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Of the Holy Lamps, and the Shew Bread
Lev_24:1-9
5And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake. 6And thou shalt set them in two rows [piles], six on a row 7[pile], upon the pure table before the Lord. And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row [pile2], that it may be on the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto the Lord. 8Every sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. 9And it shall be Aaron’s and his sons’; and they shall eat it in the holy place: for it is most holy unto him of the offerings of the Lord made by fire by a perpetual statute.
Lev_24:6-7. The Heb. îַòֲøֶëֶú , referring etymologically to an orderly arrangement, means either a row or pile, and is used in both senses. The size of the loaves, however, containing each about six pounds and a quarter of flour, as compared with the size, of the table, two cubits long by one broad, makes it more probable that pile was intended here. Josephus (Ant. III. 6, 6; 10, 7) expressly says, that this was the arrangement.
Lev_24:7. The LXX. adds and salt, which is probably to be understood in accordance with Lev_2:13, or the salt may have been used in making up the loaves.
Lev_24:7. ìַìֶּçֶí . The force of the preposition is questioned. Both the senses on and for are true in themselves. The incense was placed upon the piles, according to Josephus (ubi sup.) in golden cups, and it was also burned for the bread as a memorial. The latter sense, however, is sufficiently expressed by the words for a memorial.
Lev_24:9. The pronoun, wanting in the Heb., is supplied in the Sam. and in 8 MSS.
Lev_24:2. Pure oil olive beaten—pure in being freed before the berries were crushed from all leaves, twigs, dust, etc.; and beaten in contradistinction to pressed in the oil-presses. By this beating the oil of the best quality flowed out nearly colorless. Continually, Lev_24:3, refers to the perpetuity of the ordinance, not to the uninterrupted burning of the lamps; for according to the previous part of the verse, Aaron was to order it from the evening unto the morning, and according to Exo_30:7-8, he was to dress the lamps in the morning and to light them at even. The pure candlestick of Lev_24:4, like the pure table of Lev_24:6, refers to the pure gold with which they were made, and which was of course kept free from all stain.
Lev_24:5-9. Fine flour always means of wheat. The frankincense, as a gift from the people, must necessarily be the natural gum, and is to be distinguished from the compound incense which was burnt daily upon the altar of incense. Lange (see below) is inclined to admit the opinion of Knobel that the loaves of shewbread were leavened; Josephus, however (Ant. III. 6. 6; 10, 7), distinctly asserts the contrary and nearly all Jewish and other authorities agree with him. “Since the bread was brought into the Holy place (which was not the case with the Pentecostal bread) it almost certainly came under the general law of the meat offerings, which excluded the use of leaven (Lev_2:11).” Clark. It may be added that the shewbread was changed only once a week, and leavened bread, exposed to the air, could hardly have been kept in condition for eating so long. The loaves were twelve in accordance with the number of the tribes of Israel. They were most holy, so that when removed from the table they might be eaten only by the priests in a holy place. The action of Abimelech therefore in giving them to David (1Sa_21:4-6) was a clear violation of the law, and is justified by our Lord (Mat_12:4) on the principle that there are cases of urgency which override the technical provisions of the statute.
Lange: “The holy candlestick, with the shewbread, here makes the tabernacle the inner centre of all consecrations, the holy place êáô ’ ἐîï÷Þí , which moves forth and spreads far into the holy land; and the innermost principle of this centre is the name of Jehovah which comes to be spoken farther on.
“On the holy candlestick see the particular directions, Exo_25:30; Exo_37:17, and Num_8:2; comp. Zec_4:2. But it is mentioned here the second time, not because according to the first command only Aaron was fitted for the function; but because it here forms the soul of the cultus, as farther on, in Num., it becomes the very climax of the theocratic political life, the light of the nation. Even less here than before can one speak of the lamp of good works. There is a strange propensity to place human attributes in place of Divine in the very house of God, even as far as to the Cherubim in the holy of holies. The candlestick is the sevenfold figure of the revelation of Jehovah, the type of the Seven Spirits, Revelation 1. But it must be noticed that the congregation had to furnish the anointing oil” [Salböl, i. e., the oil for this sacred use, not the oil for anointing the priests,—F. G.], “for the congregation was to be the substratum of all illuminations, not the priesthood alone. In like manner is the command significant that the lamps were to be lit forever and ever.
