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Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread (Exodus 37:10-16)
Introduction (Exodus 37:10-16)
Our text for tonight’s message is taken from Exodus 37:10-16, and it is about the table of shewbread. Allow me to read this passage for you.
Exodus 37:10: “And he, referring to Bezalel, made the table of shittim wood. Two cubits was the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. And he overlaid it with pure gold, and made thereunto a crown of gold round about. Also, he made thereunto a border of an handbreadth round about, and made a crown of gold for the border thereof round about. And he cast for it four rings of gold and put the rings upon the four corners that were in the four feet thereof. Over against the border were the rings, the places for the staves to bear the table. And he made the staves of shittim wood, and overlaid them with gold to bear the table. And he made the vessels which were upon the table, his dishes and his spoons and his bowls and his covers to cover with, of pure gold”.
The Lord blessed the reading of His holy and sacred Word.
There were several similarities between the way the table of shewbread was built and the way the Ark of the Covenant was built. Both were made of shittim wood. Both were covered with gold. Both were not really big. And both had four rings of gold and poles for carrying.
The only difference was that, unlike the Ark, the poles for carrying on the table were removable. Remember, the reason why the carrying poles on the Ark were permanently fixed was simple: to touch the Ark was to die.
The table was encircled by a border to prevent the things on the table from falling off. The table was placed in the Holy Place, and it had dishes, spoons, covers (which means pitchers), and bowls, which were used to hold the twelve loaves of sacred bread.
In the Bible, this table had several different names. In Leviticus, it was called the pure table. In 2 Chronicles, it was called the table of gold. In Exodus 25, it was called the table of shewbread.
According to the Old Testament, the sacred bread was baked the day before the Sabbath. It was made of fine wheat flour, unleavened, and baked in twelve loaves. Then, on the Sabbath, the priest would eat the old bread and then replace it with the new bread on the table.
What is the spiritual significance of all this?
The table itself was functional, not symbolic. The Bible does not give any special meaning to the table. It was the bread that was symbolic. The reason why there was a table in the first place was to provide a place to put the bread. The bread was the important thing.
Bread is the basic food. It is what we need to survive. Therefore, the shewbread on the table represented God’s provision, His providential care. There were twelve loaves of bread, one for each of the Twelve Tribes in Israel. They were placed on the table in the Holy Place facing the Holy of Holies, which means they were right before God’s face.
That was why it was also called the Bread of the Presence. The priest brought the bread right into God’s holy presence, not to remind God, as if He might forget what the people needed, but rather to remind the people of God’s constant awareness of their daily needs.
If they ever doubted His provisions, all they needed to do was to look at the table of shewbread. Their needs were right before God. God knew what they needed, and He also provided for them. That was why they could have fresh bread every week. A reminder of His constant provision.
The shewbread on the table also symbolised God’s fellowship with His people. Back in chapter 24, Moses and the elders had fellowship with God around the table. They were with God and did eat and drink with Him. So for the whole week, the bread was on the table symbolising God’s constant fellowship with His people.
Today, we do not think much about sharing a meal together. But in those days, sharing a meal meant something very important. It was an act of fellowship and communion. The host not only has a solemn responsibility to provide the meal, but he must also protect the guest when they eat the meal together.
This is a wonderful picture of God inviting His people to share a meal with Him and enjoy His protection.
Just as the children of Israel were invited to share a meal with God and enjoy His protection, today God invites us to have fellowship with Him around the table whenever we share the Lord’s Supper. And one day, you and I will be invited to eat at the great Marriage Supper of the Lamb in Heaven, which will last forever.
In our previous messages, we have learned about the significance of the table of shewbread. Today, we want to approach this message by focusing on what Jesus had taught us to pray in Matthew 6:11, “Give us this day our daily bread” which is the title of our message.
I. The Source
Firstly, who is the Source of our prayer? The One who is able to answer our prayer and able to provide for our needs is the Source. He is the One whom we address our prayer to and He is our Father which art in Heaven.
