The Face of Fellowship: The Table of Showbread Text: Exodus 25:23-30
Introduction: Furnishing God's House
As we continue through this section of Exodus, we find ourselves in the middle of God's divine architectural plans for His house, the Tabernacle. It is very easy for the modern reader, accustomed to skimming for the "main point," to let his eyes glaze over during these chapters. We see lists of materials, precise measurements, and detailed instructions for furniture, and we are tempted to think of it as little more than a spiritual inventory list. But to do so is to miss the entire point. This is not a manual for ancient interior decorating. This is theology in three dimensions. This is the gospel in gold, acacia wood, and linen.
Every detail in the Tabernacle is a pointer, a signpost, a shadow pointing to the substance, which is Jesus Christ. The Tabernacle is a model of how a holy God can dwell in the midst of a sinful people without consuming them. It is a microcosm of the heavens and the earth, and a prefigurement of the person and work of the Son. Therefore, we must pay close attention. When God gives a blueprint, there are no extraneous details. When He specifies a handbreadth here or a gold ring there, He is teaching us something profound about Himself and the nature of the worship He requires.
Last time we looked at the Ark of the Covenant, the very throne of God in the Holy of Holies. Now we move out one layer, into the Holy Place, and we come to the first piece of furniture described there: the Table of Showbread. If the Ark represents God's law and His atoning presence, this table represents His provision and His fellowship. This is God's dining room table, and He is inviting His people to a meal. This table teaches us that the God who judges is also the God who hosts. The God who commands is also the God who communes.
The Text
"You shall make a table of acacia wood, two cubits long and one cubit wide and one and a half cubits high. You shall overlay it with pure gold and make a gold border around it. You shall make for it a rim of a handbreadth around it; and you shall make a gold border for the rim around it. You shall make four gold rings for it and put rings on the four corners which are on its four feet. The rings shall be close to the rim as holders for the poles to carry the table. You shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold, so that with them the table may be carried. You shall make its dishes and its pans and its jars and its offering bowls with which to pour drink offerings; you shall make them of pure gold. You shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before Me at all times."
(Exodus 25:23-30 LSB)
The Table of Divine Hospitality (vv. 23-25)
The instructions begin with the construction of the table itself.
"You shall make a table of acacia wood, two cubits long and one cubit wide and one and a half cubits high. You shall overlay it with pure gold and make a gold border around it. You shall make for it a rim of a handbreadth around it; and you shall make a gold border for the rim around it." (Exodus 25:23-25)
The materials are significant. The core is acacia wood. This was a common wood of the Sinai wilderness, a tough, gnarled, desert wood. It is humble, yet durable and resistant to rot. This points directly to the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. He grew up as a root out of dry ground (Is. 53:2). His humanity was real, tested, and yet utterly incorruptible. He was without sin.
But this humble wood is not left exposed. It is completely overlaid with pure gold. Gold in Scripture consistently represents that which is divine, pure, and royal. This is a perfect picture of the hypostatic union. In Christ, two distinct natures, humanity (wood) and divinity (gold), are inseparably joined in one person. You cannot see the wood for the gold, yet the wood is there, giving it structure. So it is with Christ. He is the God-man, our Mediator, fully human and fully divine. This table is a Christological statement.
The dimensions are precise, because our God is a God of order. But notice the border, or rim. A border sets a boundary. It contains what is on the table and marks it as special, set apart. This is not just any table; it is a holy table. The fellowship God offers is a sacred fellowship. It is not a casual, come-as-you-are free-for-all. It is a holy communion, defined and protected by God Himself. This border tells us that the meal served here is a covenant meal, with covenant boundaries.
A Pilgrim's Provision (vv. 26-28)
Next, we see that this holy table was not designed to be stationary.
"You shall make four gold rings for it and put rings on the four corners which are on its four feet. The rings shall be close to the rim as holders for the poles to carry the table. You shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold, so that with them the table may be carried." (Exodus 25:26-28)
Just like the Ark of the Covenant, the Table of Showbread was made to be portable. It had rings and poles so that the priests could carry it as Israel moved through the wilderness. This is profoundly important. God's provision and His fellowship are not just for settled times. They are for the journey. He is not a God who waits for us at the destination; He is a God who travels with us through the desert.
