A Study of the Tabernacle—Part 11

The Table of Showbread—God’s Daily Provision

Do you know what you need? God does!

Jesus offers bread—He instructs His disciples to pray for daily bread (Matthew 6:11) and teaches that He is the bread of life, from which, if they eat, they will never hunger again (John 6:35). But, how many of us are satisfied with just bread? We want what the world is telling us we can have—a four-course dinner! We want to feast upon all the desires of our eyes and our appetites. However, God has been calling us to a more disciplined diet for a reason.

Within the Tabernacle there was an article of furniture called the Table of Showbread. This was a table made of acacia wood and covered with gold upon which 12 loaves of unleavened bread were placed before God. This bread was kept continually in place, even when Israel traveled, as a way of remembering God as their provider, and was replaced with fresh loaves each Sabbath. Rabbinic teaching claims that the priests ate the old bread while frankincense was burned as a way of expressing worship and gratitude to God for His provision. The table and the bread upon it was a continual reminder that God was Israel’s source of PROVISION! It is to Him they must place their trust!

Are you concerned about whether God will take care of you? It is interesting to consider the discipline God consistently calls people to develop when He asks them to walk with Him. Abraham was challenged to leave everything he would normally use to provide for himself—country, relatives, and father’s house— in order to travel to a land God would show him. He was to leave his inheritance and the support he would receive from those who knew him best (physically speaking). What God wanted him to learn was to trust in the provision of his true Father!

When Israel left Egypt, God instructed them to plunder them, which they did. They walked out of Egypt with an incredible amount of riches (consider the materials used to make the Tabernacle—and the fact that a group of slaves possessed all of this). However, God did not want them to depend upon their own means and led them to the wilderness where they were forced to trust in His daily provision to survive. He is the source of PROVISION we are meant to trust.
The same thing happened when Jesus started calling disciples to Himself. The first disciples were fishermen who, upon being told to follow Him, left their nets and their families (Matthew 4:18-22). The very same thing Abraham did (leaving family and means of support), Peter, Andrew, James and John did to follow Jesus. They each realized God is their PROVIDER of daily bread.

Do you know what you need? God does!

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-Scott