The shewbread, or bread of the Presence.
Corresponding with the number of the tribes, and representing them; a national offering; a meat offering, with frankincense, drink offering, and salt. Taken from the people, eaten by the priests, every sabbath, for a memorial, by an everlasting covenant; "furnishing a striking figure of Israel's condition in the view of Jehovah, whatever might be their outward aspect. The twelve tribes are ever before him. Their memorial can never perish. They are ranged in Divine order in the sanctuary, covered with the fragrant incense of Christ, and reflected from the pure table whereon they rest beneath the bright beams of that golden tamp which shines, with undimmed luster, through the darkest hour of the nation's moral night."
I. The perfect UNITY and completeness of the Church as before God.
1. As compared with the broken, external, visible unity.
2. As maintained by the Spirit and merit of Christ.
3. As hereafter to be manifested when there shall be no more temple, but the glory of God and of the Lamb are the temple of the heavenly Jerusalem.
II. The SAFETY and blessedness of God's people. Their memorial is before him.
1. Proceeding from the sanctuary, i.e; all blessedness the outcome of spiritual blessedness.
2. Committed to the Lord Jesus Christ as the Head of the true Israel, the Lord of the temple, in whom "all the promises are Yea and Amen."
3. Appealing to faith. The loaves were there to represent the continued life of the people; faith alone saw the reality.—R.