OK, so now we come to Leviticus 24. Almost to the end of this part of the journey. Just three more chapters left after this, and then we get to Numbers.
Leviticus 24:1-9
(NASB)
—1 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “2 Command the
sons of Israel that they bring to you clear oil from beaten olives for the
light, to make a lamp burn continually. 3 Outside the veil of testimony in the
tent of meeting, Aaron shall keep it in order from evening to morning before
the LORD continually; it shall be a perpetual statute throughout your
generations. 4 He shall keep the lamps in order on the pure gold lampstand
before the LORD continually. 5 Then you shall take fine flour and bake twelve
cakes with it; two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake. 6 You shall set
them in two rows, six to a row, on the pure gold table before the LORD. 7 You
shall put pure frankincense on each row that it may be a memorial portion for
the bread, even an offering by fire to the LORD. 8 Every sabbath day he shall
set it in order before the LORD continually; it is an everlasting covenant for
the sons of Israel. 9 It shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it
in a holy place; for it is most holy to him from the LORD's offerings by fire,
his portion forever.”
The oil they were to use was to be from beaten olives—not pressed as the NKJV says, which is why I chose the NASB for this chapter (the KJV and ESV also supply the correct term). And notice who was to bring it. In verse 2, it says the people are to bring this oil, “clear oil of beaten olives.” Messrs. Spence and Exell—
“The
ordinance on the lamps contained in the first three verses is repeated from Exodus 27:20. The oil to be used for the lamps
was to be pure oil olive, that is, oil made of picked berries, without any
intermixture of dust or twigs; and it was to be beaten instead of ‘pressed,’
because when the berries were crushed in the olive-press, small portions of
them became mixed with and discoloured the oil, which was, therefore, less pure
than when the fruit was simply beaten and then left to drain.”
The lampstand was to never run dry of oil; the lamp was to be burning continually.
The פָּנִים
(paniym, showbread) was meant to be consumed only by those men who
worked within the temple. After all, killing and slicing and butchering and
burning animals for hours on end can cause a man to work up a hunger. And yet
the high priest Ahimelech gave it to David his men 1st Samuel
21:1-6 (NASB)—1 Then David came to Nob to
Ahimelech the priest; and Ahimelech came trembling to meet David and said to
him, "Why are you alone and no one with you?" 2 David said to
Ahimelech the priest, "The king has commissioned me with a matter and has
said to me, 'Let no one know anything about the matter on which I am sending
you and with which I have commissioned you; and I have directed the young men
to a certain place.' 3 Now therefore, what do you have on hand? Give me five
loaves of bread, or whatever can be found." 4 The priest answered David
and said, "There is no ordinary bread on hand, but there is consecrated
bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women." 5 David
answered the priest and said to him, "Surely women have been kept from us
as previously when I set out and the vessels of the young men were holy, though
it was an ordinary journey; how much more then today will their vessels be
holy?" 6 So the priest gave him consecrated bread; for there was no bread
there but the bread of the Presence which was removed from before the LORD, in
order to put hot bread in its place when it was taken away. Wasn’t this
an offense to God? Shouldn’t they all have been struck down for such a
rebellion against God’s commands? We would think so. And yet here, again, we
see the mercy of God. Listen to what God has to say when he is walking through
the grain fields with His disciples and the Pharisees in Matthew 12:3-7
(NASB)—3 But He said to them, “David…when he became hungry, he and his companions…4 entered
the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for
him to eat nor for those with him, but for the priests alone...7 [know] what
this means, 'I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice'…”
Does God need bread? Does
God get hungry, does He need to eat? No. Besides, the Levites and priests had
the meat and bread from the sacrifices to eat if they got hungry. But such is
the short-sightedness of men when trying to understand the Law of God. Man
thinks this Law is here to show him how to be righteous. And yet this Law is
rather meant to show man the mercy of God. For this Law was embodied in Christ.
This Christ would exposit the words of Isaiah, which the prophet spoke of Him (Isaiah
42:1-4), in Matthew 12:18-21 (NASB)—“18
‘Behold, My Servant whom I have chosen; My Beloved in whom My soul is
well-pleased; I will put My Spirit upon Him, and He shall proclaim justice to
the Gentiles. 19 He will not quarrel, nor cry out; nor will anyone hear His
voice in the streets. 20 A battered reed He will not break off, and a
smoldering wick He will not put out, until He leads justice to victory. 21 And
in His name the Gentiles will hope.’” So then, it is not the keeping of
every jot and tittle of the Law—at the expense of mercy and compassion—that God
desires. But it is looking upon one another with pity, looking for ways to do
good in the name of YHVH. And it is not the keeping of the showbread for the
priests and Levites that God desires—but the sharing of that bread with those
servants of God who do His will.