A good master provides for the needs of his servants. A good general meets the needs of his soldiers. How much more our Heavenly Father cares for those who have become His beloved children through faith in His only begotten Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Some people may ask, ‘But how can we know for sure that God is willing to answer our requests for our daily needs or our daily bread’?
The fact that Jesus taught us to pray these words implies that God is willing to hear. God will not tell you to do something that He will not attend to. Remember, Jesus taught us to “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be [open] unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be [open]” (Matthew 7:7-8).
When all our needs are met and everything is going well in our lives, we are inclined to think that it is all because of our own doing. It is our hands that bring in all these blessings. We work hard. We earn our money. We buy our own food and clothes. And we pay for our own houses. We may not say it in words, but in our attitudes and behaviours, we are saying, ‘I do not need God’.
Once a pastor asked one of his members, ‘I didn’t see you in church last Lord’s Day’. The man replied, ‘Oh, I had to work on last Lord’s Day’. The pastor said, ‘But you must remember the Christian Sabbath. You must not forget God. He is the One who has blessed you’. The man said, ‘What do you mean God is the One who blessed me? If I don’t work, who is going to pay for my house, my car, my loans, my children’s education, my holidays etc.? It is my hands that brought in all these blessings’. The pastor replied, ‘But you have forgotten even the good health and strength you have, and even the breath that you have every morning to wake you up and go to work, cometh from God’.
Indeed, how often we are so forgetful. Our Heavenly Father is our Provider.
Do you realise that God has provided for man even before He created man? Man was God’s final creation. And after He made Adam and Eve, they were free to eat all the fruits and vegetables in the Garden. God already provided for man even before he was created.
Since then, God has continued to provide an abundance of food for mankind in almost unlimited variety. Sometimes God would provide for His children through miraculous means. But His primary way is through work. His primary way to care for those who cannot work is through the generosity of those who are able to work.
Whether God does so directly or indirectly, He is always the Source of our physical well-being. He created the earth to produce what we need, and He gives us the ability to work and receive the produce from this earth.
God is the Creator. As James 1:17 said, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights”. Every physical thing we have comes from God’s provision through the earth.
That is why it is a terrible sin of indifference and ungratefulness not to recognise God’s gifts on a daily basis, not to give thanks to God on a regular basis. He is the Source.
II. The Seeker
Our second point is the seeker. “Give us this day our daily bread”. Who is the “us” in this prayer? They are those who belong to God, the believers.
Jesus said in Matthew 6:26-30, “Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith”? Not no faith, but “little faith”. They are the believers.
God is the One who takes care of the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. If we really understand who God is, and we have a right relationship with Him through our Lord Jesus Christ, do you think God will not care and provide for our needs?
God is not obligated to meet the physical needs of everyone, but only of those who trust in Him. So firstly, we must be God’s children before we can come to Him. Secondly, as God’s children, we are invited and even urged to come. Thirdly, God delights to answer those who do come.
When we come to God in prayer through faith in His only begotten Son, we do not come as His enemies. We come as His children. We come as members of His family.
There are many things that an earthly father would not do for a stranger. There are many things that he would not do for an enemy. But there is almost nothing that he would not do for his beloved sons and daughters. Yet even the best human father on the face of this earth cannot be compared with our Heavenly Father.
And we come before Him who is so ever loving, willing, gracious, merciful, and all-powerful. And He desires to hear and answer our prayers.
As a child of God, we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” because we recognise God is the Source, and we are His beloved children. We recognise our needs. And even though God may already have provided for our needs, we still ask in recognition of His past and present provisions, as well as we trust in His future provisions.
III. The Supplication
Our final point is the supplication. “Give us this day our daily bread”.
It is completely understandable for a Christian in a third-world country to pray such a prayer. But for a Christian living in a developed country like Australia, such a request seems out of place. Most of us have bread. We have more than enough to spare and sufficient to last for weeks, months, or even years.
