“And he said to me, ‘What do you see?’ So I said, ‘I am looking, and there is a lampstand of solid gold …’” (Zech 4:2, NKJ)
In the first tabernacle, the Holy Place, there was no window or opening to let in any light. The gold lampstand or candlestick had the function to continually provide light. In Ex 25:31-40 God gives the instructions of how to make the golden candlestick. In Hebrew this candlestick is called the menorah. A priest had to make sure twice a day that there was enough olive oil (Ex 30:7), because this light could never stop burning (Lev 24:2).
The candlestick had bowls like almond blossoms on each of the six arms, a knob and a flower, and on the lampstand itself there were four almond blossoms, each with an ornamental knob and flower. That made a total of ten “knobs and flowers”. The detail with which this almond symbolism had to be made on the golden candlestick which, emphatically stated, had to be hammered from one piece of gold, indicates important spiritual significance. The word almond can be translated in Hebrew as “to be alert; sleepless; hence to be on the lookout”, because the almond tree is the first tree to begin to blossom in the late winter/early spring. In other words, this indicates the quick and powerful working of light! The number ten means “completeness” or “the perfection of Divine order” (Bullinger). The menorah symbolises how accelerated spiritual enlightenment occurs and brings with it fullness as well as perfect order!
Baptism with the Holy Spirit doesn’t just bring about fruit and gifts (symbolised by the pomegranates and bells on the high priest’s blue robe), it brings about a perpetual light in your tabernacle that cannot be dimmed. John 1:4-5 becomes the key text to explain the golden candlestick: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
In the Old Testament life was in the blood (Lev 17:11); now, in the New Covenant, life is in the Light!
- Sela: Ponder the immense implications of the last sentence above.
- Read: Ex 14; Ps 64; Rom 6
- Memorise: Rom 6:22-23
