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Scripture Reading: Exo. 25:31a, 37a; Zech. 4:2, 6, 10b; 3:9; Rev. 1:12b, 20b; 4:5; 5:6
The Bible is a precious yet mysterious book. Not only does it reveal God to us; it also speaks thoroughly about the relationship between God and man. In its pages we are told that God created man and that man must worship, love, and fear Him. God, we are also told, became our Savior by delivering us from our sins and from perdition. Most mysteriously, the Bible also reveals that this Creator and Redeemer is Spirit, and as such, He wants to come into us to be our life.
This last point is the hardest for us to grasp. Yes, we know that He is to be worshipped and obeyed as the Creator and to be believed in as our Savior and Redeemer, but to comprehend that He wants to enter into us to be our life and even our person is not easy.
We do have a life of our own. This life, however, is really only a picture of the true life, just as a photograph resembles us but does not have our life. The real life is God Himself entering into us. God created man in His image (Gen. 1:26-27) for the very purpose of entering into him. Man is God’s vessel (Rom. 9:21-23); God wants to be man’s content. Just as a glove is empty and meaningless unless a hand becomes its content, so human life is also empty unless man has God within him.
When we receive the Lord, He becomes our content and our life. We become one with Him. He is the life in us, and we are His living without. He lives within us, and for us, “to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).
This relationship that we have with Him is hard to express in words. Thus, in the Bible there are many types, or pictures, to convey the meaning of what would otherwise be abstract. The golden lampstand in Exodus 25:31-37 is one of these types.
In the Bible the golden lampstand has three stages. The first stage is in Exodus, the lampstand in the tabernacle. The second is in Zechariah (4:2-10), where God considers His people Israel as a lampstand. The last is in Revelation (1:12, 20), where the church is symbolized as a lampstand. God’s people, whether the true Israelites or the true believers, should be a golden lampstand.
This golden lampstand has more to it than its outward appearance. Otherwise, it would not shine. Its inner content is what makes it shine. In actuality the lampstand is a portrayal of the Triune God. The doctrine of the Trinity is not specifically described in the Bible, but that God is triune is made quite clear to us.
Our God is one; He is also three. He is the unique God, but He is also Father, Son, and Spirit. We must be careful in our choice of terms here. To say that God exists in three persons is misleading. It is better to avoid the word persons and simply say that He is three in one. This is what triune means; it is of Latin origin, tri meaning “three” and une meaning “one.” There is the aspect of the one and also of the three.
On the one hand, the Bible, in both the Old and the New Testaments, tells us clearly that God is one. Psalm 86:10 says, “You alone are God.” Isaiah 45:5 says, “I am Jehovah and there is no one else; / Besides Me there is no God.” First Corinthians 8:4 tells us, “There is no God but one.” On the other hand, there is clear mention of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14).
Words cannot satisfactorily explain the mystery of the Trinity, yet the lampstand does give us a picture of it. It was to be made all of one piece of pure gold (Exo. 25:36). There was only one lampstand for the tabernacle, yet there were seven lamps. Viewed as a whole, the lampstand was one; from the top, however, one could clearly see seven lamps. It was a seven-in-one lampstand.
The lampstand was made of a talent of pure gold. This means it weighed about a hundred pounds. The substance or essence of the lampstand was gold. Gold typifies the nature of God. Unlike iron, it will not rust or change chemically, no matter where it is put. God’s nature is constant, unchanging, eternal. The gold denotes God the Father as the essence and source.
The gold was made into a prescribed form, which indicated its function. This form is Christ, who is the image of God (2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15). When God created man, He created him in His image (Gen. 1:26). Since Christ is God’s image, man was created according to Christ. In one sense God does not have a physical form, but in another sense He does have an expression of His image. Christ, the beloved Son, is the image of the invisible God. What function does this form denote? He expresses God. “No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (John 1:18).
Another characteristic of this lampstand is its seven lamps. These, the Bible clearly tells us, are the seven Spirits of God (Rev. 4:5), which are simply the Spirit of God Himself.
The golden lampstand symbolizes the Triune God expressed. Its essence is the Father, its form is the Son, and its expression is the Spirit. In this first stage the lampstand represents Christ. When He was on earth, the nature of God, the Father, was in Him. So was the Father’s image, because the Lord Jesus thoroughly manifested Him. As He mingled among men, Christ was also the seven lamps shining forth. Jesus Christ is the expression of the Triune God. God was in Him, was upon Him, and was His very essence. Apart from Him, no one can find God.
In the second stage Israel is the lampstand (Zech. 4:2, 6, 10b). Israel is both individual and corporate. The individual Israelite is Christ. The corporate Israel, God’s chosen people, should be like Him, the true Prince of God. (This is the meaning of the name Israel.)
It was Jacob who was given the name Israel (Gen. 32:28). In his early years he surely was not a prince of God. He was a thief. God spent more than a hundred years working on Jacob, until he was transformed from a thief into a prince of God.
Jacob first stole from his brother Esau. Then he stole from his father. When he had to escape for his life, God spoke to him in a dream. Jacob’s vow in response to God was still in the principle of grasping something for himself (28:20-22).
When he lived with his uncle Laban, he still connived to get what he could for himself. Laban, of course, tricked him in return by forcing him to take Leah when Rachel was the one he wanted to marry. But then he continued his scheming way by manipulating Laban’s flocks so that all the increase would be his.