So why should we ask God for something that we have in such abundance?
Daily bread not only represents food, but it is symbolic of all our needs. Martin Luther said, ‘Everything necessary for the preservation of this life is bread, including food, a healthy body, good weather, house, home, wife, children, good government, and peace’.
John Calvin said, ‘This petition: “Give us this day our daily bread” refers to everything God knows to be essential’. In other words, anything that nourishes us, our physical needs, our emotional needs, our material needs etc.
When you and I think of the bread we put on the table, we think of our jobs and opportunities to provide the income, right? We think of the good health, strength, and ability to do the work. We think of the encouragement, approval, appreciation, and acceptance to help us to perform our best. We think of our emotional needs to be met. They are all connected.
As one pastor rightly said, ‘You may have bread to put on the table, but you may not have the appetite to eat it. It is still vanity’. God is our Provider, and we are thankful every day that such needs are met.
“Give us this day our daily bread” is not to pray for everything. We are to ask for our needs, not our wants. Philippians 4:19 says, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus”. It does not say that God shall supply all your wants, but all your needs.
Obviously, God has given many of us the luxuries of life. But nowhere in the Scriptures we are told to ask for these things. We are told to ask only for necessities.
Sadly, today many people live to eat, while the right perspective is that we must eat in order to live. People are not satisfied when their needs are met; they want more than what they already have, what is sufficient for them. And it turns into greed and covetousness.
To some people, “Give us this day our daily bread” means having a house like our neighbours, or a car like our colleagues, or fine dining, or branded clothes. This is not what the Bible teaches.
Please do not think that the abundance of material things is always good. Sometimes, they come with serious consequences. People have walked away from God. Children have fought over their parents’ inheritance. Young people have been consumed to want more and more in life. Sometimes, it is to our spiritual hurt, not our spiritual blessing.
In His providence, God knows how much joy and sorrow we need. He alone knows how much pleasure and pain, how much prosperity and poverty, is good for His children. He knows the correct balance of sunshine and rain, the precise mixture of darkness and light to perfect His children.
Our Heavenly Father knows what is best for you and me. And when we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread”, He will give to us that which is beneficial for us.
Notice, God urged us to come regularly and repeatedly, for the Prayer said, “Give us this day our daily bread”. Both the words “this day” and “daily” emphasise the idea of a regular and repeated prayer. God is teaching us a daily dependence upon Him.
Today, the average man on the street would want to build up his finances and strengthen his security. There’s nothing wrong with planning for future rainy days. But it is wrong when we trust in our own securities rather than in God.
Dear friend, ask yourself this question: ‘When you say, “Give us this day our daily bread”, do you really pray with absolute dependence upon God? Who do you really trust? Your own finances or the Almighty God’?
Whether we are rich or poor, God wants us to depend on Him daily, and to give thanks to Him daily.
This prayer reminds us of the Old Testament account of the daily manna that God provided supernaturally from Heaven. The children of Israel were given manna every day — enough for everyone — and twice the amount on Friday so that they would not have to go looking for manna on the Sabbath.
God provided every day, never in advance, except for the Sabbath. So there was this daily sense of dependence upon Him. They were in the desert where there was no food. They were totally and absolutely dependent upon God one day at a time.
That is how God wants us to trust Him.
Most of the Israelites were willing to trust God for their daily bread. However, some of them paid no attention to the command and they kept the manna until the next morning. But it was filled with maggots and began to rot. So Moses was angry with them.
Instead of taking what they needed, they wanted more. They tried to make God’s provision last an extra day. It was not only totally unnecessary; it showed a lack of faith in His promise.
Is that true of us too? How much is enough?
We live in a culture of accumulation where enough is never enough. We always want a little bit more. But what we really need is our daily bread, which God promised to provide.
As God sustains us from one day to the next, He does it for our sakes so that we may know the peace and strength that comes from a continual dependence upon Him, that we may experience the joy of trusting Him.
