And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row; and it shall be a bread of remembrance, an offering by fire to Jehovah.
Twelve loaves of fine flour lay in two rows on the golden table inside the holy place. Pure frankincense went on each row, and that fragrance made the bread a memorial — so what does God remember, and why does the fragrance belong on bread?
Frankincense appears earlier in Leviticus on the grain offering. One writer sets the two side by side:
The grain offering of fine flour had frankincense on it. When only part of the meal was to be burned, all the frankincense was consumed (Lev. 2:1-2). The showbread on the golden table also had frankincense on it (Lev. 24:7) "for a memorial." Here the grain offering and the showbread both speak of the person of our Lord, and the frankincense would suggest His preciousness to God, and to everyone who shares God's thoughts.
The word translated "memorial" is rare. Writing on the grain offering, where the same word appears, one writer notes where else it is found:
Of this offering, a handful of the flour, with all the frankincense, was burned on the altar for a "memorial." That word is used elsewhere only of the very similar showbread (Lev. 24) and of the jealousy offering (Num. 5). It is a beautiful word for this one perfect life on earth: will God ever forget it? Tested by the fire of God's holiness, it was nothing but a sweet aroma. The rest became the portion of the priest — the worshipper.
The loaves are twelve, one for each tribe of Israel. The frankincense covers them, and one writer finds here why God keeps the nation before Him through its unbelief:
The frankincense stands for the sweet fragrance of Christ to God. So notice that Israel, in its twelve tribes, is always presented before God, covered with all the fragrance of Christ. God keeps them there through the whole night of their unbelief because of what He is and has done. That is the sure promise of their future restoration and blessing.
The same scene points forward. One writer sees in the pure table an age still to come:
The pure table had on it the twelve cakes of fine flour, covered in pure frankincense, renewed sabbath by sabbath before the Lord… In that age too, God will at last keep the twelve tribes before Himself in a fragrance they draw entirely from Christ.
The memorial portion is a food offering to the LORD; older translations render this "an offering made by fire." One writer follows that fire to the cross:
Frankincense was put on the twelve loaves — a picture of the fragrance of the life of the blessed Lord… So we learn that fire played its part in this memorial. The fine flour had to pass through the fire, which changed its appearance and texture and made it food. So there can be no feeding on Christ apart from His death… But now every question of sin has been met, and all that the believer is in his old fallen nature has been set aside in the cross of Christ. The new nature is free to feed on Christ and share God's delight in Him.
The frankincense went up to God, and the loaves went to the priests. One writer explains what the priests were doing when they ate:
The incense on the memorial of the bread, which represented the twelve tribes of Israel, was burned as a sweet smell to Jehovah. The priests then identified themselves with the tribes by eating this bread. The act of eating carried the meaning of continued identification.
One writer turns the same picture toward believers now:
We must not leave out the pure frankincense on earth now, for a memorial — our acceptance in all the grace of Christ, the fragrance before God… Only the priests eat of Him in this way, and only in a holy place.
- Fragrance. The pure frankincense stands for the preciousness of Christ to God — the one element on the table that belongs wholly to Him.
- Memorial. The rare word here speaks of God's own remembrance of one perfect life. "Will God ever forget it?" The question answers itself.
- Covering. The fragrance goes on the bread, so the twelve tribes stand before God in a sweetness that is not their own.
- Fire. Fire touched the loaves and the incense. There is no feeding on Christ apart from His death.
- Identification. The incense rose to God and the bread fed the priests. By eating, the priests joined themselves to the tribes the loaves stood for.
Every sabbath day he shall arrange it before Jehovah continually, on the part of the children of Israel [it is] an everlasting covenant.
This verse closes the instructions for the twelve loaves set on the golden table inside the sanctuary. It raises three simple questions: who arranges the bread, why twelve loaves, and what makes a weekly routine last forever?
The command names a day and a person. The work starts with Moses and then passes to the high priest:
It appears from Leviticus 24 that at first Moses set the loaves "upon the pure table before the Lord." Afterwards the service belonged to the high priest, just as it is recorded: "Every sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord continually." The twelve loaves surely represent the twelve tribes of Israel. Placing them on the table each sabbath would confirm that God will never forget His ancient people Israel.
One writer reads the twelve loaves as the twelve tribes themselves, kept before God whatever their outward state:
They were laid up in the sanctuary before the Lord, on the pure table, for seven days. Then they became the food of Aaron and his sons. This gives another striking picture of Israel's condition as God views them, whatever their outward appearance may be. The twelve tribes are always before Him. Their memorial can never perish. They are arranged in divine order in the sanctuary, covered with the fragrant incense of Christ. The pure table on which they rest reflects them back beneath the bright beams of that golden lamp. That lamp shines, undimmed, through the darkest hour of the nation's moral night.
The same writer finds that faith in Elijah, who built an altar of twelve stones on Mount Carmel:
What did Elijah's altar of twelve stones on the top of Carmel mean? It was simply the expression of his faith in the truth that the twelve loaves pictured. He believed in the unbroken unity of the nation, kept before God by the unchanging promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whatever the nation's outward condition. People might look in vain for the visible unity of the twelve tribes. But faith could always look inside the sanctuary and see the twelve loaves there, covered with pure frankincense, set in divine order on the pure table.
The loaves stay in place because God is faithful, not because Israel is:
They may be unfaithful, as they have been, but God cannot deny Himself; He remains faithful. And so, though their unbelief has scattered them through the world, He will yet carry out His purposes of mercy and truth. He will gather them from the four corners of the earth and bring them back into their own land in fullness of blessing. That blessing is established in Him and secured by Him — the One the showbread table symbolizes.
