It could be anticipated that the Revelation (or the Unveiling) would pull back the coverings that stand between us and the future, between us and the real world, and take us on a tour of the temple in heaven (of which the earthly models were mere “figures of the true”). What began as a long desert march has reached its final glorious destination.
The ark is there, seen to be what it always was–the throne of God. The altars are there (the brazen in 8:5, the golden in 8:3 and 9:13). The laver or sea (note Rev. 4:6 with 1 Ki. 7:23-25) the censer with its incense (8:5), and the Lamb as if freshly slain–all are there (can you find the table of showbread?). Of course the priests are there, after the order of Melchizedek, a kingdom of them! And the singers with their songs fill the book.
The LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS
The tabernacle also had a menorah or candelabra, with one main stalk and six branches, each of the seven crowned with a light. It was beaten out of pure gold, and made to look not like an olive, but like an almond tree (see Ex. 25:33-34; 37:19-20).
Why the almond? We might find help in Numbers 17:8, where Aaron’s rod budded. It suggests resurrection since the rod, once cut down, came back to life–a new kind of life where time is no restriction, for buds, blossoms and almonds appeared together. This was also true of the lampstand.
The Hebrew word for almond is derived from a root meaning “to hasten,” appropriate because the almond is the harbinger of spring, being the first to blossom. In Jeremiah 1:11-12, the Lord explains the prophet’s sighting of an almond tree by saying, “Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten My word to perform it.”
THE UNITY OF THE LAMPS
When the Lord introduces the seven churches in Revelation 1-3, He shows them as lamps. They, like the menorah in the tabernacle, are the only light in the darkness. But here they are not linked to each other, as with the branches on the tabernacle candlestick, sharing a common base. What unifies the seven churches is the Figure in the midst.
Notice that it is not the responsibility of the lampstands to remove other lampstands from fellowship: “Remember…and repent…or else I will come unto thee quickly,” says the Lord, “and will remove thy candlestick out of his place” (Rev. 2:5).
THE PURPOSE OF THE LAMPS
Lamps are not purchased to illuminate themselves. Nor are these lamps intended to do so. It is the privilege of each local assembly, standing on its own base, answerable to the Lord, to show Christ to the world.
The lamps of Revelation 1-3 are golden, not the simple clay lamps used by the common people in Jesus’ time. The allusion seems to point to the Old Testament lamps, which shone “before the Lord” in the holy place. It is His desire “That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world” (Phil. 2:15).
What an honor for us that the One who is the Light of the world and the little lamps scattered throughout the world share this ministry.
THE FUNCTION OF THE LAMPS
But how do the lamps work? In the book of Zechariah we have the description of another lampstand which uses oil as fuel for its light. There God taught the prophet this principle: “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts” (Zech. 4:1-6). A better lesson could not be learned by Christian churches today.
All the beauty we can see in our physical world is a result of light. In fact the colors we see are not in the objects but in the light itself. In the moral world, all beauty is resident in the One who is the Light of the world. Our society desperately needs to see something of that beauty. Perhaps we could claim two desires expressed by the psalmist: “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple” and “let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish Thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish Thou it” (Ps. 27:4; 90:17).