Exodus Part 13 Showbread and the Kings Table

When it comes to the Showbread and Table - Yes there is amazing fulfillment from Christ - Whoop. But what did the original table and showbread represent to the Israelites. Lets take this bit to learn about this part of God's furniture.

Transcript

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Welcome everyone. This is the Biblically Wired Podcast. I'm your host. My name is Barb. We are cruising through Exodus chapter 25. Believe it or not, once we finish the temple, we will just do the golden calf and be on to the rest of the Torah. You guys are doing it. You're going to get your Exodus patch. I'm so excited. All right. We are going to talk about the table and the show bread today. I'm going to go over some of the things that I have gleaned and believed. And then we're going to go into what the rabbis say, which is a crazy amount more. But it's super, super good stuff. And we have to remember those sages, those early sages, were kind of boots on the ground, understanding what it meant to their culture is important for us because when Jesus is talking, we will see that he is communicating something that we would have never understood before without understanding what the Israelites feel about these important topics. So here we go. The show bread. We are in Exodus chapter 25. It is only seven verses. It says, You shall make a table of acacia wood, two cubits long and one cubit wide and one and a half cubits high. So this is a cubit, which is between 15 to 18 inches. So it's not exact. It depends on the artists. Overlay it with gold, put a border around it, put a rim around it, put four gold rings on it, carry it all the time. And why? Why do we have this table? So it says you shall set bread, the bread of the presence, on the table before me at all times. So we call this show bread. Uh the word faces is in the actual Hebrew definition. So it is the bread of faces. It is to go before the face of God and the presence of God at all times. All right, so the Christian gleaning on this table, which is called the shulkan table in Hebrew, the shulkan. This table is smaller than the ark, but it's very similar. It's gold-plated acacia wood again. So remember the three parts of the ark and how that acacia demonstrates kind of how humans can warp or bloom. This table is also including this acacia wood as a symbol to the fact that this table is about God and men. This is a place where God and men reside. Therefore, man is demonstrated in this acacia wood. The table is God's table. It is the table of kings. We got to remember that this tabernacle is another garden of Eden. Because this is a Garden of Eden motif, it's safe to say this is a place demonstrating Eden, a place where God dwelled and lived. A table is necessary wherever we live, right? We need to have a table. Jesus has several discussions about the banquets God's going to have with his people. Especially, he emphasizes that God's going to put out his table for the orphan, the oppressed, the downtrodden. Those of us who feel so not worthy to be in his presence are exactly who's included on his table. And Revelations mentions the wedding break banquet we're going to attend. And again, we go back to this table. It's a king's table, a place of abundance and wealth and provision. Who knows what the king's going to place on his table? But I'll tell you one thing. It's a place I want to be sitting, right? So remember that in this culture, to sit and eat was to say we are the same. We are the same. We're in agreement. I accept you, you accept me. So God is revealing this future for his followers as I look at the table that we will be one with God through Christ. I mean, it's insane that we would sit on the same table as Jesus. Remember, Jesus proclaims his kinship in Matthew 21. I know my podcast, Horses and Donkeys, is one of the favorite ones anyone's ever listened to, which is so weird because it's like my first real podcast. But um, yes, Jesus on Palm Sunday is coming on a donkey. He is coming on a royal mount, and he is fulfilling the Davidic covenant between God and kings of 2 Samuel 7. Jesus is the eternal king. In 2 Samuel 7, God promises there's always going to be a descendant of David on the throne, and he isn't kidding. That will never end, that throne will always reign. So we go on through the biblical viewpoint here, the bread, which is lechem happanim, lechim happanim, which is the Hebrew word for this show bread. This is not just manna. But according to our theologians and our scholars, and I see in the word, 12 loaves would signify the 12 tribes. What else would we think about when we think about 12? It also reflects, of course, the bread Jesus broke with his disciples, basing our sacred communion on that bread. Also, I thought it was interesting, and one of the scholars points out the light of the menorah shines on the 12 tribes. He does not feel that as an accident. I thought that was beautiful. And also to remember that the bread was always to be in the presence of God, and that signifies to me this constant provision from God. Now, I have been on this kind of rant. Those of you who follow my Instagram, the Lord told me to fast from buying clothes for two years, and we fasted on a lot of purchases. And I had to glean, like, Lord, what are you getting to? What are you getting to here? And I started reading, you guys, the early Christian thought, Clement of Alexandria and etc. Clement was the mentor to origin himself. But, anyways, the way he describes putting on the armor of God, Ephesians 6, the way he describes it blew my hair back, and how they preached it on it was that we need to put on the armor of God so that we are not materialistic. Because materialism will separate us from our intimacy with God. We're not going to lose our faith, but our intimacy will suffer when we are focusing on materialism. So I love how it's no accident here that this bread was always to be in the presence of God, that we need to remember that our basic necessities will be taken care of by God. And possibly for