The same thought is put briefly elsewhere: the table pictured "Israel's place before God in the acceptability of Christ, who, as the true Aaron, maintains them even now before God: it is a perpetual covenant."
The word "continually" raises a question: who arranges the loaves now? One writer points to a priest still at work while Israel waits:
In His public dealings with Israel, God has called them "Lo-ammi," that is, "Not my people." But they are "before the Lord continually," as seen in the twelve loaves. Paul's faith saw the twelve loaves on the pure table before the Lord. He spoke to king Agrippa of "our whole twelve tribes serving day and night without ceasing." Our great high priest will certainly appear "to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel." Until that day He serves in the holy place with the twelve loaves upon the pure table.
One writer reads the choice of day alongside the manna in Exodus 16:
We see the sabbath here too, following the manna, as shown historically in Exodus 16. Our rest depends on Christ, not on the Spirit in us. The Spirit is our help and power; but Christ is our peace before God. Only the priests eat of Him in this way, and only in a holy place.
One writer takes the picture further than Israel:
But there is more than Israel's position in this symbol. It includes in principle that of every believer. He stands there in the holy place, always before the eye of God, covered with the pleasing fragrance of the frankincense. God sees him in Christ. It is indeed the perfect presentation of the believer to God.
- Twelve. The loaves stand for the twelve tribes, set in divine order in the sanctuary. Their memorial can never perish.
- Covered. Frankincense, the fragrance of Christ, covers them. God sees Israel in Christ's worth, not their own.
- Kept. The covenant lasts forever because God cannot deny Himself. Being scattered has not cancelled His purpose to gather Israel home.
- Continual. A priest still sets the loaves in order and will serve in the holy place until He appears to raise up the tribes of Jacob.
- Shared. The same picture holds every believer: seen in Christ, in the holy place, always before the eye of God.
And it shall be Aaron's and his sons'; and they shall eat it in a holy place; for it is most holy unto him of Jehovah's offerings by fire [it is] an everlasting statute.
Twelve loaves stood a week on the golden table in God's presence. Leviticus 24:9 says who eats them afterwards, and it raises two questions: why is bread called "most holy," and why may only certain men eat it, in only one place?
The loaves stood for Israel, yet Israel never ate them. The right to eat belonged to one family, and commentators see a wide reach in that limit:
The twelve loaves refer to Israel. Yet the nation did not eat the showbread. It was the food of the priests. Does this not show us how it applies to every true believer in Christ today? All who belong to Christ are priests, as pictured in the words "for Aaron and his sons."
The count of twelve matters. So does the missing leaven (yeast):
There is no mention of leaven in these loaves. They represent, I have no doubt, Christ in immediate connection with "the twelve tribes of Israel." They were laid up in the sanctuary before the Lord, on the pure table, for seven days. After that they became the food of Aaron and his sons. This is another striking picture of Israel's condition as Jehovah sees it, whatever they may look like from outside. The twelve tribes are always before Him. Their memorial can never perish.
The order matters. The loaves spent a week under God's eye before any priest ate one:
Week by week the priests brought the new showbread. They had the privilege of eating what had stood through the week "upon the pure table before the Lord." So God had fellowship with the priests at that "pure table." They received for their nourishment the "most holy" food that had given Him satisfaction. How all of it reminds us of Him who is both the delight of His Father and the life and sustenance of His people.
The verse names a place as well as a people. No priest took this food home, and that setting shapes what he could take in:
Everything precious in the offering of Christ is the food and nourishment of our souls. We see it from every angle — in His life and in His death; in that bread come down from heaven, seen in His life of devotedness and grace here below; and in His death for us. All of it nourishes us in that communion with God in which we ourselves are kept in our priesthood. The priests alone ate the holy things, and they ate them in a holy place. We can grasp what is precious in the work of Christ only in the sense of the presence of God, and under the power of that oil which is not poured on flesh.
Why does it matter who eats? Eating says something about the eater:
Feeding shows identification and communion with the thing fed upon… It was the same with the priests. For example, they also ate of the sin offering in certain cases (Lev. 6:26), and by that act identified themselves with it. So feeding on the showbread is a symbol: Christ, as the Priest, always identifies Himself with Israel before God. It was only to be eaten, notice, in the holy place.
David broke this rule while he was on the run, and took the bread from the priest Ahimelech. One writer explains why it was allowed:
He had Ahimelech give him the showbread, which only the priests could eat after it came off the table. This bread taken from God's presence was "in a manner common" (v. 5). God's king had been rejected. The showbread presented the true Israel in Christ to God — so what value could it still have in God's sight? So David could treat this bread as ordinary. Sovereign grace rose above legal ordinances. Feeding David and his followers mattered more than preserving what had become old.
- God first — the bread is "most holy" because it stood a full week before God on the pure table; no priest ate until that food had pleased Him.
- Then the priests — God gives the bread away: "it shall be for Aaron and his sons." Everyone who belongs to Christ stands in that priestly family.
- In a holy place — no one enjoys this food on common ground; we taste it only in the conscious presence of God.
- Israel pictured — the twelve loaves show Christ joined to the twelve tribes, and that memorial can never perish, whatever the nation looks like from outside.
- Grace above rule — when God's king was rejected and hungry, sovereign grace rose above legal ordinances and fed him with the holy bread.