8 - STUDIES IN THE TABERNACLE
NOVEMBER 11, 1964
PASTOR HENRY F. KULP
Exodus 25: 8 And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.
God wanted to dwell with man, but as we said last week, in the tabernacle when God came down and met with man, He did it as a neighbor, and as we read inDeuteronomy, He was as one near to them. This is not nearly the wonderful position we hold today, of Christ in us, the hope of Glory.
1/ Everything in the tabernacle speaks of Jesus Christ. We have been studying the Holy of Holies, now we want to come to the Holy Place. In the Holy Place there are three pieces of furniture. There is the candlestick, which we will study later, then the altar of incense, over against the veil that separated them from God’s presence, then on your right was the Table of Shewbread. It was made of the same wood, and overlaid with pure gold. It was about 3 feet long, 1 1/2 feet wide and 2 1/4 feet high. It had a golden crown or molding all around the outer edge to keep the twelve loaves of bread safely upon the table, and to prevent them from falling upon the ground, and thus being defiled. There were four golden rings, two on each side of the table, through which passed two bars, two handles made of wood, and plated with gold. With these bars, the table was carried from place to place by the priests whenever they were on the move.
2/ It might be well to remember that this tabernacle was portable, because the children of Israel were ever on the march. They were in a howling wilderness. They had no abiding place in the wilderness.
3/ Exodus 25: 23, 24 Thou shalt also make a table of shittim wood: two cubits shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, and make thereto a crown of gold round about.
Exodus 25: 30 And thou shalt set upon the table shewbread before me alway.
You will notice that the bread was to be put before the Lord. It is called in another place, the Bread of God. They made twelve loaves of bread and baked it with frankincense, and once a week they put them upon the Table of Shewbread, and that was the food of God. That bread was Christ, for He said in John 6: 33 I am the Bread of God. So that Shewbread was Christ, and it was put there for God’s food. God is delighted in it—in His Son. That bread was left there for a week and it was called the food of God.
4/ Leviticus 24: 5, 6, 9 And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake. And thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the Lord. And it shall be Aaron's and his sons'; and they shall eat it in the holy place: for it is most holy unto him of the offerings of the Lord made by fire by a perpetual statute.
Remember that bread was called the bread of God, and it was out there for seven days as God’s food, and then at the end of seven days the priests were to take it and it became their food. The priests, who represented the people, were to feed upon the bread that God had been feeding on. It satisfied God and it satisfied the priests and it satisfied the people. It is wonderful to realize that we have that which satisfies God. That’s the glory of Christianity. People get up from the meeting and they say, I’m satisfied with God. That is a lot. But that isn’t everything. The glory of all this is that when you are satisfied with Christ, God was satisfied with Him.
5/ Now notice, Leviticus 24: 5 And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake.
Thou shalt take fine flour—all of this is a picture of Christ. He is the Bread, and He had to pass through everything it takes to make a loaf of Bread. Thou shalt take fine flour—Fine flour is a picture of the wonderful life Christ lived. You can take and run your hand through fine flour, and there are no lumps, there is nothing uneven—everything is perfectly smooth. That is the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything He did pleased the Father. It was pleasing to the Father.
6/ Leviticus 24: 7 And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto the Lord.
And thou shalt put frankincense upon each row that it may be the Frankincense—that is sweet incense. Something that pleases God. I am sure you remember the voice that came from Heaven at His baptism and said, Matthew 3: 17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Christ was well-pleasing to the Father in everything He did, everything He ever said. I like to think that Jesus Christ was pleasing to God the Father when He was a carpenter. Remember, He was a carpenter when He lived in Nazareth. It was the end of His time in the carpenter shop when He came out to be baptized. For thirty years He lived at home, and He came to be baptized. God looked on Him as a carpenter, and said, He is a Son in whom I am well pleased.
7/ The important point to see here is that I am pleasing to God the Father because I am in Christ, and God is pleased with this Christ. You might do as a woman said this morning to me—I’ve done so many terrible things—that’s true, but God sees you in Christ, and He is pleased with you. He is infinitely pleased with you. It is well for us to remember that everything the Lord Jesus Christ did, pleased the Father, and He said just that in John 6: 29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. I do always those things that please HIm.
8/ Leviticus 24: 7 And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto the Lord.
And here it says, an offering made by fire. To make a loaf of bread, you have to take grain and grind it—Jesus Christ had to go through the grinding—how terrible was the grinding—the persecution, the hatred, the rejection of men. Then do not forget it, He had to pass through the fire. When flour is ground, it has to be baked, and here it says, an offering made by fire. He experienced the fire of God. He was consumed by the fire of God for your sin and my sin.
