Okay, so God wanted a table in His tabernacle, and He wanted 12 loaves of bread to be placed on it every week, along with some sweet-smelling incense. So much is clear, but what does it all mean?

Well, ancient people often placed food before the statues of their false gods, as a way of symbolically feeding or nourishing them. But that doesn’t seem to be what’s going on here. After all, Leviticus 24:7 says that God’s portion of what was on the table was just the incense. The bread was the portion of the priests (Leviticus 24:9), the holy representatives of the people. The bread thus seems to symbolize God’s provision for His people.

Now, we know that God showered manna from Heaven on His people as they wandered in the desert (Exodus 16:4). But we also know that Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread also which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh” (John 6:51).

So, if yesterday we learned that the ark symbolizes the presence of the Father, and if Jesus’ sacrifice rends the veil, removing the barrier that our sin has placed between us and the Father, the Bread of the Presence reminds us that Jesus is the One Who nourishes us. As we become one with Him by faith, we have not only the promise of eternal life with Him forever, but the reality of resurrection life today, life that is free from bondage to sin and death, life that is lived for the glory of God and for the good of one another.

Jesus said, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). May we answer His call to trust in Him and receive such abundant life from Him today.

Exodus 25:23-30 (NASB)

23 “And you shall make a table of acacia wood, two cubits long and one cubit wide and one and a half cubits high.
24 “And you shall overlay it with pure gold and make a gold border around it.
25 “And you shall make for it a rim of a handbreadth around it; and you shall make a gold border for the rim around it.
26 “And you shall make four gold rings for it and put rings on the four corners which are on its four feet.
27 “The rings shall be close to the rim as holders for the poles to carry the table.
28 “And you shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold, so that with them the table may be carried.
29 “And you shall make its dishes and its pans and its jars and its bowls, with which to pour libations; you shall make them of pure gold.
30 “And you shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before Me at all times.

Leviticus 24:5-9 (NASB)

5 “Then you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it; two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake.
6 “And you shall set them in two rows, six to a row, on the pure gold table before the LORD.
7 “And you shall put pure frankincense on each row, that it may be a memorial portion for the bread, even an offering by fire to the LORD.
8 “Every sabbath day he shall set it in order before the LORD continually; it is an everlasting covenant for the sons of Israel.
9 “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 LORD’s offerings by fire, his portion forever.”