According to God’s “pattern,” in the Holy Place of the Tabernacle was the table of showbread. The table itself, was made of acacia wood and overlaid with gold (Exodus 25:23-30). Upon it twelve loaves of bread were laid out in two rows, six to a row. A bowl of Frankincense was laid at the head of each row. “Every Sabbath” and “continually” four priests would enter, two to remove the old loaves, and two to lay out the new loaves, so there was always bread on the table. The two bowls of Frankincense were then offered with fire unto the Lord. The old bread was to be eaten in the Holy Place by the priests. (Leviticus 24:5-9).
This pattern for the Lord’s Supper is unmistakable. We are God’s priesthood today with Christ being our High Priest (1 Peter 2:5, Hebrews 8:1). We enter the holy place, the church, which is the “true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man” (Hebrews 8:2). The Priests entered every Sabbath to eat the bread, in Christ’s new covenant we enter every Sunday to eat the bread. The Bowls of Frankincense were offered as a sacrifice, and today the cup of the Lord’s Supper represents the blood sacrifice of Christ. They did it “continually,” that is every Sabbath. We do it “continually,” that is every Lord’s Day.
The Bread and the Bowl, the Bread and the Cup; the worship of old, unmistakably the worship of today.
-Dennis Doughty