The priestly office is quite involved with the whole situation of the tabernacle. We have seen clearly that in the outer court there are the altar of the offerings and the laver. In the Holy Place there are the showbread table, the seven lamps on the one stand, and the incense altar. In the Holy of Holies there is the ark. The priestly office is very much involved with the tabernacle. Because God is on the mercy seat, which is the cover of the ark, and His shekinah glory is in the Holy of Holies, a priest must get to the mercy seat to contact God. But to get to the mercy seat, the priest must first come to the altar, where he gets the redeeming blood. This is the foundation. Without the redemption of blood there is no possibility for fallen man to contact God. So, at the altar there is mainly the blood.
With the blood, the priest gets into the tabernacle to contact God. He first has to pass the altar, and then, with the blood, he arrives at the table. From the table he turns to the lampstand, and from the lampstand he goes to the incense altar to burn the incense. The burning of the incense releases to God the sweet odor by which the priest is accepted. It is by the blood and through the incense that we are accepted into the presence of the holy God of glory.
The high priest enters into the Holy of Holies with a plate upon his breast which is a building of gold and precious stones. There are the two shoulderplates and the breastplate. On the two shoulderplates there are twelve names divided into two groups. One group of six names is on one side, and the other group of six names is on the other side. In this way, twelve names are divided into two groups of six. But on the breastplate there are four rows of precious stones, each row composed of three precious stones. All of this is upon the priest’s robe. When the high priest passes all the places of the outer court and the Holy Place to get into the Holy of Holies to stand before the mercy seat, there is such a building upon him.
How many pieces of bread are on the showbread table? There are twelve in two rows of six each. This is quite interesting. The Hebrew word for “row” means an army in a kind of military array. So the twelve cakes are just in a kind of array to display twelve pieces in two rows.
Then there are the seven lamps on the lampstand. In order to help us get into the full meaning of the breastplate, we must know why there are twelve cakes and seven lamps. If we read the whole Bible carefully to find out the proper meaning of the number twelve, we will see that it not only means eternal perfection, but also dispensation, economy, or a kind of divine arrangement.
When we look at the showbread table, with twelve cakes arrayed in two rows, we are given the sense of a kind of dispensational arrangement. This is the dispensation in the divine life. Dispensation means God’s economy, God’s arrangement, God’s dispensing in and with His life. Here at the table we can realize a kind of dispensation, a kind of arrangement in life and with life. God’s economy is simply a kind of dispensation in His life and with His life. God dispenses Himself into us as life. The divine dispensation, the divine arrangement, is just a kind of economy in the divine life. So at the table we have the economy of dispensation in life.
After the life, there is the light. “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). The life becomes the light. When we have the life, then we are in the light. When we get into the light, there is the number seven. Seven lamps are on the one stand.
In the Bible the number seven in a sense means perfection, but if we read the book of Revelation carefully, we will see that it is also the number of God’s administration. There are seven churches for God’s administration, seven seals for God’s administration, seven trumpets for God’s administration, and seven vials for God’s administration. The whole book of Revelation is a book of God’s administration in these four big sevens. Eventually in the Bible seven means perfection in God’s administration.
So at the lampstand there is the divine administration, and at the showbread table there is the divine dispensation with and in life. After the life, there is the divine administration, the divine operation. Life is for enjoyment, and light is for operation in the divine administration. This is quite meaningful. When we are in the enjoyment of Christ, we are in the dispensation of life. And the enjoyment in the divine dispensation of life will give us the light. When we get into the light we are in God’s administration, God’s operation, God’s move, and God’s activity. Then in this light we burn the incense. In other words, this light brings us into the presence of God.
At the showbread table there is the dispensation, at the lampstand there is the administration, and at the altar there is redemption. First there is redemption, and this redemption brings us into the enjoyment of the dispensation of life. Then the dispensation of life turns us to the divine administration in light.
Do not think that the word “dispensation” means period or age. No, it means the dispensing of something. When we get into the enjoyment of Christ, we are in the divine dispensing of God Himself in Christ through the Spirit as life to us. And this life turns us to the light. When we are in the light, we are in God’s movement, God’s administration, and God’s divine operation. This will bring us to the presence of God.