“The shewbread is called ‘bread of the presence,’ ‘of my presence’ (Exo_25:30) in that they lay before the presence of Jehovah, who, in a symbolical sense, here holds a meal with His priests (see Rev_3:20) as they in the first place represent the twelve tribes of the holy people. On this account, then, the loaves were twelve, and since they were arranged in two ordered rows of six opposite six loaves (differing from the twelve precious stones of the breast-plate) they were called also the loaves of the ranging together, the table of the succession and similarly. Keil, p. 158.” [Trans, p. 452. Keil thinks that the loaves were placed in rows, but does not mention these names. On the arrangement, see Textual Note 2 on Lev_24:6.—F. G.]. “And since it is known that leaven in itself contains nothing evil, although like honey it might not be placed upon the altar, the supposition of Knobel (Keil to the contrary) has nothing hazardous, that the shewbread was leavened. Undoubtedly it is to be considered that among the later Jews they were unleavened; but against this must be weighed the fact that they formed an important constituent of the food of the officiating priests who ate them as a most holy thing, after they were carried out, and that these loaves were never actually offered, but only hallowed to Jehovah, while their offering was signified by the incense which went with them as a memorial (Lev_24:7, Azkara). The view that the incense was not strewed upon the bread, but placed beside it in golden shells, is certainly strengthened by the purpose of incense, which was burned as an offering made by fire unto Jehovah. It is the sacrifice of prayer which is especially associated with the priestly communion, a “Grace” said before the Lord in the highest sense.
“The supposition of Knobel and others that the table, with shewbread and kindred things, represented the house of God as an imitation of a human house, is a flat travesty of the holy house into that which is common; it rests upon a misunderstanding of the religious symbolism of the house of God, and in it the sleeping chamber, e.g., the bed, and similar things must be missed.” [To define the exact boundaries between anthropomorphic language and representations on the one hand, and pure statements of truth and pure symbolism on the other, is extremely difficult, and will probably always remain impossible, while man is still compelled to use so much of anthropomorphic terms even in the most abstract and philosophical discussion of Divine things. Undoubtedly the Hebrew mind was gradually led up to the conception of Divine realities by the exaltation of human expressions, and hence occur such forms as “the food,” “the table,” “the house of the Lord;” in grosser minds these would have been associated with grosser ideas, while for those of higher spiritual elevation, there was just enough of symbolism in these terms to enable them, by their means, to rise above them to more spiritual and exalted conceptions. To this it was essential that the human imagery should be imperfect and wanting in many particulars.—F. G.].
II. In the shewbread, as the culmination of all oblations, is expressed on the one hand the consecration to God of all that belongs to man by placing bread, the staff of human life, continually before His presence; and on the other, the condescension of God to communion with man in making these loaves the food of His priests. The incense, burned as a memorial, represented the Divine acceptance of the gift, and, as Lange has suggested, symbolized the prayer with which the priests must draw near to this communion. It is further to be noted that this was not the sacred incense of the sanctuary, but the frankincense of the people’s offering. As the loaves represented the twelve tribes, so this frankincense represented the people’s prayers; and in this symbolic act of communion, the priests on God’s behalf pratook of the food, as in the case of the sin offering.
In the worship of God light and clearness are ever to take the place of darkness and obscurity. The clear shining of the Holy Spirit’s direction is always to be sought in all approach to God, and to this end the pure oil is to be furnished by the people for the lamps; an honest and good heart is to be prepared for the Spirit’s dwelling.
Through the grace of God man becomes a partaker of the table of the Lord. This must be accompanied with the incense of prayer. It was to be a statute for ever, a perpetually recurring act of communion with God.
Origen: The light of the Jews grew dim as the oil of their piety failed; the foolish virgins were excluded from the marriage when their lamps were gone out for the want of oil; so Christians must furnish the oil of earnest effort after holiness, that the flame of the Spirit may burn in their hearts, so that men may see their good works, and that their lamps may be burning when the Master comes.