Do you think God is happy to have you in His family today? Are you certain about your acceptance with God? Great help with these questions can be found by studying the table inside the tabernacle. It was a simple but beautiful table which pictured Christ. It was made of wood that grew up out of the earth, reminding us of the manhood of Christ. When you looked at the table, you wouldn’t see any wood. You would see only beautiful gold. This reminds us that the Man, Christ Jesus, is now in the glory. It is crucial to your faith to know that your Savior is accepted and glorified in Heaven at the right hand of God, because every saved sinner’s acceptance with God is based only and entirely upon the Christ in glory.
Upon that beautiful table of gold in the tabernacle were 12 loaves of bread. The number 12 should immediately make you think of the nation of Israel with its 12 tribes. Those loaves of bread were said to be “before the Lord” and an “offering unto the Lord” (Lev 24:6-7, KJV). They would later be eaten by the priests, but first they were for the Lord, and for His enjoyment. Symbolically represented in this picture were God’s people, set before Him for His enjoyment. God delights in His people. “For the LORD’S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance … He kept him as the apple of His eye” (Deut 32:9-10, KJV). We often think of how much we have in God, but do we ever consider the joy God finds in His people? Concerning the Church, Ephesians 1:18 speaks of “the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.” His inheritance – in His people! Read and enjoy hymn #3 in your Believer’s Hymn Book.
It is true that God’s people sometimes stumble, and some seem to serve the Lord better than others. But an interesting thing about the 12 loaves on the table is that they were all the exact same size. No tribe had a bigger or smaller loaf. All were the same, and all were on the same table. God loves all His people dearly, including you. It’s not that you’ve done something particularly special to earn His love, or that He thinks you are better than others. It’s that He sees you in Christ.
The loaves were all regular loaves of bread. They were on a table of gold, and this made all the difference. All of God’s people are sinners, saved by grace, resting on a glorified Christ, “where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all” (Col 3:11, KJV). What about your acceptance with God? And what about God’s joy in you? It really is all about Christ.