This is a pilgrim's table for a pilgrim people. The Christian life is a wilderness journey. We are sojourners and exiles, heading toward the promised land of the New Jerusalem (1 Pet. 2:11). And on this journey, God does not leave us to fend for ourselves. He provides a traveling feast. He spreads a table for us in the presence of our enemies (Ps. 23:5). The fact that this table is mobile means that God's communion is always accessible to His people, wherever He leads them. The church is on the march, and the Lord's provision marches with us.
The Instruments of Fellowship (v. 29)
The table was not to be bare. It was to be fully furnished for a feast.
"You shall make its dishes and its pans and its jars and its offering bowls with which to pour drink offerings; you shall make them of pure gold." (Exodus 25:29)
This was a complete set. There were dishes for the bread, and various vessels for the drink offerings that accompanied the meal. This was not a sparse or meager snack. This was a fully appointed feast, signifying the richness of the fellowship God provides. All of these implements were to be made of pure gold, again emphasizing the divine and holy nature of this communion. The means by which we commune with God are themselves divine gifts, pure and precious.
The specific mention of drink offerings points us forward. This meal involved not just bread, but also wine. It was a foretaste of the covenant meal that Christ would institute, with bread and wine, representing His body and His blood. Fellowship with God is always covenantal, and covenants in the Bible are cut with sacrifice and sealed with a meal.
The Bread of the Face (v. 30)
Finally, we come to the centerpiece of it all, the very purpose of the table.
"You shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before Me at all times." (Exodus 25:30)
The King James calls this "showbread." The Hebrew is more striking: lechem ha-panim, which literally means "bread of the face" or "bread of the presence." This was bread that was set perpetually before the face of God.
There were twelve loaves, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel (Lev. 24:5-9). This means that the entire covenant people were represented by this bread. This was Israel, presented before God as a pleasing offering, a people sustained by Him. Every Sabbath, the priests would remove the old loaves and eat them in the Holy Place, and they would set out fresh, hot loaves. This was their sacred duty and their holy food. God was providing for His priests, and they were eating in His presence.
The command that it be there "at all times" or "continually" is key. This signifies the unbroken, perpetual fellowship that God desires with His people. His provision never fails. His welcome is constant. The door is always open. The table is always set.
Of course, this bread was a shadow. Who is the true Bread of the Face? The Lord Jesus Christ gives us the answer in no uncertain terms. "I am the bread of life" (John 6:35). "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh" (John 6:51). Jesus is the true Showbread. He is the one who represents all of His people, the true Israel, before the face of the Father, continually. He is the provision from God that we must eat, that we must take into ourselves by faith, in order to have eternal life.
From This Table to The Table
This entire picture finds its glorious fulfillment in the New Covenant at the Lord's Table. The Table of Showbread was in the Holy Place, accessible only to the Levitical priests. But now, through the torn veil of Christ's flesh, all believers have access to the holy things. We are all a royal priesthood (1 Pet. 2:9), and we are all invited to eat at the Lord's own table.
When we come to the Lord's Supper, we are not just remembering a past event. We are participating in a present reality. We are feasting on the true Bread of the Presence. Christ, our Great High Priest, perpetually stands before the face of the Father on our behalf. He "always lives to make intercession for them" (Heb. 7:25). And from that place of perfect, continual fellowship, He serves us this meal. He gives us Himself as our spiritual food and drink.
The old bread was eaten by the priests once a week. But Christ, the true bread, is to be our daily food. He is the one who sustains us on our pilgrim journey. This table in Exodus, made of incorruptible wood and divine gold, was a promise. It was a promise that God would one day provide a Mediator, both human and divine, who would secure everlasting fellowship for His people. That promise has been fulfilled in Jesus. And every time we gather at His table, we are proclaiming that fulfillment and feasting on the grace He provides, before His face, at all times.