Bread of the Presence

It is a mysterious story which repeatedly breaks into the flow of the Bible and then disappears again. We find ourselves hearing at least an echo of God’s mind about the life and sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus. Here, then, is the story of Easter from a totally unexpected angle.

It concerns a strange Jewish institution called the Bread of the Presence. The account begins with a command of God through Moses in Leviticus chapter 24. God decrees that there is to be a table of pure gold in the Jewish Tabernacle (the precursor to the Jerusalem Temple) that would always have two piles of six bread cakes on it. The bread would be a food offering, but would stay on the table rather than be offered like an animal sacrifice. Every Sabbath day a new consignment would be neatly placed on the table and the old apparently eaten by the priests, and only the priests, as it was most holy.

We then move on to a curious incident that took place in some desperate days for David, the future King of Israel, and his followers (1 Samuel 21). Persecuted and beleaguered by King Saul in the waning days of Saul’s kingship, David desperately needs food for some of his young men. He asks the priest Ahimelech for whatever he can spare.  All there is is the Bread of the Presence, which the priest calls holy bread. He can only supply it if the young men are ritually clean. David assures him that they are. The priest then gives him the bread. In effect, ordinary soldiers are being treated as though they were privileged like priests.

Jesus uses this story as an effective argument against those who were criticizing the actions of His disciples. On one occasion these disciples were plucking some ears of corn from local cornfields for food. This was acceptable practice except that it was the Sabbath that day, when “work” was forbidden. The Pharisees challenged Jesus. Jesus replied,

“Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him?” And he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath” (Luke 6:3-5 ESV).

With this one brief story a number of key points emerges. Here are just some:

    •    God’s Presence is for ever with His people. Jesus is Immanuel, “God with us”.
    •    Jesus says, “I am the Bread”. He is the living Bread from heaven, spiritual food to make us alive and nourish us.
    •    This is holy bread. With the Lord Jesus we are handling holy things.
    •    Jesus is our great High Priest, who makes His followers “a kingdom and priests to our God” (Revelation 5:10).
    •    Jesus is a merciful High Priest. He sets aside the strictness of God’s law to still our pangs of hunger and make us clean before God.
    •    In the Presence of God with us, and our coming to Him in the Lord Jesus, we have an eternal covenant. Holy Communion is now the sign of this.

Thank God for the rich meaning of that far-off piece of ceremony, the Bread of the Presence. May we present ourselves with reverence and Easter hope to our awesome, holy yet merciful God, the Father of Jesus Christ who gave His life as spiritual food for us and rose again.