I’m sure I’ve been told this before, but, as Chesterton realized, there’s a certain joy in discovering what you’ve known as if for the first time.
Every commentators nowadays notes that the description of the tabernacle in Exodus 25-31 is laid out in seven speeches of Yahweh that mimic the days of creation. But Moses’ actual construction of the tabernacle, narrated in Exodus 40, also follows the creation week:
Day 1: Tabernacle with boards and pillars, tent, covering over tent, Ex 40:18-19: Heaven and earth
Day 2: Ark taken into the sanctuary and screened by a veil, Ex 40:20-21: Firmament screen
Day 3: Table of showbread on north side outside the veil, with bread arranged Ex 40:22-23: Golden land and food
Day 4: Lampstand and lights, Ex 40:24-25: Heavenly lights
Day 5: Golden altar of incense, Ex 40:26-27: Swarmers
Day 6: Veil to Holy Place, bronze altar, laver and Aaron and sons, Ex 40:28-33a: Creation of man, establishment of garden
Day 7: Moses finished the work and Yahweh enthroned, Ex 40:33b-38: Same completion formula as Genesis 2:1; Yahweh enthroned at Sabbath
My interest in looking this over is the table of showbread. And on that point, a few things follow from this creation-week structure. First, the Day 3 associations of the golden table suggest that the dry land itself is a table spread with food for God’s creatures. A table that reproduces food at will, that recycles waste food and turns it into more food to re-fill the table, in other words a pretty neat table. Altars are also tables, and so the dry land-as-table suggests that the land also emerges from the sea to be God’s table.
Second, the Day 3 associations suggestion something about Israel. Israel is a chosen people, not, as Jenson has pointed out, woven into the nature of reality. Yet, the association of the twelve loaves with the grain that sprouts on the third day is an important qualification. Israel comes later, but once Israel comes, she is the “first sheaf” nation, the first sprouts from the Adamic earth, the first food for the world.
Finally, in Exodus 40:22, the text explicitly says that the table is set “outside the veil.” No other piece of furniture is described this way. The ark-throne is behind the veil, inaccessible even to priests. But the table is “outside the veil.” Israel is not positioned on Yahweh’s throne, not yet. But in the loaves she is positioned in the Lord’s house. She can’t yet sit on Yahweh’s throne, but she sits at His table.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
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