Chapter 15

Showbread - His Presence & Purpose

The showbread or the hallowed or sacred cakes of bread that sat on a table across from the golden candlestick in the Holy Place served as a type of all mankind coming into the Presence of God through His Son, the Lord Jesus. The showbread (also, shewbread) is a type of Christ who is the heavenly manna.

In the very meaning of the Greek word for purpose, God literally hid His purpose. The word prothesis means "setting forth, specifically the show bread (in the Temple) as exposed before God" (Strong's Exhaustive Concordance). In other words, God's purpose is the setting forth of His Son.

(3) 'But He said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions, (4) how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated [prothesis] bread...." (Matthew 12:3-4 NASB)

For there was a tabernacle prepared, the outer one, in which were the lampstand and the table and the sacred [prothesis] bread; this is called the holy place. (Hebrews 9:2 NASB)

The Tabernacle was comprised of the Court and the Holies of the Holies (double plural, as rendered in the Greek), which had two divisions, the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place or the Holy of Holies.

The first objects the priests beheld as they entered the Holy Place were the Table of Showbread, which represents Christ as the Bread of Life, the manna that came down out of heaven (John 6:33, 35, 48, 51), and the Golden Candlestick, which represents Christ as the Light of the World (John 8:12).

In Hebrews 9:2, some translations refer to the sacred bread as the bread of the Presence (ESV, GW, ISV, JMT, YLT), an expression found in Hebrew Scripture: So the priest gave him consecrated bread; for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence [paniyim] which was removed from before the LORD (1 Samuel 21:6 NASB). We could say that it is the Presence bread, which refers to the very presence of the Lord.

The Hebrew word for presence is paniyim, which can refer to "the face (as the part that turns)." It also refers to being "purposed by." Thus, the showbread is more than a figure of Christ as the Bread of Life; it signifies being before the face of the One who is the very Bread of Life, the One whom all will feed upon to receive life.

Coming into His presence is another way of stating coming into the purpose of God!

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Now, here is the good news that I believe has been lost in our day but is being recovered in some measure: God's plan is to progressively bring all mankind into His presence, something that was lost in the Garden of Eden. Before their fall, Adam and Eve knew the presence of the Lord, for immediately after their fall, they heard the sound of the Lord God (Yahweh Elohim) walking in the garden in the cool of the day (Genesis 3:8).

The presence of the Lord was not some feeling but His actual presence. Prior to his transgression, which most likely occurred when he was 33, Adam lived in the Holy of the Holies as typified by the Garden with the Tree of Life. After his transgression, the way was barred for him and his race from entering into this sacred place while in bodies of death. In the typology of the Tabernacle, mankind moved to the outer court.

The good news is that the plan of God requires that all mankind eventually, but not all at the same time, be brought into His presence, to move from the outer court to the Holies of the Holies.

The salvation of all mankind is a progressive journey. After the fall, man lived in the outer court. When the Lord raised up the sons of Israel, the Tabernacle was a type that there was a way into the Presence of God to behold Him face to face. Only a very few were allowed to enter into the Holies of the Holies through the sacrifice of bulls and goats. Moses alone was given the privilege of appearing before the Lord face to face.

Then, the Son of God came to this earth and made the way for all mankind to come into the Holy Place to stand before Him as signified by the showbread. Those of us who have believed on Jesus in this age have been brought into the presence of the Lord in spirit, and because of this, we have a hope set before us, an anchor of the soul, which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner (Hebrews 6:18-20). He has opened the door for us to enter within the very Most Holy Place. We are destined to enter the Holy of Holies to be presented to God the Father in glorified, celestial bodies on the eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles. What a destiny!

But is this glory for us alone? Has not God purposed to restore mankind to the glorious state of Adam before the fall and then make all new? Has not God purposed to bring all mankind and all creation back into His Presence so that He may be all in all? Has He not purposed that He will do this through His Son who is all in all (Colossians 3:11), as well? Is not His Son the Purpose?

But first, mankind must be brought into the Holy Place to behold the face of Jesus. The Son of God is the only way into the Most Holy Place, the very presence of God, into the glory of God. All must appear before the Bread of the Presence, the One who holds the key of Life and who is the Light of the world. All must pass by and through the Son of God, for He alone is the Way to God the Father. And, they will reverently bow the knee as they behold the Son of God, the Son of Glory sitting upon the Great White Throne. They will behold the Showbread, the Presence, and the face of the very Purpose of God!

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