The tabernacle and Christ

The Golden Lampstand

In the tabernacle of Moses · Exodus 25 to 40 · Light

The golden lampstand, the menorah, was a single piece of pure hammered gold with seven lamps, the only light in the holy place, tended so that it never went out. Its light for the house of God is a fitting picture of Jesus, who said, I am the light of the world, and of his people whom he makes to shine.

And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same.Exodus 25:31 (KJV)

What the lampstand was

And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same. It was not cast in a mold but beaten out of a single talent of pure gold, one solid piece with a central shaft and six branches, three on each side, worked with ornaments shaped like almond blossoms. At the top of the shaft and each branch sat a lamp: And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof; and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light over against it.

The lamps burned pure beaten olive oil, and it was the priests' daily task to trim the wicks and fill the oil so that the light burned continually before the LORD. In a windowless room paneled with gold, the seven flames were the only light by which any service could be done.

What it meant for Israel

Without the lampstand the holy place was utter darkness, and nothing in God's house could be seen or done. The light was the condition of all service and all fellowship within. That it was made of one piece of pure gold spoke of something perfect and unmixed; that it was beaten into shape spoke of labor and even of suffering behind its beauty; that it burned continually spoke of a light that God intended never to fail in the midst of his people.

The number seven, running through the tabernacle and the whole Bible, carried the sense of fullness and completion. Whatever else Israel drew from it, the lampstand meant that the God who dwelt among them was not a God of darkness, and that his house was to be a place of light.

How it points to Christ

Scripture does not directly call the tabernacle lampstand a symbol of Jesus, so the connection is best held as a devotional reflection, but a well-founded one, because Jesus made light his own name: I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. He is the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, and in him there is no darkness at all. As the lampstand alone lit the holy place, so Christ alone lights the way to God.

The picture reaches to his people as well. In the Revelation, the risen Christ walks among seven golden lampstands, and he tells us plainly what they are: the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches. The lampstand that once lit one room now stands for the church that carries Christ's light into the world, for he said to his followers, Ye are the light of the world. Their light is not their own; it is his, kindled in them, fueled by the Spirit as the lamps were fueled by oil.

So the menorah, hammered from one piece of gold and never allowed to go dark, is a faithful reflection of the Lord who is himself the light and who makes his people shine. We hold the connection as devotional, because Scripture invites it plainly even though it does not spell out the type, and we let Jesus' own words carry the weight.

Oil, light, and a lamp that never went out

The lampstand did not shine on its own. It shone because oil was poured in and a wick was lit, and the priests tended it so that a light burned before the LORD continually. In the Scriptures oil again and again pictures the Holy Spirit, and the lesson is gentle but clear: light for God's house does not come from the metal but from the oil, not from human effort but from the Spirit poured out. Christ, the true light, was himself anointed with the Spirit without measure, and it is by that same Spirit that his people shine.

So when Jesus says to his followers, Ye are the light of the world, and Let your light so shine before men, he is not asking us to manufacture a glow of our own. He is telling us to be lamps: shaped, filled, and kindled by him, giving out a light that is really his. A lamp adds nothing to the flame; it simply holds it up where it can be seen. The whole calling of the church is caught in that humble image.

And the light was to burn continually, never allowed to go out, tended through the darkest hours of the night. The world has often thought it could put the light of Christ out, and it never has; through every age the lamp has kept burning in the house of God. In the last book of the Bible the risen Christ walks among the lampstands that are his churches, holding their stars in his right hand, and at the very end the city of God needs no lamp at all, for the Lamb is the light thereof. The menorah that lit one small room was pointing all along to that unending day.

Beaten gold and almond blossoms

One detail of the making repays attention: the lampstand was beaten work, hammered out of a single lump of pure gold and shaped with ornaments like almond blossoms. It was not poured quickly into a mould but formed slowly under the hammer, and its beauty came by the beating. Readers have long seen in that a gentle echo of how the light of the world came to shine, not apart from suffering but through it, for it was by his wounds that our darkness was answered.

The almond, moreover, was the first tree to bloom in the spring, the herald of new life after winter, and the same tree gave Aaron's rod that budded with almonds as a sign of resurrection. A lampstand crowned with almond blossoms quietly joins light to life: the one who is the light of the world is also the resurrection and the life, so that he who follows him shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Light and life are one gift, and both are his.

The tabernacle lampstand is not explicitly called a type of Christ in the New Testament, so this is a devotional reflection, well grounded in Jesus' own words I am the light of the world (John 8:12) and in Revelation 1:20, where lampstands stand for the churches. The link is faithful, not fabricated, and is held as reflection rather than direct fulfillment.

Related: The table of showbread · The holy place · Who is Jesus? · The whole tabernacle