Why does the Torah discuss the Shulchan before the Menorah?
Rashbam: Seeing as the main purpose of the Menorah was to illuminate the Shulchan, 1 it stands to reason that the Torah discusses the Shulchan first.
Ba'al ha'Turim (in 38:1): On account of the Pasuk "Zeh ha'Shulchan asher Lifnei Hashem" - Yechezkel 41:22.
Oznayim la'Torah (in Pasuk 31): Bearing in mind the Midrash Tanchuma, which compares the Mishnah to the creation, the Torah begins with the Aron - since the Torah preceded the world, then the Shulchan, corresponding to the trees and vegetables, that Hashem created on the third day to sustain the world, and then the Menorah, corresponding to the sun and moon and luminaries, which He placed in the sky on the fourth day.
If the Shulchan represented Parnasah and the Menorah, Torah she'be'Al Peh (seeing as it had six lamps facing the center lamp), then the Shulchan had to come first because 'Im Ein Kemach, Ein Torah'. 2
Why did the Shulchen have two crowns?
Seforno: The two crowns, which stood signified Keser Malchus, represented the two issues over which a king has control a. Justice and matters concerning the running of the state; b. Security (against the state's enemies). 1 The Zer on the Shulchan itself represented the former, the Zer on the Misgeres, the latter. 2
As we find in Shmuel 1, 8:20.
Like we find by Yericho, which the Pasuk in Yehoshua (6:1) "vi'Yericho Sogeres u'Mesugeres" (Seforno).
Why was the Shulchan twice the size of the Mizbe'ach ha'Zahav that was next to it? And what is the reason for the specifications of the other Keilim?
Oznayim la'Torah: Only one 'row' of Ketores was place on the Shulchan, but two rows of Lechem ha'Panim on the Shulchan - each row taking up one Amah (the width of the loaves). The height of the Shulchan was one and a half Amos - the same as the Aron, but half an Amah less than the Mizbe'ach ha'Zahav (two Amos tall) - because, whereas the Kohanim only had to deal with the coals of the Ketores, the Shulchan contained two sets of six loaves piled one on top of the other, so it was for their convenience that the Shulchan was a little lower than the Mizbe'ach ha'Zahav. 1
As for the Aron - two and half by one and a half by one and a half height, it was just the right size to contain the two Luchos and the Seifer-Torah as the Gemara explains in Bava Basra. Moreover, with the lid, the Aron was ten Tefachim tall - just the right height for the Shechinah - which never descended below ten Tefachim - to rest on it and communicate with Moshe from there - as the Gemara explains in Sukah, 5a.
