Exodus 25:25

A gold molding was to run right around the table. A frame of a handbreadth (about four inches) was evidently inside the molding (v. 25), and then another molding inside the frame. The frame likely extended over the legs. Two gold rings went close to the frame at each end of the table, that is, underneath the frame, so that poles could carry it.

It has been thought by some that this border was outside the first crown already described, as a ledge upon which the vessels of service could be set; others have thought of it as merely an ornamental border set perpendicularly to, and upon which the top of the table would rest, while it would also act as a brace to the whole frame, and to which the feet would be attached, with the rings and staves.

The purpose of this border was clearly to keep the loaves in their place. And if we take the ornamental crown of gold as a picture of the divine glory of Christ, the lesson is this: Christ holds Israel secure in its place before God by all that He is as divine... But this symbol says more than Israel's place. In principle it takes in every believer too. There in the holy place, always before the eye of God, covered with the pleasant fragrance of the frankincense, he is seen in Christ. It is indeed the perfect presentation of the believer to God.

The word means, first of all, an enclosure; so a fortress or "close place"... An enclosure keeps out intruders, by a wall or some other barrier. So an enclosure around the table would suggest something that kept out whatever did not belong there... this border, or "fortress" (also decorated with a crown), would suggest that everything out of keeping with the glory of Christ was shut out from the table. Such a border would give the table firmness and stability, both while it stood in the sanctuary and while the people carried it through the wilderness.

Around the table is a margin of a handbreadth, which may point to the divine hand that surrounds it. Table and margin together sit inside a golden border — possibly a crown, though the word is not used for a crown anywhere else — which suggests how the divine glory defines and marks out everything.

The crown, as we have said, pictured "Jesus, crowned with glory and honor" (Heb. 2:9). It is Christ in the place He has won by His work on the earth: "I glorified You on earth, having accomplished the work that You gave Me to do."

A crown of gold all around, a border of a handbreadth all around, and a golden crown for the border spoke in two ways. First, God would jealously guard the truth of the Person of His beloved Son. Second, God would keep His people in relation to Christ.

The bread set on the golden table was twelve loaves — clearly matching the twelve tribes of Israel, yet certainly connected with Christ, for He is always the object of God's purposes. It is God displaying Himself in Christ; and those who had this connection with Christ were Israel.