Now, the פָּנִים
(paniym, showbread) was to be laid out in two rows of six—this was
obviously meant to represent the twelve tribes of Israel. And where you see
that “You shall put pure frankincense on each row
that it may be a memorial portion for the bread, even an offering by fire to
the LORD” (Leviticus 24:7 NASB), this does not mean that the
incense was to be sprinkled over the bread. Rather, there were two bowls which
were placed next to each row of loaves. Question: Why? What purpose did these
bowls of incense serve? Well, to answer that question, we have to ask another
one: What happened to the old loaves? What was done with any bread that was
left over? Did they just hand it out and have a feast on it? Was it taken
outside the camp and dumped? No; actually the bread that was left was burned
upon the later with the incense. And this was not done in just any
fashion—there was an order to it. John Gill on Leviticus 24:8—
“The
priest or priests then ministering, [would] bring new cakes and place them in
the above order, having removed the old ones, which was done in this manner;
four priests went in, two had in their hands the two rows (of bread), and two
had in their hands two cups (of frankincense); four went before these, two to
take away the two rows (of the old bread), and two to take away the two cups
(of frankincense); and they that carried in stood in the north, and their faces
to the south and they that brought out stood in the south, and their faces to
the north; these drew away (the old bread) and they put them (the new), and the
hand of the one was over against the hand of the other, as it is said,
"before me continually", Exodus 25:30; that is, at the same time the
hands of the one were employed in taking away, the hands of the other were
employed in setting on; so that there was always bread upon the table”
As Paul said, All things must be done properly and in an orderly manner
(1st Corinthians 14:40 NASB).
Now, another thing—this
showbread was to be brought into the Most Holy Place on the Sabbath day of
every week. “But wait a minute—didn’t God say that no work was to be done on
the Sabbath? Won’t we read a passage in Numbers that tells of a man being
stoned for picking up a pile of sticks on the Sabbath (Numbers 15:32-36)?
And wouldn’t this bringing in and taking out of bread be considered ‘work’””?
Jesus Christ our Lord seemed to say as much, when He said in Matthew 12:5—“Or have you not read in the Law, that on the Sabbath the
priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent?” Not only did
they do work in the tabernacle by bringing in the new showbread and burning the
old, but they also had to kill not one, but two lambs on every Sabbath morning
and two every Sabbath evening (see Numbers 28:9).
Here’s the thing—If God
commands that something be done on the Sabbath, He is well within His rights to
do so. After all, we see Jesus saying as much after he healed a man on the
Sabbath (a different man from the one mentioned in Matthew 12). We find Him
saying in John 7:22-24 (NASB)—“21 I did one
deed, and you all marvel. 22 For this reason Moses has given you circumcision
(not because it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and on the Sabbath you
circumcise a man. 23 If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that
the Law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made
an entire man well on the Sabbath? 24 Do not judge according to appearance, but
judge with righteous judgment.” If a man was born on the Sabbath, and he
must be circumcised on his eight day of life—which would be the following
Sabbath—then one of the two commands must be kept, and the other broken. He
must either be circumcised on the Sabbath, or he must be circumcised on a day
other than his eighth day of life. But because God desires
mercy rather than a sacrifice (Hosea 6:6; quoted by Christ in Matthew
12:7), He will not have us to be cold and unfeeling toward others simply to
keep a set of rules and ordinances. This attitude is summed up in the words of James
1:26-27 (NASB)—26 If anyone thinks himself to
be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart,
this man's religion is worthless. 27 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight
of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress,
and to keep oneself unstained by the world. It is not the keeping of a
Sabbath that shows a man to be righteous. It is not the outward, exterior
things that declare a man to be righteous, but the heart of a man who looks
with compassion and mercy on others is the righteous man. Granted, these things
do not make the man righteous, rather, they announce to the world around him
that he is righteous.
So we have light in the
tabernacle, and we have bread in the tabernacle. And we also have a Lord who said
of Himself, “I AM the Bread of Life” and “I AM the Light of the World” (John 6:35; John 8:12).
Have I mentioned before that all the things contained in the
tabernacle—including the tent itself—pointed to Christ? The lampstand was the
only source of light inside of that otherwise pitch-dark tent. What—or, rather,
Who—is the only light that brings life to otherwise dark, dead men? John 1:4
(NASB)—In Him was life, and the life was the
Light of men. The showbread was the only food allowed inside the tent.
What—or, rather, Who—is the only nourishment for otherwise hungry, starving
souls in need of spiritual nourishment? John 6:32-35 (NASB)—“32 Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given
you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread
out of heaven. 33 For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven,
and gives life to the world…35 I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will
not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” Simon Peter
confessed this very fact in John 6:68 (NASB)—“Lord,
to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.” The editors of the Jamieson, Fausset
and Brown commentary interpret Peter’s words thus—
“We cannot deny that we have been staggered as well as they, and seeing so many go away who, as we thought, might have been retained by teaching a little less hard to take in, our own endurance has been severely tried, nor have we been able to stop short of the question, Shall we follow the rest, and give it up? But when it came to this, our light returned, and our hearts were reassured. For as soon as we thought of going away, there arose upon us that awful question, ‘TO WHOM shall we go?’ To the lifeless formalism and wretched traditions of the elders? to the gods many and lords many of the heathen around us? Or to blank unbelief? Nay, Lord, we are shut up. They have none of that ‘ETERNAL LIFE’ to offer us whereof Thou hast been discoursing, in words rich and ravishing as well as in words staggering to human wisdom. That life we cannot want; that life we have learnt to crave as a necessity of the deeper nature which Thou hast awakened: ‘the words of that eternal life’ (the authority to reveal it and the power to confer it). Thou hast: Therefore will we stay with Thee - we must.”
Part 2 next week
