In the last study, we focused on the bread of the presence as described in Leviticus 24:5-9. Let's stay with that theme for the next few studies:
"Take fine flour and bake twelve loaves of bread, using two-tenths of an ephah for each loaf. Set them in two rows, six in each row, on the table of pure gold before the Lord. Along each row put some pure incense as a memorial portion to represent the bread and to be an offering made to the Lord by fire. This bread is to be set out before the Lord regularly, Sabbath after Sabbath, on behalf of the Israelites, as a lasting covenant. It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in a holy place, because it is a most holy part of their regular share of the offerings made to the Lord by fire."
We learned previously that fine flour, the main ingredient in the bread, is made through the wheat being ground into a fine texture of the highest quality. That is similar to how God prepares you for your purpose: through the things you learn and become as you suffer. Here are a few other of the showbread's traits and how they can relate to your purpose preparation:
2. No leaven. This bread was considered unleavened bread, similar to modern crackers, because it had no leaven. There was nothing in it to puff it up and make it look bigger than it was. There should be nothing in you that attempts to make you appear to be more than you are. If you are good enough for God, you should be good enough for your own tastes as well.
3. Bake twelve loaves. After the wheat was beaten into flour, it was made into twelve loaves and baked in the fire. Why twelve? There were 12 tribes in Israel and there was bread enough for all of them.The message of purpose is for everyone living in any and all of God's tribes. No one people group in God's Kingdom have more than the others.
4. Use two-tenths of an ephah to bake each loaf. The essence of purpose, gifts, and creativity is in all of us in equal measure. You may not have the same effect as someone else, but your purpose is just as significant and vital in God's sight.
5. Set them in two rows. The bread was laid out every week according to God's instructions, stacked in two piles. God orders purpose according to His sovereign will and then assigns us to places according to His plan. There is a place for your purpose and gifts somewhere, for God arranges His work "decently and in order" (see 1 Corinthians 14:40). All you have to do is serve where God places you when you are stacked up with all the other saints who have their own gifts and purpose.
Do you know where you "stack up" in God's plan? How does He want to use you? Where does He want to use you? Are you being true to who He made you to be? Are you the bread that others eat as you express your purpose in the service of others?
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