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WEEK THREE

Day Five

DAILY SCRIPTURE

John 6:35

LEADER GUIDE QUESTIONS

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Know: Read John Chapter 6

Note: Mark keywords, including pronouns and phrases. (Spirit, bread, life, raise)

Ask questions: (Use tools such as interlinear bibles to search the original meaning of words- free tool here) For example:

• Who is the Bread of life?

• What did you learn about the bread of life?

• When?

• Where?

• Why?

• How does someone come to the Son?

Observation: Read Exodus 16, Leviticus 24:5-8

What: What does today’s study reveal to you about the nature of God? What truth do I need to apply to my life today?

The Table of Shewbread 

“You prepare a table before me.” Psalm 23:5

Made of shittim wood and overlaid with gold, just like the Ark, it represents Christ in design and function. When God gave the instructions for constructing it, the word “Table” was first mentioned in the Bible (Ex 25:23). “Table" speaks of grace in redeeming fallen man back into an intimate relationship with God. Shewbread means “to declare.” Jesus declared He was the  “Bread of Life” and gave the church the authority to declare His life, death, resurrection, and coming again in the Table of the Lord. ( 1 Corinthians 11:26).

“I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” John 6:35

In John 6, the Apostle John gives us a glimpse of only one day of Jesus’ second year of ministry. On this day, Jesus displays for us how He is the Table of Showbread revealed.

The primary purpose of the table was to hold “the bread of the presence” (literally, “the bread of the face”), which was set before the presence/face of Yahweh. (Ex 25:30) Each Sabbath, the priests would replace the loaves from the previous week with a fresh batch of bread (Lev. 24: 5-9). Exactly twelve loaves were arranged into two rows of six, representing the twelve tribes of Israel. These loaves were a food offering to God that would be perpetually carried out as “a covenant forever” (Lev 24:8).

Along with the other elements of the Tabernacle, the table highlights the covenantal relationship between God and His people as Yahweh specially dwells with Israel.

In John 6:33, Jesus said, “For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” God created mankind to feast daily on every Word from God’s mouth. The Hebrew Word for “every” is “kohl” which means complete. The Word that is face to face before God from the beginning of time was made flesh. Before His incarnation, the Table of Showbread reflected the Father’s character in element form; Jesus, in human flesh, reflected it in human form.

When God rescued His people from slavery in Egypt, His response to them starkly contrasted with the reaction they expected from deities they were familiar with. Egypt was a polytheistic nation, as were the nations around them. Their gods required sacrifice and tokens of worship. When a specific god required food, it was burned up so the God would be satisfied with the aroma of their sacrifice for wrath to be appeased. The Table of Showbread was an example of one such juxtaposition. The God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob showed the people that He was a God of provision and fellowship; He is sufficient, covenantal, and eternal. He was not like the gods of the other nations. He is the only true and living God.

His provision was displayed by the twelve loaves of bread, one loaf representing each tribe. In John 6, Jesus displayed God’s eternal and generous provision first when he gave thanks and gave it; those two words are in the aorist and imperfect verb tense. The aorist verb tense refers to a continual action that started from a starting place that will never happen again, and the future aorist refers to time eternal. Jesus’ giving thanks and giving of the bread was a sign of His eternal provision from the beginning of creation to eternity. He was prophetically showing what His body on the cross was for our spiritual provision- it was a one-time action, never to be repeated, but it was a continual provision. The second is in the twelve leftover baskets. God’s provision is always more than enough. The number twelve is always a sign of God’s power and authority.

In Exodus 16, we find the story of the manna. Every day starting on the 16th day of the 2nd month for the entire forty years that the Israelites were in the wilderness, God provided bread from heaven, which they called manna, meaning “What is it?” Fifteen hundred years after the wilderness experience, Jesus revealed Himself as the Bread from Heaven: “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Then they told Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.” And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” (John 6:32-35).

When Moses met God in a burning bush, God introduced Himself as “I Am that I Am.” That phrase, translated in Hebrew, literally means “lamb behold, hand behold.” Jesus was with Elohim (the Godhead) from the beginning and throughout scripture. The Father declared Him, and the Spirit manifests Him. He is the Lamb of God. Here, He is the All-Sufficient One. The manna in the wilderness was a manifestation and shadow of Jesus Christ, the true manna from heaven! Jesus said if we come to Him, we’ll never hunger; if we believe, we’ll never thirst.

I do not believe it is coincidental that the story of Jesus calming the storm is smack-dab in this scene's center. John casually mentions Jesus walking on the water amid a rising storm, and then they landed on the other side. I believe this scene is here to speak to us.

If you recall, in the story of the Exodus, after the people had left Egypt, Pharoah changed his mind and sent an army after them toward the Red Sea. (Exodus 14:10-14). Moses told them to “stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.” Salvation is the Hebrew word “Yeshua” which is the Hebrew Word for Jesus. Yeshua means “Yahweh is salvation.” Jesus is Yahweh. Jesus is the I Am, the beginning and the end. Imagine that great army pursuing the Israelites and a sea on the other side. Their flesh must have been screaming in fear, yet Moses told them to stand still and see God’s salvation.

I used to beg God for more of Him; His blessing, healing, and love. I used to cry out from a place of lack. When we pray and worship, how many of us do the same thing? We have bought into the idea that God withholds from us, and if we beg hard enough, He will provide. And yet Jesus said, “He who comes to Me shall never hunger.” If we are “hungry,” we believe what our emotions tell us based on what’s happening outside instead of the reality of Christ’s fullness in our spirit.

Have we come to Jesus? Have we received the Bread of Life? If so, we are complete in Him. All of the fullness of the Deity is in Him, and He is in us! We are full! If we feel empty, dry, and hungry, the answer is to behold Jesus in His love, wisdom, promises, provision, and glory.

When we take communion, remember the Table of Showbread and this story in John 6, which speaks of His willing, generous, and faithful provision. We don’t take communion from a place of lack. We remember His broken body, which was given to us in a one-time action (never to be repeated) to fill us up continually without lack. His broken body was for every sickness and disease that kept us in bondage, and it was to remove our separation from God since Adam.