9/ But if you eat this bread, you will live forever. Notice, John 6: 33 For the bread of God is He which cometh down from Heaven and giveth life unto the world. Then notice, verse 50 This is the bread which cometh down from Heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die.
Jesus Christ went through all that suffering, He went to the cross so that we might eat and never die.
10/ John 6: 51 says, That bread, that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
11/ Exodus 25: 24, 25 And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, and make thereto a crown of gold round about. And thou shalt make unto it a border of an hand breadth round about, and thou shalt make a golden crown to the border thereof round about.
Thou shalt make thereto a crown of gold round about. The crown—what does that mean? It is mentioned twice, so this crown of the tables has a meaning. And I believe this is the reason. I am sure that God is mentioning here about the two crowns of Jesus Christ.
Matthew 27: 29 And when they had plated a crown of thorns, they put it upon His head, and a reed in His right hand, and they bound the reed before Him and mocked Him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews.
Yes, the world gave Christ a crown, but they did it in mockery. They gave Him a crown of thorns, and God hasn’t forgotten that.
12/ But there are two verses in the Old Testament that are very fitting for us to look at at this present time—remarkable verses.
Ezekiel 21: 26, 27 Thus saith the Lord God; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.
Notice, Thus saith the Lord God; Remove the diadem. Evidently it is on the head of someone it doesn’t belong to, and God says, remove the diadem. Take off the crown. Then God says what he is going to do about it in the 27th verse, I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: And here you have a triplet. There are not very many triplets in the Bible. You remember one, Holy, Holy, Holy, and there are several others—only about five or six. But here is a triplet that is important. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it—that is three times, and it shall be no more until He come whose right it is; and I will give it to Him.
God is going to upset things, God is going to turn things upside-down. I will overturn. Why? Because things are wrong side up. Things are not right side up. You don’t have things right side up when you have Satan as the god of this age, controlling this world. I wonder if you remember when the world leaders said about Paul—that he had turned the world upside-down.
Acts 17: 6 And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also;
You will have to admit that things are not right, and that is what the world needs—it needs to be upset, it is wrong side up and God said, I’ll overturn, I’ll overturn, I’ll overturn, and then I’ll give the crown to the One that is worthy of it, and of course, Jesus Christ is the One that will have the crown upon His head, but instead of the crown of thorns, He will have the crown that will give Him the right to rule the world.
13/ Exodus 25: 25 And thou shalt make unto it a border of an hand breadth round about, and thou shalt make a golden crown to the border thereof round about.
There is another thing that we might look at—and thou shalt make unto it a border of a hand-breath round about it, thou shalt make a golden crown to the border round about.
There was to be a rim of a hand’s breath around the table. I think it was to hold the bread in place. They carried this bread into the wilderness, and God is a God of order. The six loaves on the side and six loaves on the other side, representing Twelve Tribes, and they were to be kept in place. God ordered it. These twelve loaves…so they could not move, they could not shift. We are to be solid and unmovable in Jesus Christ, we are not to shift from one thing to another, but to stand solid in Jesus Christ —unmovable.
14/ When the priests were to eat the bread, they must eat it standing up. There were no chairs for them to sit down. There was not a single chair in the tabernacle, for in this house of God, there was no place of ease, of entertainment—it was a place of constant service. The order might come at any moment to move on, and they were to be ready to pick up and to leave. And we too, are to worship on our feet, ready to heed God’s call.
15/ Exodus 25: 26, 27 And thou shalt make for it four rings of gold, and put the rings in the four corners that are on the four feet thereof. Over against the border shall the rings be for places of the staves to bear the table.
Notice these verses are given over to the making of the golden rings on the two sides of the table and to the staves. More description is given to the staves and the rings than anything else on this shewbread table. They were used to carry the table. It was to move, it was not stationary. God told them how to cover it, and how to carry it, and I believe this is a picture for us who know Christ as the Bread of Life, we are not to keep Him to ourselves. He is to be carried out into the world, we are to take the ministry of reconciliation to all men. Remember, Israel was always on the march. Whenever the cloud began to move, the children of Israel moved, the tabernacle moved. The Table Shewbread moved. Remember, for forty years they marched. They always carried with them the Bread of God. I believer this is a picture of true missionary work. When the church is standing still, it is not doing what God told us to do.
AMEN
11/11/1964 / 8 - Studies in the Tabernacle / 02/04/2025
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