Jesus called himself the bread of life (John 6). We are to feast on him in our worship. He is our spiritual sustenance. But of course we can go further, what’s the connection between this bread and the Lord’s Supper?

Jesus in the Tabernacle II

The tabernacle instructions continue with a table made of the ubiqutuous Acacia, of tabernacle wood. This is again overlaid with gold with a moulding around the edge (Exodus 25). It also has rings to allow it to be carried with poles. The tabernacle furniture is not for touching in the course of being moved, only for touching for worship.

It has plates and dishes and flagons and bowls. And then the text moves on to the lampstands because these are instructions for construction, the instructions for use come later in Leviticus. We’re simply told that here the ‘bread of the presence’ is set before God. Or, more literally, put the face bread on the table always.

od’s presence is his face, that’s the Hebrew idiom. It’s Godbread. Bread that is in front of God. Bread that God looks at. The table sits just outside the holy of holies in the tabernacle section we usually call ‘the holy place’ or just ‘inside the tent.’

Making the Bread

Leviticus 24 tells us about the bread itself. It’s made of fine flour. Every week another twelve loaves are baked, one for each of Israel’s tribes. They are put on the table and the bread is from the people of Israel to God. Frankincense is added to each of the two piles of six loaves, as a food offering to God.

Does God eat it? No, Leviticus is specific, this is not food for a pagan god to eat but instead eaten by the priests, and only the priests. They can eat it only inside the holy place. There’s a whole line of the tribe of Levi who are the people of bread—the Kohathites (Numbers 4)—responsible for care for the table and its bread.

It’s not entirely clear but it seems like the idea is that the bread is baked on a Friday, placed on the table on the Sabbath, and then presumably eaten as part of the Sabbath rather than left there all week to go dry. Priests eat fresh bread in their worship.

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