some of us in certain seasons, or for some of us for a long time, we have had to learn to be content with basic necessities. Okay, so Douglas Stewart, remember I told you guys he's the big scholar for Exodus. I got a few things from him, and he feels the table and the bread was a sign that Yahweh did live among the people. That's what it said to them. Yahweh is with us. He is living here. I mean, come on. We can say this, we can read this, we can look back, but like think about it. The deity, the creator of the universe, actually chose a spot on earth to live. I mean, it really is mind-blowing. And the rim on the top of the table, he says, is about four inches around. The sages of the Jewish faith proclaim this king table had a king's crown here on the top. There are three crowns within the tabernacle. Stuart also reminds us in Numbers 4, the bread traveled on the tables with them as they traveled. So the table was always to have bread upon it, and the Israelites did that. I found out from the rabbis the way they would replace the bread is they would slide one stack while they took one stack off. So remember, there's gonna be two stacks of six. Okay, so now we're gonna get into what the rabbis said and put your seatbelt on because this took me probably six hours of lectures and again and again. It's it's it's pretty cool stuff. So according to the Israelite sages, according to what they were taught about the showbread and about the table, I'm gathering this from part of the Talmud called the Germana. And this is the second part to the Talmud, the other one is the Mishnah. The cool part about this Germana, you guys, it's made up of generations of sages, and it places them in this writing as if they are in conversation with each other. So can you imagine reading a book where someone that we admire presently and their description of what the word says appearing to be in a conversation with Augustine or Clement of Alexandria or Apostle Paul? So these are kind of the writings of the Jamara. And it's super interesting. It covers what the Jews believe every subject you will face on earth. So the stories reflect a ton of information about the life of an ancient Jew. And so that's where I'm gathering some of my information and also from Mendel Kaplan and his study out of Toronto. Okay, so first of all, you guys, the position of the table within the holy place. They say because it is against the north wall, the table, the king's table, being on the north side, reveals it is a vessel of provision and it symbolizes government because government has many responsibilities. Protection of the nation and the people is the number one responsibility of the government. The north side of the temple was the weakest side. And this was attributed to topography. The north side of the temple did not have a valley, so you couldn't be raised above the people coming against you to attack. Also, very many times in scripture through the Old Testament, you will see that the armies from the north are very strong. And the north side of this temple was the weakest side. This was the topography then. You won't see that exactly if you go to Israel now. But the Romans in 70 AD end up attacking from the north and taking over the temple. Also, you guys, personally, this table to a human being being on the north side is said to emulate a person's left side, the side that is most open to folly, your weak side. They considered the left side of someone to be your weak side and to be your side of temptation. So this is why God requires them to tie the Torah box on their left arm. It is for protection from folly and sin and attack. So the left arm and the north side are both considered the weakest and most vulnerable. So also notice the acacia wood signaling the union of man and God. And they also felt the table reflected the dynasty of David. The rim on top was a king's crown and it signified protection and defense. Now the bread. The bread was provision from government and God. And then there's this lower rim, they say represents economy, the very thing that governments rely on. And it was interesting because this rabbi I was listening to, Mendel Kaplan, he went on to talk about the Nazis and how the Nazis were great militaristically, and they looked so strong and powerful, and they were protecting their people and they were going after other nations, but you know what? They had no money. So they collapsed. They were an empty shell. Okay, so this is interesting too. The way they see this table, they see it as a vessel for blessings, a conduit for God to bring provisions. As you look through the Old Testament, so often there needs to be a conduit for God to move. There needs to be a staff, right? There needs to be a cloak, things like that. In 2 Kings chapter 4, Elisha, the prophet, comes upon a widow, and the widow and her sons owe a lot of money, and she doesn't know how they're going to survive. So Elisha asks her what she has in her home. And she said, All I have is a jar of oil. So Elisha then has her collects pots from all her neighbors. So this jar of oil becomes the conduit for blessing or the envelope. And it pours into these vessels buckets and buckets of oil. And it's very, very interesting how they see that, that there needs to be some sort of conduit. And we see that now in the Christian faith. We see that when we gather as believers, there is power. We become this conduit of blessing to others. So, of note, I thought this was kind of cool. The Israelites would pray with their feet pointing north when they were praying for protection or provision. And now we're going to talk about the show bread, the bread of faces. And this I found so fascinating. I have to open with this. I cannot believe it. But of all that I read in rabbinical writings, never did they say that the 12 loaves represent the 12 tribes. I was just like stunned because every single Christian theologian will say that. Well, everyone I listened to, everyone I read, I myself have said that. So instead, they say 12 divided into two stacks of six reflects balance and union. So