God’s hand was on Jacob year after year. One thing after another was taken from him, till he was stripped of everything he valued. His beloved wife Rachel died. His favorite son was apparently killed by wild beasts. All that was left was Benjamin. Then even Benjamin was taken from him. In the end Jacob stopped struggling and surrendered. God had transformed him from Jacob the thief to Israel the prince of God.
Such people, who have been transformed into princes, are the true Israelites, standing as a golden lampstand. This is the second stage.
In the New Testament we come to the final picture of the golden lampstand. After God saves us, He begins the work of transformation within us so that we may become a golden lampstand. Christ, who is the Head of the church, is an individual golden lampstand; the church, His Body, should correspondingly form a corporate golden lampstand.
Is this what we are? As a church in a locality, are we truly a golden lampstand? We are surely not that by nature, for we were formed from the dust of the ground (Gen. 2:7), not of gold. “The first man is out of the earth, earthy” (1 Cor. 15:47). When we die, we return to the dust from which we were taken (Gen. 3:19).
Nonetheless, we do have gold within us. God Himself is within us, because we have been born of Him (John 1:12-13). As His children, we have His life and nature. From our earthly parents we have our human nature, but through regeneration we have become partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). Yes, we do have the gold of God’s life in us, but the question is, how much?
A glass may contain just a drop of water, or it may be overflowing its brim. Perhaps you have believed in the Lord. You pray to Him occasionally, but most of the time you are content to live without contacting Him. You come to the meetings only when someone brings you. Can there be any overflow from you? Does the gold have a way to increase and be formed in you? On the other hand, you may be another kind of Christian. Others can testify of you that when they talk with you, the water is always flowing over the brim. The gold in you has increased and is apparent to others.
Is the church in your locality a lampstand of gold, or is it only clay? You probably will have to answer that it is part clay and part gold. You were born of dust, or clay, and you grow up to be a man of clay. For you to be transformed from a man of clay to a man of gold is not easy and requires time. If you had been born pure gold, the forming of the golden lampstand would have been simple. The church in your locality becomes a golden lampstand as all of you are transformed from clay to gold.
How does this come about? To remain a man of clay does not require stealing or scheming like Jacob. If we live by our natural being, even though we do not commit outward sin, we are only clay. God, the gold in us, is in our spirit. We are to live by our spirit. We are not to love or hate by our natural being. We may recognize pride as coming from ourselves, but it is also quite possible for our humility to be from the self. We must not appreciate a love or humility that is of clay. The point is not whether we love or hate but whether our love or hatred comes from the self or from the spirit.
You may remember how you vowed on your wedding day to love your wife or to submit to your husband. I am sure you discovered even before your honeymoon was over that you could not fulfill your promise. It is the same story for almost everyone. Even if you do find that you are able to love your wife or submit to your husband, that love or submission is of clay. The Bible tells us that Christ lives in us (Gal. 2:20) and that to us, to live is Christ (Phil. 1:21). As Christ lives in us and as we live Him, spontaneously we will find love arising toward our wife or submission toward our husband. This love or submission is of gold, not clay.
How much of your daily living is gold, and how much is clay? This is the question that should concern you. Do not ask about love or hate, pride or humility. To think in those terms is to be in the realm of religion. What you need to ask is whether the love or humility is of gold or of clay. You may have a nice way about you and be well liked by others. But is your pleasant manner from the earth or from the gold? Probably it is a mixture of the two.
When we are with the elders or in the meetings, we are in fear and trembling lest we display the clay. We pray and seek to exercise our spirit. But when we go home, how do we treat our wife? It is all too easy to become loose, to not pray, and to no longer be watchful. Our spirit seems to evaporate. If our wife says a word that offends us, we harshly cut her off, telling her that she does not know what she is talking about or that she should mind her own business. Is this gold or clay? It is hard for the husbands to be golden in dealing with their wives.
The same holds true for the sisters. In the meetings they gird up their loins and exercise to have a strong and living spirit. They seem to be all spirit. What happens to the spirit, though, when they get home? If the husband wants to know why she has gotten home so late, the sister is quick to answer that it is not late, why does he say it is late? The spirit is gone.
If this is the way we are as soon as we get home from the meetings, I suspect that what we display in the meetings is not the genuine spirit. It is a pretense or a performance. Our real spirit cannot evaporate. It is necessary for us always to exercise to stay in spirit and to speak from the spirit. Many times it is best not to give an answer when our spouse says a critical word to us. Simply say to the Lord, “I am one spirit with You. To me, to live is You.”
Marriage tests whether the gold we have is real or false. Many young people, before they are married, give the appearance of gold. Once they marry, however, it seems as though all the gold is swept away. Whether we are really living by the spirit has to be tested by our home life. Our spouse knows best whether we are truly gold or only clay. If at home there is only clay, how can the church be a lampstand of gold? We need more of God’s element to be added to us.
In Revelation, the last book of the Bible, the Spirit is called the seven Spirits (4:5). This is not to say that there are seven individual Spirits. The meaning is that the Spirit at the end of the age is sevenfold intensified. It is like a lamp with a three-way light bulb. If we do not need very much light, we can turn the switch just once. If it is very dark, however, we can turn the switch three times and get the maximum amount of light. In Revelation the Spirit has been intensified not three times but seven.
The church as the golden lampstand shines forth this sevenfold light. When all the clay is gone, and we have been fully transformed into gold, the Spirit of God will shine forth from within and among us with a sevenfold brightness. This golden lampstand will then truly express the Triune God and be His testimony. He will have been fully wrought into us. Not only will His life be in us, but His Spirit will saturate our whole being so that every part within us is simply Himself.
