Torah Portion VAYERA– Genesis (Beresheet) 18:1-22:24 Haftarah: 2 Kings 4:1-37
Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. Hebrews 9:1-2 (ESV)
Shabbat shalom, dearly beloved,
The Tabernacle and Temple were divided into two rooms by a thick curtain (the veil). The inner room, the Holy of Holies, held the Ark of the Covenant, where God’s presence dwelt directly, and entry was restricted to the High Priest once a year. The outer room was called the Holy Place, and it held the golden lampstand, the altar of incense, and the table for the Bread of the Presence.
“Also you are to take fine flour and bake twelve cakes of it, with two tenths of an ephah in each cake. Then you are to set them in two rows, six in a row, on the pure gold table before Adonai. Set pure frankincense on each row as a memorial portion for the bread, an offering by fire to Adonai.” Leviticus 24:5-7 TLV
The Bread of the Presence, or the Bread of the ‘Face,’ consisted of 12 loaves of bread baked with fine flour and placed in the Holy Place on a golden table and covered with frankincense. They were exchanged for fresh bread each Shabbat. Only the priests, Aaron and his sons, were allowed to eat them.
“Every Yom Shabbat he is to set it in order before Adonai continually. It is an everlasting covenant on behalf of Bnei-Yisrael. It belongs to Aaron and his sons, and they are to eat it in a holy place, for it is most holy to him among the offerings of Adonai by fire, as a perpetual statute.” Leviticus 24:8-9 TLV
First, we can see that those 12 loaves represented an eternal covenant YHVH has with His people. Then it tells us that the Bread of the Presence is to nourish the priests—for their provision as they minister to YHVH.
It presents us with a clear principle of what we, as a holy priesthood to YHVH through the blood of the renewed covenant, should always practice. Like the Bread of the Presence fed the priests, so our lives as an offering to YHVH include a very practical part: to nourish and minister to those who minister to God and serve us—the ministers, and especially the Jewish ministers—our mothers and fathers in faith that Yah has blessed us with. We are called to provide for them as they are constantly lifting us, like the Bread of the Presence on that golden table, before YHVH and watching over our souls.
“The one who is taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him.” Galatians 6:6 NASB 1995
A Pleasing Sacrifice
The 12 loaves represented the 12 tribes of Israel as a perpetual food offering to YHVH. It denotes that His people were called to be the “most holy portion” for YHVH forever and that they were to remain in His presence.
His people were called to be a food offering before Him—something for Him to eat! We, grafted into the Jewish people through the blood of Yeshua, are also called to be a living sacrifice before Him. We are created to please Him, to nourish Him, to be a pleasing, good-tasting, pure sacrifice to our God.
“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” Romans 12:1 NASB 1995
What does that mean in practice?
To be a pleasing sacrifice to Him, we must become like Yeshua—the perfect sacrifice, the Living Bread. Yeshua said,
“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty.” John 6:35b TLV
We must eat Yeshua, the Living Bread, which means eating His Torah, as He is the Word of God that became flesh. His Word purifies and sanctifies us. Yeshua Himself prayed for us:
“Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” John 17:17 NASB1995
The Word also says that we live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of YHVH:
“…man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.” Deuteronomy 8:3 NASB 1995
Fresh Loaves on Shabbat
We are to eat His Word, rejoice in His presence, and remain on the altar, surrendering our whole lives to Him. We are also called to embrace His Commandments, to keep them by the power of the Holy Spirit, including honoring His Shabbat. When we do so, we are refreshed every Shabbat in His presence, just like the Bread of the Presence was replaced with fresh loaves each Shabbat. Then, we will never become stale.
“If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on My holy day and call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and honor it, desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word, then you will take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Isaiah 58:13-14 NASB1995
He called His people to enjoy the Living Bread on Shabbat, to delight in Him. Then He promises to feed them with the inheritance of Jacob, their father, which means filling His Covenant promises to His people—the Promised Land, provision, and victory over their enemies! As we are grafted into His people and honor His Shabbat together with them, we also get to enjoy His blessings together with Israel. However, we must understand that we are not heirs of the Promised Land in a physical sense, but we are called to embrace Israel as our spiritual mother, and yes, to visit her—to come celebrate and honor His Shabbats and feasts in the land of Israel!
Becoming Bread Distributors
We are also called to distribute the Living Bread. Through us, the Living Bread is given to those hungry for righteousness.
Yeshua fed the multitudes with 12 loaves of bread and a few fish, and, most of all—with the Word of Yah that gives life. But let us always remember that spiritual and physical, and supernatural and natural, go hand in hand: Yeshua not only preached and healed the people but also fed them physically when He saw that they were famished. Similarly, the Bread of the Presence was a powerful prophetic reminder to His people to remain in His presence and also physical nourishment to the priests serving in the Holy Place.
Let us eat the Living Bread, Yeshua the Living Torah, and be filled with His Holy Spirit, who writes the Torah in our hearts, and become living bread ourselves for multitudes to be fed!
“This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.” John 6:50-51 NASB1995
Rev. Hadassah Yonah
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