pure, precious
gold. And there are lots of other likenesses
or pictures that have been suggested for the two rows of bread set
in order on the table, such as marking gratitude for the constant
supply of manna in the wilderness and reminding us to thank the
Lord as we come into his presence for all his continuing goodness
and our daily provisions for us. And there is a close connection
I think between food to nourish the body and Christ's grace that
nourishes our souls. Because just as we need food
day by day to live, so we go to the Lord day by day for spiritual
food and spiritual nourishment and for the daily help that we
get from our relationship with Him. And all of these ideas,
all of these thoughts have merit. However, As always, the overriding
principle is that these instruments and these rituals of the children
of Israel were given to them and related to us as well as
pointers to what, as yet, for the Old Testament people remained
hidden in shadow, but would be revealed with the coming of the
Messiah. And perhaps the great lesson
for us to remember here is that the Lord Jesus Christ called
himself the bread of life. Not simply the miraculous manna
that fell from heaven through the 40 years of the wilderness
journey, giving sufficient food to eat for the people, but the
Lord himself is the bread of life to his people. He is our
spiritual life. who came from heaven and suffered
and died in his people's place. And when we share communion together,
we still use bread set out publicly on a table and carefully and
thoughtfully blessed and broken and consumed by all who trust
in the Lord for personal salvation. Everything that people needed
to see Christ was represented here in these instruments and
in these pieces of furniture. A sacrifice on an altar, a laver
for cleansing, a candlestick for light, and a table fitly
spread with lively spiritual food for fellowship with God. Now we are blessed to be able
to see in Christ the fulfilment of the anti-type of these pictures. The Apostle Paul when he was
writing to the Corinthians about the coming of Christ and the
fulfilment of the promises says, for we know in part and we prophesy
in part. But when that which is perfect
is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. And so the Old Testament rituals
and the Old Testament ceremonies and the tabernacle and the table
and the lampstand and the altars, they're all done away with now.
They all have gone into history. They show us how the Lord developed
the revelation and prepared his people for the coming of Christ. But now we see the reality. We see the perfect one. We see
the complete fulfilment in God's way of salvation and in the spiritual
life and the faith that we have been given by the Lord Jesus
Christ's work. So the tabernacle with its instruments
that prophesied in part, they're gone, they're done away with.
But the full glory of Christ's accomplishments are now seen
and known in his person and in his work. May the Lord give us
faith to trust in him. Amen.