'Thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold....'
--EXODUS xxv. 31.
If we could have followed the Jewish priest as he passed in his daily
ministrations into the Inner Court, we should have seen that he first
piled the incense on the altar which stood in its centre, and then
turned to trim the lamps of the golden candlestick which flanked it on
one side. Of course it was not a candlestick, as our versions
misleadingly render the word. That was an article of furniture unknown
in those days. It was a lampstand; from a central upright stem branched
off on either side three arms decorated with what the Book calls
'beaten work,' and what we in modern jewellers' technicality call
_répoussé_ work, each of which bore on its top, like a flower on its
stalk, a shallow cup filled with oil, in which a wick floated. There
were thus seven lamps in all, including that on the central stem. The
material was costly, the work adorning it was artistic, the oil with
which it was fed was carefully prepared, the number of its lamps
expressed perfection, it was daily trimmed by the priest, and there,
all through the night, it burned, the one spot of light in a dark
desert.
Now, this Inner Court of the Tabernacle or Temple was intended, with
its furniture, to be symbolical of the life of Israel, the priestly
nation. The Altar of Incense, which was the main article of
ecclesiastical equipment there, and stood in the central place,
represented the life of Israel in its Godward aspect, as being a life
of continual devotion. The Candlestick on the one hand, and the Table
of Shew-bread on the other, were likewise symbolical of other aspects
of that same life. I have to deal now with the meaning and lessons of
this golden lampstand, and it teaches us--