Numbers 8:1-4--The Seven Lamps

Numbers 8:1-4
English Standard Version

The Seven Lamps
8 Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to Aaron and say to him, When you set up the lamps, the seven lamps shall give light in front of the lampstand.” 3 And Aaron did so: he set up its lamps in front of the lampstand, as the Lord commanded Moses. 4 And this was the workmanship of the lampstand, hammered work of gold. From its base to its flowers, it was hammered work; according to the pattern that the Lord had shown Moses, so he made the lampstand.

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This is one of the final instructions that the LORD gives to the people before they leave Mount Sinai.  This seems like an odd place for such instructions as it might seem like these instructions would be better served in the book of Exodus when the description of Golden Lampstands was given or in the book of Leviticus when the priests when God gave the operators manual for Tabernacle to Aaron and his sons (I won't call it an owner's manual because God was the owner).

However, as we described earlier this is a very significant representation of something in heaven, and we are told in the book of Revelation that the seven lamps represent the seven churches (and the church being the light of the world).  Right now, Israel is "the Church" ("the congregation" or "the assembly" is used to refer to them in the Old Testament, which when translated in the Septuagint is the same word used as "the Church" in the New Testament), the people of God, the sons of God, and the ones who were given the responsibility of showing and telling the gospel to the whole world.  They will even be told that they are to be "a light unto the Gentiles" in the Prophets.

So, then the question may be, "What is in front of the Golden Lampstand that is so important that it be kept illuminated all the time?"  The Golden Lampstand was in the Holy Place of the Tabernacle where Aaron and his sons ministered day and night, and it had to always stay lit because their ministry never ended because atonement needed to constantly be made for sin.  While the ministry of Christ as our Great High Priest is never-ending, it is not because He is constantly applying blood to the Mercy Seat-Aaron and the other High Priests only did that once a year, but Jesus has done that once forever.  No, the reason that the Golden Lampstand was kept lit night and day is because the work of the people of God, the Church is also never ending as we shine light into the darkness and illuminate the person and the work of Christ that is represented by the Table of Showbread.  Jesus tells us that the unleavened bread represented His onw body (though the Church is also called The Body of Christ in the epistles and we see that there are always 12 loaves of Unleavened Bread representing the 12 tribes of Israel, the Body of Christ at that time, but also representing the whole Church--everyone who is in Christ and died with Him in the likeness of His death and was raised with Him to walk in newness of life).

The Golden Lampstand was also responsible for giving light to the Altar of Incense which represented the prayers and petitions of the people--specifically for the atonement and forgiveness of their sins.  Night and day incense was to be offered to represent the prayers of the saints being offered up to the LORD and the priests were always to keep the wicks lamps of the Golden Lampstand trimmed and to keep the lamps full of oil so that there would always be light in the Holy Place, though the incense that represented the prayers of the people offered a covering, an atonement, which was part of the process of the forgiveness of sins--not just the blood sacrifice, but our prayers for our sins to be forgiven.  We see this same imagery used in the book of Revelation to describe the prayers of the saints as being stored in golden bowls and being offered before the throne of God (represented by the Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle).  You can see this in Revelation 5 and 8.  We see that prayers of confession for atonement are also made constantly today by 1 John 1:9 and that the Spirt and the Son are working together to constantly bring our petitions and requests before God and to intercede on our behalf, but there also seems to still be some component of us praying for ourselves and for others so that sins may be forgiven.  I think this is something else connected to the gospel that the Golden Lampstand is also supposed to shine light on.

It was also the only light source to provide light in Most Holy Place on The Day of Atonement.  As the sacrifice was made the represented the actual sacrifice that Christ made on the cross to die for the people that belonged to Him so that their sin could not just be covered up, but actually removed--all of their trespasses, transgressions, and iniquities that we collectively call "sin," because they all miss the mark of God's holiness.  This too is something the Church should be shining light onto as it too is a central part of the gospel and is central to our Great Commission that we have been given.  So then this Golden Lampstand (you may also know it as the Menorah) seems to me to represent the work of the Church (at this time "true Israel") in sharing the gospel to the entire world.  It is currently something that is hidden in secret inside the Tabernacle that not even the common people fully understand as it represents the secrets that at the time only heaven knew--for the Tabernacle was fashioned to represent the heavenly Temple (we know this by the book of Ezekiel and the book of Revelation where we learn that Temple will be our eternal dwelling place called The New Jerusalem).  In these times though, the gospel has been made known to all of us who are in Christ as we all have become priests in the service of the LORD and the mystery of the gospel is being revealed to us.  We are now to shine our light before men so that they will see our good works (our priestly ministry that we just talked about) and glorify our Father in heaven.  So then, these instructions that were to Aaron and his sons are also for us--always make sure that Church is shining its light on the person of Jesus Christ and His work of atonement for us and His intercession for us as they see how we pray, how we take Communion, and they see our hearts--the throne of God--where the Power of God to bring about miracles--event he miracle of Regeneration (the budding rod of Aaron that brought the plagues), the Provision of God (an omer of manna that never rotted), and the Law of God (a copy of the stone tablets) are hidden out of the sight of the common man, but our faith and our actions show people what we know to be on the inside.  The Golden Lampstand that is the Church both individually and universally is responsible to be known in all this and to make this known in how they show and tell the gospel continually, both day and night--wherever God may lead, just like the people and the Tabernacle followed the leading of the angel of the LORD (Christ) and the Shekinah glory of the LORD (the pillar cloud/fire).