An empty lampstand looks exactly like a full one until the room goes dark
From the moment God made our world with those marvellous words, "Let there be light", God has been invading our darkness with His Light, and He has never stopped.
Years after Adam and Noah, centuries later, God chose a people to carry His light. One day He grabbed Abraham and pulled him into relationship, saying, "Go to the land I will show you." In Canaan, on three different occasions, the Lord urges Abraham:
Look up at the heavens and count the stars, if indeed you can count them. So shall your offspring be.
God plans to use His kids as His spectacular stars that shine and illuminate the darkness. A sign and a wonder as lights in darkness, started back then and continuing today.
Daniel, in an occult kingdom
In ancient days, Daniel, standing tall as one of a few believers in a dark occult-controlled kingdom, understood his destiny to shine.
Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.
Daniel declared God as worthy of worship in every situation and would not relent in his prayers despite deadly persecution. In turn, God shifted kingdoms, established the captives' return, and revealed end-time visions to His beloved servant.
The worship manifesto
When Moses ushered the million Jews out of Egypt, God then established worship as a daily morning and evening practice. Painstakingly God outlined the blueprints for the tabernacle.
Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.
Central to the camp, the twelve tribes camped around its hub, as life flowed from the tabernacle of God where the priests of God daily worshipped Him.
Out in the outer court there were two objects: the burnt offering altar for the sacrifices, and the brass basin for washing.
Inside the tabernacle, in the Holy Place, there were three key items: the table of the showbread, with twelve loaves for the twelve tribes of Israel, replaced daily; the table with incense, trimmed and lit morning and evening; and the lampstand with pressed holy olive oil for fuel, lit morning and evening.
Inside the inner sanctum, the Holy of Holies, there was the ark of the covenant with the two cherubim, of which God said that there, above the cover between the two cherubim, He would meet with them and give all His commands for the Israelites. Inside that area was a jar of manna, kept for the generations to come so they could see the bread He gave them in the desert. Aaron's perpetually budding almond stick was placed before the Testimony. And the Ten Commandments, two stone tablets scribed by God's hand, were placed inside the ark.
So why care about a tent in a desert
Why care about something established in the desert over three thousand years ago? The writer of Hebrews explains.
We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man... They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: "See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain."
The tabernacle God set up with Moses was a copy or a shadow of what is in heaven. So in this tent of meeting there is revelation of heaven's own tent of meeting.
The city on a hill
Now when Jesus walked the earth, He taught His friends that He was the Light of the World. All our light comes from Him. And He taught us to pray: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
Jesus was speaking to his nation, the Jewish nation. For every child of Israel standing there, the only city that mattered was Jerusalem, Israel's crown jewel.
King David, with the Lord of hosts, and Joab and the army, wrestled Zion from the Jebusites. God gloriously established the city of David and his lineage to rule and reign perpetually. Centuries later Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians and was restored by Ezra, Nehemiah and Zerubbabel. History records it fell again to Greece and then to Rome. Sixteen times Jerusalem has been fought for.
It still stands as Israel's sign and wonder, and for thousands of years has stood as a testimony of God's provision and protection.
When Jesus used Jerusalem as his example, it was like Jesus was waving Israel's flag, asking: do you remember whose you are? Do you remember your testimony as a nation chosen by God? Do you remember your purpose? Be light. Be light in the darkness.
A lamp is a practical object
Remember the tent of meeting that Moses so carefully established at God's command? Inside the temple, the permanent tent established by David, then Solomon, and then erected as a monument by Herod, in Jesus' day there still stood the lampstand, the incense, the showbread of heaven's decree.
Both the holy menorah and the lampstand were practical items, like a flashlight is today, bringing illumination and sight to darkened places. In Jesus' day electricity had not yet been invented, so the household oil lamp lit the whole house. The lamp had practical purpose: to bring light to dispel the darkness, to cook, to visit, to study, to celebrate, to live.
The menorah stood as a reminder of our darkness without God who is Light. It was tended daily, replenished with fuel as often as needed, a perpetual testimony of God with us, and us in God. Life flowed, despite darkness, when the lampstand was lit.
Through these two pictures, Jesus was asking: do you remember your holy purpose to shine? Do men see your holy walk of love and then praise the God who has empowered you to love? Are you light in the darkness? Are you light in your home? Are you light in your workplace, in your business, in your nation? Do you understand you are a lampstand? Do you know where your Light comes from?
The oil is the point
In that tent of meeting, the holy lampstand bore seven branches, representing the Holy Spirit. The lamp bore seven wicks which shone day and night. These wicks only shone if they had the fuel required: the holy oil, pressed olive oil, the symbol of Israel all through the scriptures.
God our Father dreams about us, a breed redeemed and full of Christ Jesus, fuelled by His Spirit, burning with wisdom, counsel, knowledge, fear of God, might and understanding, burning through Him, with Him and in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit for God's glory.
Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life.
Or are you an empty lampstand, looking good but running on empty? Have you stayed there in the well-lit church, an ancient lamp without oil?
Jenny Svetec
Do you have the oil of God, the Holy Spirit, to burn bright in the darkness? It's time to be filled with the oil of God once more.
To be light in the darkness and shine bright with love, to be of practical help and holy love for those in darkness, much oil is required.
Thank God for the patterns He reveals in Scripture. The Holy Spirit is the oil of God. We are designed to shine with the fuel of God. He made us this way. To love is to be light. John the beloved stated this emphatically.
No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us, perfect love! This is how we know we're living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He's given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit.
Holy Spirit of God, would you fill us that we may shine with the love of God and be a practical solution in the dark around us? Lord Jesus, as we love you, as You have loved us, would your light, O Light of the World, burn through us? O Father God, abide in us as we abide in Christ. By your grace, make us burn bright in the darkness.
May the convergence of the Holy Spirit spark the flame, that we may shine bright with Jesus, Light of the World, for those in darkness.
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.
How bright are you shining?
Jenny Svetec
A teacher and professional writer who farmed organically with her husband Paul in Ontario. She writes on the Hebrew scriptures and what they ask of the people who read them.
Tabernacle · Holy spirit · Light · Worship