The table of the bread of the presence – the showbread table – in the Holy Place in the tabernacle is a type of Christ as our food in a particular way: He is the bread of God’s presence to be our serving supply in the church life.
The fact that the table of the bread of the presence is spoken of by God right after the ark indicates that, as we enjoy Christ as the testimony of God, the embodiment of God, we feast on Him as our supply for our service to God; the ark becomes a table – the Christ we see and appreciate as God’s testimony becomes our nourishment and supply for us to serve God.
Whenever we come to God to fellowship with Him in Christ as our place of propitiation, we enjoy Christ in a rich way in the Holy Place, we are supplied inwardly to serve God, and we are becoming the testimony of God. How wonderful!
Today we want to go on and see something more concerning the table of the bread of the Presence being in a particular place: in the Holy Place in the tabernacle. The people who were not in the Holy Place could not enjoy this supply, and this table cannot be partaken of by anyone who was not in the tabernacle, in the Holy Place.
This indicates that we as believers in Christ need to be built up together into the church, God’s dwelling place, for it is only in a practical and actual built-up situation that we can feast on Christ as our rich serving supply.
If we are independent of the Body and meet with the saints when we want to, how we want to, and whether we want to, if we are not practically and actually built up with the saints serving together in the church life, we may enjoy the open manna – which is the Christ as our daily supply, available for everyone to pick and eat – but the bread of God’s presence, the serving supply of the priests, is not our portion.
May we be those who realize our need to be built up in the Body with the saints, and may we give ourselves to the Lord to be practically and actually built up in the church life so that we may feast on Christ with the saints and take Him as our rich serving supply.
Enjoying the Bread of the Presence Among God’s People as His Builded Habitation
Where was the table of the bread of the presence located? It was not in the outer court or outside the tabernacle but in a particular place: in the Holy place, even on the north side of the tabernacle outside the veil of the Holy of Holies (see Exo. 40:22).
What is the tabernacle? More precisely, who is the tabernacle? On the one hand the tabernacle is Christ Himself, the One who was God tabernacling with man (John 1:14), and on the other hand this Christ is in us today, having the church as His enlargement as the tabernacle of God with man, God’s habitation among men. The tabernacle is actually the saints built up together with one another in the practical church life.
Christ as the rich portion of supply for the serving priests can be enjoyed only in a practical builded situation; no individual believer can partake of such a Christ unless he is built up in the church with the saints. As priests to God, we don’t function by ourselves but together, in the “hood”, the priesthood, the brotherhood – we function in the church.
In order for us to enjoy Christ as the bread of the presence, we must be built into the church. No wanderer individualistic Christians know what this means or can partake of this portion; they may come and go as they wish, they may move to another home meeting or church when they feel like, but they cannot enjoy such a portion.
We may start as individualistic Christians, but as we grow in life and are being built up in the church with the saints, we realize that Christ is such a rich portion to us for our service.
“In the meetings of the church we have a particular enjoyment of Christ. Those who stay away from the meetings do not have this enjoyment, although they may enjoy Christ in other aspects. When we are in the tabernacle, in the midst of the built-up saints, we enjoy Christ on the table in God’s dwelling place.
The bread of the Presence on the table signifies a corporate feasting. In the Bible a table always signifies not an individual feasting, but a corporate feasting. In the church life we feast corporately. To be sure, we can have some enjoyment of Christ when we are alone. But this enjoyment cannot compare with feasting with Christ corporately in God’s dwelling place. How rich is our enjoyment of the bread on the table in the tabernacle!” (Witness Lee, Life-study of Exodus, p. 1064)
Independent Christians can never understand what it is to feast on the bread of the presence, but those who see God’s economy and realize that they are members in the Body, in need of the other members, and seeking to be built up together, they can enjoy such a feast.
The more we see God’s economy and His purpose, the more we realize that we are in the church, God’s house, His tabernacle, which is composed of many parts, and we need to be built up together.
In the church life we should enjoy a corporate feast with the saints in a builded up situation, realizing one another’s portion and function, and enjoying this rich Christ as the bread of the presence to be our serving supply.
