Eating With God


The second item mentioned in the Temple is the Table for Bread.
Exodus 25:23 (ESV) “You shall make a table of acacia wood. Two cubits shall be its length, a cubit its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height...

Exodus 25:29–30 (ESV) 29 And you shall make its plates and dishes for incense, and its flagons and bowls with which to pour drink offerings; you shall make them of pure gold. 30 And you shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before me regularly.

 The God of Israel will eat with His people. That is the image we are presented with in the Old Testament tabernacle. God instructed Moses to put bread on the table in the Temple where their God would dwell among them. Their God did not demand child sacrifice or brutal ritual. Their God wanted communion with His people. This is what it looks like to come into the presence of God. We EAT and fellowship with the One who created us!

Jesus will feed the 5000 and 4000. The only other miracle in all four Gospels OUTSIDE the resurrection is the feeding of the multitudes! God longs to have fellowship with us. To come into His presence is to share intimate friendship.

When Jesus shows up He will declare the same...
Luke 22:15 (ESV) And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.

Jesus will say to the lukewarm church of Laodicea:
Revelation 3:20 (ESV) Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

 There's a story later on in the Old Testament about this Bread in the temple. David is running away with his companions from Saul. Ahimelech, the priest offers him this very bread from the temple. It gave David and his companions the much needed strength they needed for the struggle of their lives.

 Jesus will reference this moment when the Pharisees question his authority to eat the heads of grain on the Sabbath. In His response to their legalistic cold-heartedness, Jesus quotes from Hosea:
Matthew 12:7 (ESV) And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.

Hosea is the prophetic book of the Bible that most acutely presents the love of God for His people. That God seeks to be with them even while they run after other gods that cannot truly nourish or satisfy.

If there is one major theme we can draw from the bread of presence it is that God longs to dwell with us far more than we could ever realize. How often we take this reality for granted. How often we neglect the only fellowship that can give us strength when the "Sauls" of our lives come against us and attack us. Time with God is time well spent. It makes us stronger for the struggle, it brings His presence to bear in our situation, it teaches us that God will provide for us when we are weak and unable to go on. 

Of all the things the God of the Universe could have instructed Moses to put in the Temple, He describes a table with bread to represent Himself. He does not have the cosmos painted on the walls, or radiant drawings of animals or "super" humans as we may find in other ancient temples. Our God wants us to know He comes to be WITH us, intimately and warmly... like friends who sit down together.

Amen.

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