FIRSTBORN SONSHIP OF CHRIST

THE NEW BIRTH IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
August 2005
Article 54 Continued

THE TABLE OF SHOWBREAD

10 “He made the table of acacia wood; two cubits was its length, a cubit its width, and a cubit and a half its height.
11 “And he overlaid it with pure gold, and made a molding of gold all around it.
12 Also he made a frame of a handbreadth all around it, and made a molding of gold for the frame all around it.
13 “And he cast for it four rings of gold, and put the rings on the four corners that were at its four legs.
14 “The rings were close to the frame, as holders for the poles to bear the table.
15 And he made the poles of acacia wood to bear the table, and overlaid them with gold.
16 “He made of pure gold the utensils which were on the table: its dishes, its cups, its bowls, and its pitchers for pouring,”
Ex 37:10-16.

THE TABLE

      The table for the showbread was three feet long, a foot and a half wide, and two feet high. It was made of acacia wood and overlaid with gold. It had a hand’s breadth upright extension on the top outer rim for holding in the bread and other things on the table.
      The table, and the poles for carrying the table, were made of acasia wood overlaid with gold.
    The various pitchers, bowls, cups, and other supporting items were made of pure gold. The acasia wood represents the human nature, while the gold represents the divine nature.
      26 “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness...’” Gen 2:26.
      6 “You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet,” Ps 8:6; Heb 2:5-18.
      God has not yet made man fully in His own image and likeness. Our heart is still deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, Jer 17:9. We are still the old man. Only those in a true church are counted to be the deified body of Christ. We must still constantly be putting off the old mere flesh man, and putting on the new divine man, Rom 12:1-2; Eph 4:22-24; Col 3:1-10.
      We are still in the qualifying stage of the process, and though we are counted to be born again members of the born again body of Christ, we can forfeit this firstborn standing and the divine birthright of the firstborn, just as Esau did Jn 15:1-6; Gal 4:19 thru 5:5; Heb 12:15-17; 2Pe 1:4-10.

TWELVE LOAVES OF BREAD

      5 ”And you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it. Two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake.
      6 "You shall set them in two rows, six in a row, on the pure gold table before the LORD,”

      The twelve loaves of bread first represented Christ as did the manna in the wilderness, the bread in the Passover, and the bread in the Lord’s Supper, Jn 6:27-68. Christ is the bread of divine life to all in the firstborn sonship, but not so with the servant sons, Gal 4:21 thru 5:5. Divine life is promised only to the firstborn sons.
      The twelve loaves represented the twelve tribes of Israel, as did the twelve names on the high priest’s shoulders and breastplate. God chose Abraham and his faith descendants to be a nation of firstborn divine sons, above many nations of mere human sons of the nations who will never be firstborn divine sons.

SEVEN DAYS

      God restructured the earth in six days and rested on the seventh day, Gen 1:2 thru 2:3.
      God could have done all this in a moment of time, but stretched it out over six days, and rested the seventh day in order to set forth a general prophetic witness of six millenniums of labor of the whole creation under the curse (Gen 3:17-19) and the seventh millennium of divine rest, Heb 4:1-5; Ps 95:8-11. All creation is groaning and traveling in “birth pangs” to be delivered into this seventh millennium of divine rest, Rom 8:18-23.

THE REVEALING OF THE SONS OF GOD

18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
19 “For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.
20 “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope;
21 “Because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
22 “For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
23 “Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body,”
Rom 8:18-23.
      What a marvelous and inexpressibly glorious state of being that will be! There will be no more blunders, absolutely no embarrassing moments for any faithful firstborn son of God. Everything every deified (born again) person will think, feel, say, or do will be perfectly right before God.
      There will be no possibility of the slightest mistake in any situation whatever. Every right and every wrong will be immediately evaluated and judged with God’s righteous judgement. We are currently being trained by the Holy Spirit to respond in everything in perfect unison with the mind of God.
      This is a major part of what God meant when He said, “Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness...” Gen 1:28. God had in mind primarily that man would be like God in all his thoughts and emotions, in harmony with possessing the full range of the divine attributes, and thereby share the fullness of His divine image.
17 “That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 “May be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height
19 “To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God,”
Eph 2:17-19.

EATING THE LOAVES OF BREAD

8 "Every Sabbath he shall set it in order before the LORD continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant.
9 "And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place; for it is most holy to Him from the offerings of the LORD made by fire, by a perpetual statute,"
Lev 24:89.
    The twelve loaves were baked of fine flour which was taken from the people (Lev 24:9), were placed on the table for seven days, and were then eaten by the priests who ministered on behalf of the people. The fine flour represented Christ together with all the faithful covenant people.
    The twelve loaves of bread spoke of the twelve tribes of Israel with all faithful Gentile Christians in true local churches grafted into the twelve tribes of Israel.
      The loaves being baked pointed to the covenant testing and discipline of both Christ and the faithful covenant people. The seven days bore witness of the perfect sufficiency of Christ and the faithful covenant people as fully tried and proven. The eating of the loaves by the priests addressed Christ as the perfect bread of divine live for the faithful covenant people.

SWEET SMELLING FRANKINCENSE

7 "And you shall put pure frankincense on each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, an offering made by fire to the LORD," Lev 24:7.
      Sweet smelling frankincense was put on the two rows of bread, Lev 24:7. This would signify the sincere prayers and worship of the twelve tribes. This would give expression to the sincere prayers and worship of the faithful covenant people constantly ascending up before the Lord. A wonderful symbolic posture of a thankful and worshipful people.

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