Lord Jesus, how rich You are to us in the church life! We love to feast on You as the bread of the presence together with the saints. Amen, Lord, save us from being individualistic and independent; show us a vision of the Body and impress us with our need to be actually and practically built up with the saints in the church. Build us up with the saints into the priesthood so that we may have a rich enjoyment of Christ as the bread of the presence on the table in the Holy Place, in a built-up church!
Being Built up in a Practical way to Feast on Christ as the Bread of the Presence
God’s dwelling place, His spiritual tabernacle, is the church today; those believers who have been builded together in an actual and practical way are God’s present tabernacle as His dwelling place (see Eph. 2:21-22).
The question is: are we built up with the saints God put us with? Or are we free to go and come as we wish, or meet or not meet as we feel like? Do we need the church, and does the church need us? We all have a particular portion of Christ in our living and service to the Lord, and we are not complete in ourselves – we need the other saints.
None of us should be wandering Christians but have a sense of need of others: we cannot live by ourselves and we cannot go on by ourselves, we need the saints in the Body!
The building is a deep matter: it is not merely hanging out with the brothers or going shopping with the sisters, but the yearning and recognition that we are members of the Body, members one of another, needing other members. We need the building. We need to be built up with others in a practical and actual way.
Within God’s dwelling place, the saints who have been built together, there’s a table with bread for nourishment (see John 14:2; 6:33, 35). Apart from the church life, we cannot enjoy Christ as the bread of the presence.
Apart from being built up with the saints in an actual and practical way, the table of the bread of the presence is only a doctrine to us. Simply meeting with the saints or doing things together may not mean that you’re built up together: there needs to be a building up in spirit, in prayer, and in one accord in our service and living in the church life, and there needs to be a sense of need of the Body.
As we appreciate each other’s portion, being connected and joined together, we will find that there’s a rich nourishment here – Christ as the table of the bread of the presence is our rich feast. In the tabernacle, in the builded church life, we have the rich supply of Christ, but apart from the church as God’s dwelling place, we cannot have the enjoyment of Christ as the table of the bread of the presence for our nourishment.
Oh, how we need to be the believers who are built up together as God’s present dwelling place in an actual and practical way! When we are built together with the saints, within this building there will be the table of the bread of the presence for our nourishment and enjoyment. This is a deeper level of eating the Lord.
We need to eat Jesus every day, pursuing to eat Him from one level to another level: we start with manna, and as we grow in the Lord and are involved in God’s building and service, we reach another level of eating – the table of the bread of the presence.
From our experience we can testify that we enjoy Christ as a particular portion in the built-up church with the saints – He is so rich, so enjoyable, so nourishing, and so supplying as we eat Him as the bread of the presence with the saints!
Lord Jesus, we want to be those believers who are built up together as God’s present dwelling place in an actual and practical way so that we may enjoy You in a rich way as the bread of the presence. Lord, we want to advance in our eating from taking in the manna to being in the Holy Place to enjoy the bread of the presence. Keep us going on with You in the church life, Lord, until we realize our need of the Body and appreciate others’ portion as fellow members.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, brother James Lee’s sharing in the message for this week, and Life-study of Exodus, msg. 91 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (3), week 3 (week 27), The Table of the Bread of the Presence.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
# Take time to enjoy Him, our portion is He: / Our present, available reality; / Our practical, real, and enjoyable Lord / Is everything to us through His living Word. (Song on Enjoying Christ)
# By Thy life and by its flowing / I can grow and be transformed, / With the saints coordinated, / Builded up, to Thee conformed; / Keep the order in the Body, / There to function in Thy will, / Ever serving, helping others, / All Thy purpose to fulfill. (Hymns #840)
# Not just commune with Thee, / I long to builded be, / Mingle with others free / In spirit, Lord. (Hymns #846)
About aGodMan
From my experience of Christ and the church I have learned that this table is found only within the tabernacle, only in the midst of the builded saints. When I studied the typology of the tabernacle many years ago, I did not realize that the table was among the builded saints. At that time I did not have any experience. But now I can strongly testify that I enjoy my Christ as a particular portion, the table, within the tabernacle and close to the Ark as God’s embodiment. Oh, how rich is this enjoyment of Christ! (Witness Lee, Life-study of Exodus, pp. 1051-1052)
Amen! Hallelujah! The enjoyment of the table requires the building of the church. We must be those believers who are built up together as God’s present dwelling place in a actual and practical way. Amen. O Lord build us together we pray.