Creating a Table of Showbread for Your Classroom

The Table of Showbread

The Table of Showbread is a beautiful picture of God's willingness to fellowship with His people, much like a family gathering around the dinner table to share their day. Let’s dive into how you can create a Table of Showbread that your students can gather around, as God extends this invitation to come into His presence.

The Table of Showbread was made of acacia wood, a tree that thrived in the desert. This wood is dense, extremely strong, and highly resistant to bugs and decay, making it the perfect choice for furniture in a desert environment. The table, including the poles and rings, was overlaid in gold. The poles allowed the Israelites to pick up and move the table quickly, as the Levites were instructed by God to keep the poles in the rings, always ready to leave at His command.

Building a Table of Showbread

The Bible provides us with the exact dimensions of the Table of Showbread:

• three feet long
• one-and-a-half feet wide
• two-and-a-quarter feet high. 

For our table, we cut some scrap wood to size—this was likely an old shelf—but plywood would work just as well. We then added some decorative crown molding to the sides. The choice of molding can be a matter of personal taste; there are so many options out there, and you can make it as fancy or as simple as you wish. Don't forget to sand the edges for a clean, finished look!

You can purchase screw-type legs for your table, but another option is to use wooden spindles from a discarded railing. These can be quite decorative and very cost-effective, just like how we made ours. Lastly, you'll need dowels that are thick enough for students to carry the table and eye hooks that will allow the dowels to fit snugly inside.

Once you have sanded and smoothed your table surfaces, it’s time to paint! All the furniture inside the holy place was gold. I personally prefer spray-painting, but whatever method you choose, find the glossiest, shiniest, sparkliest gold you can find.

If measuring, cutting, and painting seems daunting, you can always use a coffee table and cover it with a gold tablecloth. If you can find a donated coffee table at a thrift store, it's simple to spray paint it gold and make it look lovely!

The Bread

The Table of Showbread held twelve pieces of flat bread, known as showbread, placed there by the priest serving in the tabernacle. These twelve pieces represented the twelve tribes of Israel. 

Every Sabbath, the priests exchanged the bread for new pieces and ate the old in God's presence. This bread was also known as the "bread of the presence."

The bread used on the Table of Showbread was flat, without yeast, to symbolize the hasty departure of the Israelites from Egypt, leaving no time for the bread to rise.

You can use crackers like saltines or matzah, or even pita bread.

Preserving the Bread for Display

If you use your bread frequently instead of purchasing it repeatedly, you can take a little time to preserve it. These preserved pieces won’t last forever; they will eventually disintegrate, but you should get a few years out of them. Place your bread on a rack in an oven set between 175 and 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Dry the bread for a couple of hours, checking periodically to ensure it’s not browning.

I’ve experimented with a few types of finishes and found that a spray lacquer works best. The bread, when properly dried and lacquered, will look like bread, but it will be quite stiff. Of course, this is for bread that is just for show. Don't allow your students to eat lacquered bread!

Jesus: The Bread of Life

Jesus referred to Himself as the bread of life, indicating that our spiritual hunger can only truly be satisfied in Him. The significance runs deeper, as the night before He laid His life down for us, He shared a Passover meal with His disciples, breaking bread and saying, "This is my body broken for you." Today, when we celebrate communion, we remember Jesus' sacrifice for us on the cross.

This is Becky from Experience the Bible Creatively, reminding you that props are always better than paper! So, go ahead and create your own Table of Showbread, and invite your students to gather around it in fellowship, just as God invites us into His presence.

Find curriculum to go with this craft!

Our "Walking Alingside Jesus" curriculum helps your students see Jesus through the Old Testament!

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