we're going to talk about that. Okay, so on this table we have the show bread. You're not going to believe this, you guys. Each loaf was 11 pounds. You can find this in from archaeologists, from scholars, from theologians to rabbis. This seems to be pretty intact. Each loaf, 11 pounds. So it was not a flat pancake, but an interesting shape. According to Rashi, the rabbi, it was shaped like a bowl or like a V. So it was curled in. Some people called it a dancing boat or a boat. So the sides are curled up. So I looked into what makes olive oil pure, pure, pure for the temple. And according to my research on that, on Shabbat.org and the Jerusalem quarterly and some other things, the olives came from the top of the olive tree to make pure olive oil. So the sun would slightly harden the olives on the top. So the outside was slightly tougher, and it made the olives release a lot of oil just by pressing it. You do not get pure olive oil by crushing it. Also, they felt like taking them off the top of the tree meant it had less sediment in it. Because you know how branches will shake like a little dirt, little twiggy twigs on it. But the top of the tree was protected from sediment. Okay, so the bread did not only remain rot-free for the seven days. It didn't get any mold, but it also stayed warm and fresh from the oven. So look at how this signified provision, you guys. It is so good. It's so fresh. His provision is so abundant and perfect and satisfying. As a matter of fact, according to folklore, possibly or possibly not, when the high priest went to eat this on the seventh day, when the old bread was taken away, the high priest could eat it. It is said that when the high priest ate a pea size amount, they were satisfied. Why? Because it came off the king's table. It came off the king's table. I just love this because remember in the word, it talks about the woman who says, even the dogs get crumbs from your table. I don't know if you've ever used that when you pray, but I have. Like, Lord, I just need a crumb. Because in a crumb is everything to me. So the legend of the Israelites is that there was a family named the Garmus, and they were gifted with making this bread because it is pretty spectacular. It has no leaven, yet it curls up and it puffs up somehow. It's totally pure from flour that's sifted and sifted and sifted. And the sages asked this family, hey, we need you to pass down this secret to another family. And the family, the Garmu family, would not do it. They said, No, we don't feel like God wants us to pass this on. So the sages and the temple priests disbanded them from making it, thinking they are being selfish. So they called in other bakers and they had them try to make the bread. But anytime someone outside the Garmu family made it, it rotted, it molded. So they reinstated the family. And what the Garmu family says or said at this time was they didn't want anyone to make the show bread and feed it to idols. So they were not going to give their secrets to anyone. Oh, I just think that's so cool. So what is this union of the six and six now? Why, why six and six? I mean, why not like a big circle pile of twelve? What's the deal with that? Well, according to the rabbis, union is talking about the blessing that comes only from man and woman or man and God. Man and woman can bring offspring into this world. There's no one else who can do that. The greatest blessing, offspring, sons, right? And the womb, you guys, this is something that hit me in the middle of the night, is an envelope, a vessel of God's blessing. Isn't that massively cool? I just thought that that's amazing. So also the blessing that comes from balance with God. How do we balance our provision from God? How do we not go way overboard into folly, into overabundance, into selfishness, into only going after abundance and not seeking God? How do we do that? We need to be balanced face to face with God. So our priorities need to be balanced between the two worlds, heaven and earth. No materialism, right? They also say the rim, the crown, is also a word for fence. And it's a reminder to not to take too much, to not be so obsessed with what the earth can give you through God's provision. To not be so obsessed with provision that you want to take too much. You want to gorge on blessings. You never feel satisfied. There is a fence, there is a guardrail to help us not gorge on blessings. So, lastly, you guys, why? Why do we carry the table? Why is it carried? It reminds the Jewish people that God's provisions are ultimately for the world and to be shared. That what God brings can slip through our hands and bless others. As a matter of fact, God might be bringing us something that is 100% for someone else. And I think the way they see this table and showbread is so cool, so cool. And it doesn't take away from what we see. What we see is Jesus is fulfilling this table, and Jesus is the bread. So we see the fulfillment, but seeing this extra stuff only magnifies to me how powerful the temple was to sit in that temple and to see the king's table and to understand the protection of the king and be reminded to pray for your government, etc. It is so cool. And to have balance in our walk with God. So I hope you guys enjoyed this because I think this is really fun. We're gonna do the menorah, the table of incense is a breeze, and the menorah next, and then we'll do the outside sacrifices and move on to the golden calf. You guys are doing it, we're doing it together. That's enough, sorry. Um, so I hope you guys enjoyed this, and I just appreciate you so, so much. So this is such a reminder to me to pray for our government. And right now we're in a season where we are about to vote for the presidential election in 2024. And this is a reminder to me to pray for our government and our economy. So I hope you enjoyed it and I hoped it moves something in your spirit. If so, please comment and share. Thank you guys so much. And don't forget to keep your chin up out there. Nothing is too hard for God to handle. He is our king. Bless you all in Jesus' name.