From where does the showbread come? We have seen that the altar has two things: the redeeming blood and the satisfying meat. After the blood was shed, the priests simply fed on the meat as their food. The showbread, in a spiritual sense, comes from the meat of the offering.
Some may ask how the meat could become the bread? In John 6, the Lord Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.” Then, in the same chapter, He said that His blood was drinkable and His flesh was eatable. So, in this one chapter there is the bread and there is the meat. In a spiritual sense, the meat of the redeeming Lamb is our bread. This means that the redeeming One is not only for our redemption, but also for our satisfaction and nourishment. On the one hand He redeems us, and on the other hand He nourishes us. He is our nourishment, our food. He comes not only for redemption, but also for life, that we may be nourished with Him.
We do not go directly from the offering altar to the incense altar; we make a curve. From the offering altar we must go to the showbread table, and from the showbread table we make a curve to the lampstand. Then from the lampstand we go to the incense altar to get into the Holy of Holies and meet God at the mercy seat. It is a curved way, not a straight way.
To say that we can pray solely on the basis of being saved and sprinkled with the blood is not altogether true. It is possible for us to pray foolishly. To pray in a way that is acceptable to God, we must make some curves. After applying the blood, we must go to the showbread table and stay there for a while. This means that we must stay with Christ as our nourishment. We must feed on Christ day by day as the showbread to enjoy Him before God. Then we will receive the life supply which will bring us to the lampstand to produce the light. Then by, in, and with this light we will be able to offer the incense; that is, we will be able to pray with Christ as incense, in a proper way, in the light. And our prayer will be something issuing out of Christ—something so sweet—just as the sweet, fragrant incense to God.
In the morning when we get up, the first thing we must do is pray. But if we are going to have the proper prayer that is acceptable to God, the sweet incense with something of Christ in it, we cannot begin to pray immediately. The way is not so straight. First of all, we must apply the blood. In other words, we must come to the offering altar to confess all our shortcomings, our sins, and our filthiness. After confessing all these things, we must apply the blood to be cleansed.
When we confess and apply the blood, we will enjoy Christ as our nourishment. The redeeming Christ will become the showbread to supply, to nourish, and to feed us. When we enjoy Christ in this way by feeding on Him, we are satisfied. Spontaneously, from this inner satisfaction there is something shining and enlightening. That is the lighting of the lamp. Then we know what to utter and express to God. In this way, whatever we say to God is sweet incense. It will issue out of the Spirit with Christ as the sweet and fragrant element. Our prayer will be just like the incense to God.
I have no intention to give you teachings about typology. My burden is to show you the right way to contact God. This is not a kind of teaching, but a certain kind of instruction to show you the proper way to contact God and to enjoy and experience all the riches of Christ in the presence of God.
Now we have seen the way. We must start from the offering altar by confessing. Every time a priest goes into the Holy Place, he cannot escape the offering altar. We cannot say that yesterday we passed it, so today we do not need it. No, yesterday we passed it, and today we still need it. Whenever we are going into the Holy Place, we need not only to touch the offering altar, but also to stay there. We must stay there to apply the blood so that the redeeming One will become our enjoyment. If we would just confess all our sins, our failures, our mistakes, our wrong deeds, our shortcomings, and our weak points, and apply the redeeming blood of Christ to cleanse us, immediately we would have the sense within that this redeeming Christ has become our inner enjoyment and nourishment.
As we feed on Him in such a way, He becomes our showbread. Here is a table, and a table means a feast. We must stay here to enjoy Christ for a time. We must not begin to pray too quickly, but first we must feed on Christ. Then this nourishment, which is the Christ we have taken in, has to be assimilated by us. This takes a certain amount of time.
After enjoying the feast at the table, Christ as our nourishment will bring us to the lampstand. The nourishment of Christ as life will produce the light that we need. Something within enlightens us and brings us into the presence of God. Then, whatever we express is something of Christ. It is the fragrant odor of the different aspects of the sweet Christ. When we assimilate Christ into our being we have something so sweet and precious of Christ to utter to God. Then our prayer will be on the incense altar ascending to the heavenlies to be accepted by God. This is the acceptable prayer.