Menorah: The Original Lampstand

Menorah: The Original Lampstand.

“God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all – None!” (1 John 1:5).

What is the Menorah? “Menorah” is a Hebrew word that simply means light-bearer, or the place that shines and gives light. Menorah and lampstand are treated as synonyms throughout the Bible, even with its variations down through biblical history. The first official menorah was made according to very precise spec’s from Lord Yahweh Himself given to Moses on Mt. Sinai. As with every other piece of furniture in the wilderness Tabernacle, every piece meant something profound, and was a shadow of a heavenly thing to help us understand God better (Hebrew 8:5). Included in the Lord’s instructions regarding the Lampstand were items like these (refer to Exodus 25 and various rabbinic sources):

• It is to be shaped by hammering out one large piece of pure gold that weighs around 75 pounds;
• It is to be large enough to completely light up the interior of the Holy Place, and according to rabbinic tradition the Lampstand was about 5 feet tall and over 3 feet in width;
• It is to have a central shaft resting on a golden base with six branches extending outwards, three shafts on each side facing the central branch in the middle;
• It was to be made with a cup on top of each branch to be refilled daily with olive oil to fuel the lights;
• It was to be fueled by pure olive oil and was not to be made for candles;
• It was to be elaborately decorated with images of a flowering almond tree that had blossoms, buds and flowers;
• It was to be lighted every evening and kept burning through the night until morning;
• It was to receive daily maintenance by the priests that involved cleaning the Lampstand, trimming the wicks, and refilling the cups of olive oil on each branch;
• It was for private use by the priests inside the Tabernacle and not to be seen by worshipers outside;
• It was to be carefully covered by a special blue cloth and a layer of fine leather when the Israelites broke camp and continued their wandering.

Why was the Lampstand so important? The Tabernacle Menorah was considered a sacred object in God’s mobile Dwelling Place, and was a sacred symbol as the Chosen People continued their dependence on God’s presence with them in the wilderness. Yahweh went out of His way to make sure there was a special Lampstand, because it was to remain a powerful reminder of God’s presence as a source of light for His people, that He in fact was Light. The Lampstand was intended to point to the many qualities of God’s eternal light that were vital to their survival: revealing truth; overcoming darkness; guiding the way; creating and sustaining life itself; healing wounds; purifying uncleanliness; clarifying confusions; enabling fruitfulness. The lights from the Lampstand remind all of us that God wraps Himself in light as with a robe (Psalm 104:1), dwells in unapproachable light (1 Timothy 6:16), that He is the Father of lights (James 1:17), and that He in fact is a consuming fire (Deuteronomy 4:24, 9:3). Could the Lord have chosen a more profound and awesome symbol with which to reveal Himself to His people? And we haven’t even started talking about God’s Son being the living Menorah and His believers being this world’s mini-menorahs!

The Elements of the Menorah. There is such a fascinating variety of topics that are inspired by this subject of the Lampstand in Scripture. Each aspect deserves its own deep-dive, which will be forthcoming in articles as they are written for this blog category:

• On the meaning of olive oil in scripture;
• On the significance of the almond tree in the Bible;
• On the meaning of the Lampstand’s seven branches;
• On the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden;
• On Light as the first creature in creation;
• On Love that comes to us at the speed of light;
• On the Love-Light of God’s Face;
• On the Hilarious Light of Phos Hilaron;
• On the light show during the Feast of Tabernacles;
• On the various Lampstands found in Scripture in addition to the Tabernacle Menorah, including Zechariah’s prophetic new Lampstand, the Hanukkah menorah, and St. John’s lampstands in Revelations 1;
• On not bowing down to the false Angel of Light;
• On Jesus Christ being the Light of the World, the Sun of Righteousness, the Morning Star, the Servant candle in the Festival of Lights, and the everlasting Menorah-in-the-Flesh;
• On the followers of Jesus being mini-menorahs in the world, the lesser lights in the darkness fueled by the Holy Spirit.
• On the ‘thin places’ of Christ’s occasional flashes of light on earth.