EXODUS 25:23-30--The Table of SHOWBREAD

The Table for Bread
​23 “You shall make a table of acacia wood. Two cubits shall be its length, a cubit its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. 24 You shall overlay it with pure gold and make a molding of gold around it. 25 And you shall make a rim around it a handbreadth wide, and a molding of gold around the rim. 26 And you shall make for it four rings of gold, and fasten the rings to the four corners at its four legs. 27 Close to the frame the rings shall lie, as holders for the poles to carry the table. 28 You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold, and the table shall be carried with these. 29 And you shall make its plates and dishes for incense, and its flagons and bowls with which to pour drink offerings; you shall make them of pure gold. 30 And you shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before me regularly.

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We see that the Table is made out of the same kind of wood as the Ark of the Covenant--acacia wood.  Again, very specific dimension are given because this represents something in heaven that this gives us a picture of.  It is also overlaid with pure gold (like the Ark of the Covenant) and it also has a special molding around it--so there is probably supposed to be a connection for the people between these two items of furniture.  In fact, the items of furniture that were in the Holy Place or Most Holy Place were either made of acacia wood and covered in gold or made out of solid gold (the Golden Menorah).  All of these items are highly valued and all will be connected, though that doesn't mean that the items covered in or made out of bronze are less important, just that they will also be connected to one another and God wants us to make a different connection with them.

This is probably one of the easier things to figure out in terms of its significance.  In many churches today, this would be called a Communion Table.  It's purpose was to hold the bread and the wine used to make certain sacrifices and to hold the incense which was a symbol of our prayers, but also was a part of atonement in that it provided a cloud that "covered" us and our sins--this incense was burned continually just like we are told to "pray without ceasing."  We won't study the Altar of Incense until chapter 30 and since the incense is kept on this Table, I thought I'd give it a brief mention now.

Back to the primary purpose for the Table though and that is to to be the special place for the Bread--sometimes called Showbread because it seems that it was simply for show--at the time it was on display but almost no one was supposed to eat it.  It was a special meal that was only for the priests.  We'll study that later,  This bread was unleavened and was to be prepared in a very special way.  Jesus would later tell us that the bread of the Passover represented His body that was broken for us and that when we eat it we should so so in remembrance of Him, and likewise He told us that the cup filled with wine was the cup of the new covenant that was made in His blood and that we should drink it in remembrance of Him and whenever we eat the bread and drink the cup, we are to do so as a memorial until He returns.

Well, this bread and wine were actually symbols that looked forwards, not backwards--they looked forward to when the body of Christ would be broken for us and when the blood of Christ would be poured out (like the drink offering) for us.  Did anyone at that time really understand the symbolism?  I'm not sure, but God certainly did and He made this an essential part of the worship of the priests even back in the Old Testament.  So, again, is the Old Covenant really that different from the New Covenant or does the New Covenant just open our eyes more clearly to the things that God was always doing from the very beginning?