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
