The Golden Lampstand 31 “You shall make a lampstand of pure gold. The lampstand shall be made of hammered work: its base, its stem, its cups, its calyxes, and its flowers shall be of one piece with it. 32 And there shall be six branches going out of its sides, three branches of the lampstand out of one side of it and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side of it; 33 three cups made like almond blossoms, each with calyx and flower, on one branch, and three cups made like almond blossoms, each with calyx and flower, on the other branch—so for the six branches going out of the lampstand. 34 And on the lampstand itself there shall be four cups made like almond blossoms, with their calyxes and flowers, 35 and a calyx of one piece with it under each pair of the six branches going out from the lampstand. 36 Their calyxes and their branches shall be of one piece with it, the whole of it a single piece of hammered work of pure gold. 37 You shall make seven lamps for it. And the lamps shall be set up so as to give light on the space in front of it. 38 Its tongs and their trays shall be of pure gold. 39 It shall be made, with all these utensils, out of a talent of pure gold. 40 And see that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain. As we continue to study the Law and the instructions given to Moses regarding the Tabernacle, we get to the "Golden Lampstand" today. Formally this lampstand is called a Menorah, and most people think of it to have to do with Hanukkah (or Chanukah depending on where you're from in the world). I can't give you a much in the term of symbolism for the lampstand that isn't already revealed in the Book of Revelation.
See Revelation 1:12-13, Revelation 1:20, Revelation 2:1, Revelation 2:5, and Revelation 11:4. I do wonder given the design of design of the Menorah here in the book of Exodus if the translation in the book of Revaluation should be "seven lamps" and not "seven lampstands," because in verse 37 you see that the Menorah is made of "seven lamps." We see in verse 40 that these items are made to be exact models of exactly what Moses saw on the mountain, and from what I can gather, Moses saw the heavenly temple that is defined in Ezekiel 40:1 through Ezekiel 48:35 (we'll get there eventually, but trust me when I say that it's best if we study you will read it and probably have a "What did I just read!?" reaction.) What Ezekiel saw in those chapters and I think what Moses saw on the mountain was what John saw in the book of Revelation in chapters 21 and 22--The New Jerusalem. Don't forget that the Tabernacle/Temple is where God met with His people for communion and worship. Is that not what our entire existence will be in the New Heavens and the New Earth when The New Jerusalem, the Bride of Christ comes down from heaven and we literally have heaven on earth (a New Earth)? Oh what a day that will be! So, we know from the book of Revelation that the lampstand has something to do with the Church, and my best guess is that it has to do with Christ telling the Church in Matthew 5:14-16, "You are the light of the world." We also see the idea of light associated with both the nation of Israel and the coming Messiah throughout the Old and New Testaments. (See Isaiah 9:2 and Matthew 4:16, Luke 2:32, Acts 13:47, and Acts 26:23, just to name a few). We ultimately know that Jesus is "The Light of the World" and as I mentioned before, all of the parts of the Tabernacle have their ultimate fulfillment in Him, but many things in the Tabernacle have a double-meaning (or maybe even more) as they relate to the "now" that Israel knew at that time and the "not yet" that would be the fulfillment in Christ and through the Church. All of these things that we are looking at are merely earthly copies of something that exists in heaven, so don't imagine that the Tabernacle/Temple of the Old Testament isn't important, because we are called a "royal priesthood" throughout the Old and New Testaments--priests in the order of Melchizedek--and we will live in the New Temple, the New Jerusalem, serving our Lord and our God day and night for all eternity. We know that the oil that fuels the lampstands also has special significance in representing the Holy Spirit--oil seems to represent the Spirit in both the Old Testament and New Testament and it was important that the lamps always be kept trimmed and full so that they never go out because the Spirit never stops doing His work in the people of God (the Church) and we are to never have our light extinguished or to "quench the Holy Spirit." This is what Hanukkah (a Jewish holiday that is not mentioned in the Bible because it took place in the intertestimental period--the 400 years of silence between the Old Testament and New Testament) celebrates. There was a war and the supply of oil was cut off and the priests only had one day's supply left and needed seven days to make a new supply as it had to be made by very specific instructions, and the one-day supply miraculously lasted seven days until more oil could be made as the Lord instructed. This should sound somewhat familiar to us as we remember the miracle of Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath in I Kings 17 where she only had enough oil to make one last meal (a small one) for her son before she died in the famine and God took that little bit of oil (remember representing His Spirit) and the faith that she had that there would be enough oil to fill every vessel they had gathered and the oil didn't run out until every vessel they had gathered was full and they enough oil for themselves and to sell to others and went from being destitute and dying to being abundantly rich! (Isn't that our story of what has happened to us in Christ?) I hope you see how the Bible is one big message about the gospel, and even from the beginnings of Israel where God told His people to make the Tabernacle that it all pointed to another reality in heaven where there was a spiritual people (the Church) that would worship in a spiritual temple made not by the hands of men, but by our Bridegroom, Christ, that is prepared for His people--a royal priesthood. All those who are part of "true Israel" whether Jew or Gentile that are part of the True Vine and have the Holy Spirit living in and through them are like these lamps that shine forth light night and day. The things that we've talked about that are made of gold are "most precious" in the Tabernacle and they have been The Ark of the Covenant, the Table of Showbread, and the Menorah (and we mentioned that later we'll see that this also includes the Altar of Incense). All these items resided in the Holy Place or the Most Holy Place in the Tabernacle and in the Old Testament there was limited access to these area--the common people could not access them--only the priests or in the case of the Ark of the Covenant, only the High Priest and then only once a year on the Day of Atonement. Oh, how great it is that Christ has opened wide the gates and given us free access to God and made us the Temple of the Holy Spirit so that we may live out the fulfillment of the Tabernacle and Temple in the here and now as we look forward to a better Temple in the new creation where once again Jesus will "Tabernacle" among His people as we read in John 1, "And the Word became flesh and made His dwelling ("tabernacled") among us."
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Daniel WestfallI will mostly use this space for recording my "journal" from my daily devotions as I hope to encourage others to read the Bible along with me and to leave a legacy for others. Archives
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