By Ed White
“And you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it. Two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake. You shall set them in two rows, six in a row, on the pure gold table before the Lord” (Leviticus 24:5-6, New King James Version).
The tabernacle constructed at Mount Sinai had two rooms. The Most Holy Place symbolized the throne room of God. His throne was called the mercy seat. It was the place from which the Lord sent out his mercy to the children of Israel. The other room was called the Holy Place. It was a kind of antechamber, like a waiting room where one would await the summons to enter the presence of the King. The two rooms were separated by a veil. Only the high priest went beyond the veil into God’s presence. He entered that room once each year on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).
When Jesus died for us, the temple veil was torn in two from top to bottom, symbolizing the fact that God opened up his throne room for us. We have access to the Father because Jesus paid the penalty for our sins.
The golden table in the Holy Place contained twelve loaves of “face bread” or the “bread of the Presence” (Exodus 25:30). It symbolized the fact that the twelve tribes of Israel were always before the face of God, always in his presence. The loaves were an offering to God from the people of Israel to acknowledge their understanding that they were always before him and that the blessings he provided were continual. That bread was the only offering that was never interrupted. It remained on the table for one week and was replaced with fresh loaves each Sabbath.
Jesus is the “bread of life” (John 6:35, 48). He sustains us every day both physically and spiritually. We are always before his face, always in his mind and heart. He never leaves us or forsakes us.
We come each week to this table of the Lord to acknowledge our continual dependence on him, to remember that our standing before the Father is based on the sacrifice he made in our behalf. We have fellowship with the Father because he died to make it possible. Here we commune with God as we remember his blessed Son who qualified us to enter his presence and have fellowship with him.
Ed White is a retired Christian minister. He earned degrees from Mid-South Christian College, Alabama Christian School of Religion, and the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He lives in Milledgeville, Ga. His book of Communion meditations, Come to the Table, is available from Amazon.
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