The next item of furniture we get to in the Holy Place opposite the candlestick is the table of shewbread or the bread of the presence. This table is described in Exodus 25:23-30:
“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. Also make around it a rim a handbreadth wide and put a gold molding on the rim. Make four gold rings for the table and fasten them to the four corners, where the four 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, overlay them with gold and carry the table with them. And make its plates and dishes of pure gold, as well as its putchers and bowls for the pouring out of offerings. Put the bread of the Presence on this table to be before me at all times.”
This table symbolizes God calling us to a relationship with Himself, just like we would sit down and have fellowship with a friend around a table, so this table calls us to have fellowship with God.
The bread that is on the table, the bread of the Presence, however, is a symbol of both the Living Word of God (Jesus) and the written Word of God (the Bible).
This bread was made with the finest flour that had been through the mill and so it describes Jesus who went through the mill of suffering for us and is the finest there could ever be. In a number of verses Jesus refers to Himself as the Bread of Life.
This bread also symbolizes the written word of God and if we want fellowship with God at this table then we need to feast on the Word of God as we have it in the written Word, as it says, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’
In the table of shewbread therefore we have three symbols – the table as fellowship, the bread as Jesus and the bread as the Bible. If you would like to learn more about this we encourage you to sign up for our Udemy course.
