Leviticus 24:5-9 And you shall take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake.… As there was light on the candlestick in God's house, so was there bread on his table. It was called the "shewbread," literally, "bread of faces," or of the presence, viz. of Jehovah. Let us consider - I. ITS DESCRIPTION. 1. It was composed of fine flour. (1) Christ is compared to a corn of wheat, viz. before it is ground, and while the life is whole in it (see Psalm 72:16, where the "handful of corn" may be more literally construed a corn of wheat; and comp. John 12:24, where Jesus evidently cites this passage and applies it to himself). (2) So is he compared to bread. This is corn whose life is sacrificed in the treatment to which it is subjected. Jesus calls himself the Bread who gives his life unto the world (John 6:33). (3) The very manner in which corn loses its life to become nourishment, it being bruised and burnt, describes the sufferings of Christ in body and spirit from the hands of man and of God. (4) Bread is the staple in food. As without it there is no feast, so without Christ there is no true joy. As with it there is no hunger, so have we in him a satisfying portion. 2. It was measured in tenths. (1) Ten is the number for riches; and Christ, as the Rich One, is called a Tenth (see Isaiah 6:13). All the holy bread was measured in tenth-deals, to point to the "measure of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:7, 13). The riches of eternity are ours in him (see Homily on the Feast of Expiation). (2) But why two tenth-deals to each cake? Perhaps light may be let in upon this by noting that, on the sixth day, two omers, or tenths, of manna were gathered to prepare for the sabbath (Exodus 16:22). It was on the sabbath that the bread of the presence was replaced. (3) This correspondence further identifies the typical import of the presence-bread with that of the manna. Note in addition that, as the manna came from God out of heaven, this bread is distinguished as that which comes from the Divine presence; and the true Bread of Life came from heaven (John 6:33, 38, 40, 50, 51, 58). 3. The number of the loaves was twelve. (1) Here was a loaf for every son of Israel. "There is bread enough in our Father's house." (2) This number was continued after the revolt of the ten tribes (2 Chronicles 13:11). This fact suggests that the number is also typical in relation to the spiritual Israel; a view confirmed by the application of the number twelve to the New Testament Church. Thus upon the head of the sun-clothed woman is a coronet of twelve stars, obviously in allusion to the twelve apostles of the Lamb, who are described as twelve angels at the twelve gates of the mystical city, and whose names are inscribed upon its twelve foundations (Revelation 12:1; Revelation 21:12, 14, 21). (3) Twelve also is the number of the Lamb himself. He is the true Tree of Life, having twelve manner of fruits, corresponding to the twelve months in the year (Revelation 22:2). So the one Bread of the Presence is distributed into twelve loaves. And "we being many are one bread" in him (see 1 Corinthians 10:17). (4) This association of the months with the loaves opens a very interesting field of investigation. Is there not a great year of the world to be measured by soil-lunar time (see Genesis 1:14)? King, in his 'Morsels of Criticism,' has a dissertation concerning the sabbath and a sabbatical era, in which he unfolds from the sabbatical intercalation of the Levitical system a more perfect adjustment of lunar to solar time than the Gregorian. Intercalations on the principle of the Jewish sabbatic period will in 400 years adjust the solar and lunar time within one hour and forty minutes. In fifteen such periods, or 6000 years, the adjustment will leave only one hour to be accounted for. But every 144,000 years, which is the square of 12 in thousands, and a number very remarkable in the measures of the New Jerusalem, things are brought right to a second (see Revelation 7; Revelation 14:3, 4; Revelation 21:17). II. WHAT WAS DONE WITH IT. 1. It was placed upon the table before the Lord. (1) It was "before the Lord," for the Shechinah was separated from it only by the vail. The glory sometimes streamed out through the vail, as it did through the flesh of Christ on the mount of transfiguration. (2) it was then set in two rows of six over against each other. The purpose seems to have been to show how the tribes of the spiritual Israel will feast together in the fellowship of heaven. (3) It was in a sense there "continually," for it was replaced with new every sabbath. The Jews say, "The hands of those priests that put on were mixed with those that took off, that the table might be never empty." 2. A memorial of it was burnt. (1) It was "an offering made by fire unto the Lord." But how? Was it not eaten by the priests? When the cakes were removed the frankincense was burnt. This was the memorial of the whole; in this the whole was accepted as a burnt offering (comp. Leviticus 2:2). This will explain the expression in the words of the angel to Cornelius, "Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God" (Acts 10:4). (2) But was this memorial burnt upon the table? We have no reason to think so. It was probably burnt upon the golden altar, which was the altar of incense. Note: the communion table ought never to be spoken of as an altar. It was from the table, not from the altar, that the priests ate the bread of the presence. (3) The spiritual priesthood alone have a right to partake of the true Bread of the Presence, and feast in fellowship with God. - J.A.M. Parallel Verses KJV: And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake. |
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