Exodus 25:23-25, “Thou shalt also make a table of shittim wood: two cubits shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, and make thereto a crown of gold round about. And thou shalt make unto it a border of an hand breadth round about, and thou shalt make a golden crown to the border thereof round about.”

THE TABLE OF SHEWBREAD represents the third church experience as shown in the tabernacle.

THE MEASUREMENTS

Two cubits long and one cubit wide is a square of two, which would signify the WITNESS of the Spirit and the Word. One cannot have the Word without the Spirit, for it is the Spirit that enlightens the Word to us. One and a half cubits high still shows the lack in the fulness of God. This experience of eating at the table of shewbread was not intended to bring the church to the full stature of Jesus Christ, but it was another experience on the way.

THE KING’S TABLE

The crown on the edge of the table, and then the breadth of a man’s hand as a border, and another crown at the bottom (one crown was turned up and one crown was turned down), gives the double significance of the table, being the king’s table, and at the same time, a place of kingship through suffering and tribulation. The crown turned up was a sign of an exalted position; turned down was a sign of humility. All through these types, we see the gold as the nature of God, “pure gold.” The vessels on the table were of pure gold. Spoons, bowls and covers were also of gold. The table itself was wood overlaid with gold – humanity, with God outside. But the dishes and spoons and bowls were of “pure gold,” signifying that the service at this point of God’s dealing with man, or with His church, is purely of the Spirit, though man is used.

FEASTING ON JESUS CHRIST

The whole operation of the third church realm, as represented here in the tabernacle, is a type of man feasting on Christ.

John 6:48-51, “I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

This does not merely represent man feasting on the word of God from the pages of the Bible, BUT it represents man feasting on the living CHRIST Himself. Feasting on Christ is a spiritual business, not a memorizing of scriptures or any other physical act, but an entering into the Spirit, and a submission to the Spirit of God, who is able to feed us with the living word.

We feed upon Jesus Christ in three dimensions:

(1) The Christ within – Christ is in the Holy Ghost. When the believer receives the Holy Ghost, he receives Him in his spirit. Immediately, the Holy Ghost begins to energize the soul, so that the Christ might enter. The still, small voice within the soul of the believer should be nurtured and obeyed. Very often, our tendency is to obey the voices from without, and to reject the voice within. As a matter of fact, the majority of the churches teach that we must obey our leaders, and that women must obey their demon-possessed husbands, no matter what they say or what they do. I am teaching that we obey the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost in the believer will lead us to obey good and not evil. If a woman takes this as license to rebel against her husband, or if any Christian takes this as encouragement to rebel against his leader, then that Christian is not hearing the voice of the Spirit. The Holy Ghost leads us into all truths.

(2) We feed on the Christ in the body of believers. Those who have gone before left us very real teachings and examples which we should keenly observe and follow. Since there are so many counterfeits, we have to depend on the Holy Ghost. God, therefore, will send to the body the necessary spiritual food they need. In the assembly, there is a movement of the Spirit, which cannot be found anywhere else. Where the two or three are gathered together, the Spirit will move with gifts and blessings which are not present anywhere else. “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.” Hebrews 10:25. Two words stand out in this quotation: “ourselves,” and “together.” “Ourselves” in this passage means those who are one with you in the Spirit, and “together” means being in one accord. On many occasions, many assemble, but they are not together and they are not the “yourselves.” Sometimes we gather together under man’s auspices, and man dictates the terms upon which we meet, therefore God is secondary in the gathering or the assembly. Every assembling of Christians must have God as King of the congregation, and He must be thus recognized in our gatherings. The following scripture will bear this point out.

Matthew 18:19-20, “Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

This passage clearly shows that Jesus Christ attends our meetings, and that the key of our gathering is being “together.”

(3) We feed on Christ in a third dimension in His presence and person. This means that the man Christ Jesus is walking about our houses, in our bedrooms, in our dining rooms, in our living rooms and in our churches. He is not there as a visitor to whom we will show kindness, but as Lord and King. If this is so, then we Will feed on Him night and day, sleeping or waking.

THE SPOKEN WORD

From the Living Word (The “Logos,” John 1:1) comes the spoken word. When the living word is within, then the words spoken are SPIRIT and life. When we speak in the voice of Christ, all the AGENTS OF GOD obey us. THE SPOKEN WORD, therefore, is the commands of the Spirit carried out by the angelic servants of God who are “ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.” Hebrews 1:14.

The Old Testament was written as a type and shadow of the things which are to come to pass in Christ Jesus. Thus everything written in the Old Testament points to Christ. Christ therefore, is the theme of the scripture. One will inquire if some statements of scripture were not instructions to the Jews for proper living in the physical. The answer is yes, BUT since the spiritual made the physical, there can be nothing in the physical that is not a lesson or a shadow of the SPIRITUAL.

DESERT CHRISTIANS

God was dealing with a people who were traveling through the natural desert, and He deliberately gave them rules and laws for their subsistence which were good in the natural, but which when applied in the SPIRITUAL is also good for SPIRITUAL DESERT CHRISTIANS. In the spiritual sense, we are in dry places. Man and the devil have overshadowed the gospel with so much trash, that had it not been like pure gold, we would not have been able to redeem it. This world of sinners is indeed a desert place. Therefore, even as Christ was that Rock which gave the Israelites water, so is He now in our desert. 1st Corinthians 10: 4, 11.