Our Spiritual Journey Inside the Tabernacle – Part 6: The Table of Showbread

Inside the Tent of Meeting

So far in this series, we’ve seen that through the functions of the tabernacle’s fence, the bronze altar, the bronze basin and the menorah behind the veil of the Holy Place, God has provided us with faith to believe, the payment for our sin, cleansing with the blood of His righteous Son and a transformed mind, illuminated with a spiritual perspective.

Once we get to this point and begin seeing the world around us from our new spiritual perspective, we realize all that’s available to us in the Spirit.  We realize God is much bigger than we thought.  The world and life in general is not what we thought.  It’s a whole new paradigm.  It motivates us to know more – about God, about His kingdom, and about our place in relationship with Him in His plan. We want to understand this new Spirit within us and know how to use the gifts we’ve received so far.

When we ask for more revelation, God says, “I’m so glad you asked!  I’ve already prepared all of that for you.”  And He takes us to the Table of Showbread, the next piece of furniture we come to in the tabernacle.  The Table of Showbread has 12 loaves of bread.  The bread represents the 12 tribes of Israel – our spiritual ancestors.  God called the loaves “The Bread of Presence” and instructed that they be on the table before Him at all times.  The 12 loaves are constantly in the presence of God.

It’s at this point that we realize the loaves are God’s people – us.  We are the loaves, we are constantly in the presence of God.  Listen to this description in Leviticus 24:5-9 and see how special God considers this bread:

“You shall set the loaves in two rows, six in a row, on the pure gold table before the LORD. 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. Every Sabbath he [the priest] shall set it in order before the LORD continually, they are from the people of Israel as an everlasting covenant. 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.”

In our earlier illustration of a father and son, this is the point at which the son is beginning to understand how special he is to his father and that his father desires to live with him in His presence forever.

We also know the bread to represent the Word of God (Deut. 8:3).  The Table of Showbread points us to God’s Word, which is our history, our future and our instructions for how to have abundant life with our holy Father.  Aaron and his sons ate the bread every Sabbath.  That’s what we are to do on the Sabbath.  Literally we are to consume the Word of God.  Today we also understand that we are feasting on Yeshua’s holy body – the Living Word, the Bread of Life (John 6:47-51).

With the gift of God’s continual presence and our constantly consuming his Word within us, our minds are transformed, and we are continually aligning ourselves closer and  closer with His purposes for us and for His kingdom.  Our heart becomes more compassionate, our mind more discerning.  We are filled with faith and want to participate in bringing about His will.  We’re ready to progress to the Altar of Incense.