The happiest people in this world are not people who don’t have any needs, but they are people who have experienced God meeting their needs.
Some people may be thinking, ‘The reason why I do not pray this prayer is because I do not want to bother God with such a small request’.
Well, you don’t have to worry about praying over small things. Do you know why? Because with God, everything is small.
If you think that praying for the daily bread is a small thing, can you ever fathom that the Creator of the heavens and the earth is mindful of our daily bread? He invites us to pray for the smallest of things.
One of the precious realities of our Christian faith is that God cares for the simple, day-to-day, ordinary needs and activities. It does not mean that we do not work and simply ask God to feed us.
Like it or not, we are all under the curse of the Fall in the Garden of Eden, where God said, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground” (Genesis 3:19). We have to work.
In fact, the Bible says in 2 Thessalonians 3:10, “If any would not work, neither should he eat”. That was a very strong command. If you are lazy, slothful, and refuse to work then you should not eat.
God commands us to pray, “Give us” and not “Give me”. We are requesting our daily bread and not my daily bread. This suggests that we are part of the body of believers. We are part of God’s family where there are other brothers and sisters in Christ.
When we pray this prayer, we not only consider our own needs, but we also consider the needs of other brethren.
Essentially, we are making a commitment to help provide bread for our needy brethren. We not only depend on God for His provision, we are sensitive to the needs of others and the prompting of the Holy Spirit that God may use us as the answer for others’ needs.
Most of us would take for granted that we will eat today and tomorrow. It does not worry us the way it worries our brethren in Myanmar perhaps. But whenever we pray this prayer, it should at least make us grateful and thankful for God’s provision.
Never, never take for granted all the good things God has provided for us, and learn to see His hands working in our lives.
A farmer living in the United States of America was worried about his wheat crops. There had not been rain in weeks. To keep his crops from being totally lost, he took buckets of water from his well and poured on the crops.
This meant hours and hours of pouring water on the soil so that he would not lose everything. But the well also began to go dry until the farmer realised that he had to stop using the water.
He was totally exhausted and seemingly at the end of hope. He merely said, ‘Lord, unless You send rain immediately, all I have is gone’.
The next day, he saw clouds that began to form rain. The rain came and soaked the area thoroughly in just a few moments. The farmer took a chair out to the wheat field and he sat in the chair as the rain came down on his face.
His wife said, ‘Have you lost your mind’?
‘No’, he replied. ‘I am just enjoying seeing God do so easily what was so hard for me to do’.
Dear friend, it is no more difficult for God to create the heavens and the earth than to give us our daily bread. And He wants us to understand, experience, and see what He can so easily do for us — what is so hard for you and I to do — by simply asking Him, “Give us this day our daily bread”.
Conclusion
May each and every one of us learn to trust, depend on God on a daily basis. And always give thanks to Him for He is the Source. We are the seeker. And we submit our supplications onto Him on a daily basis. God, “Give us this day our daily bread”. And we see the hands of God working in our lives.
Closing Prayer
Let us pray. Our Father in Heaven, we give Thee thanks for how Thou has provided for us indeed, even as we consider how the table of shewbread was in the Holy Place, facing the Holy of Holies right before Thee signifying that the needs of the children of Israel were always right before Thee. And this is a most wonderful lesson for all of us to learn.
As we remember our Lord Jesus, who also taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread”. And so, Thou hast reminded us it is not our own doing. It is the Source who is so gracious, loving, merciful, willing, and powerful to provide for all our needs.
And we who are the seekers, the believers who have been commanded to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread”. We now understand what it means to submit onto Thee all our needs and the needs of others too. Peradventure, Thou may use us as instruments to answer the needs of others, as Thou has blessed us so abundantly.
Truly, there are so many wonderful lessons for us to learn as we consider our Lord’s Prayer. “Give us this day our daily bread”. We give Thee thanks. And we pray all this in Jesus’ name. Amen.