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Context No. 1367 of 4322 · Exodus

Context · Reflection

Exodus 37:17-24: in context

17He made the lamp stand of pure gold. He made the lamp stand of beaten work. Its base, its shaft, its cups, its buds, and its flowers were of one piece with it. 18There were six branches going out of its sides: three branches of the lamp stand out of its one side, and three branches of the lamp stand out of its other side: 19three cups made like almond blossoms in one branch, a bud and a flower, and three cups made like almond blossoms in the other branch, a bud and a flower; so for the six branches going out of the lamp stand. 20In the lamp stand were four cups made like almond blossoms, its buds and its flowers; 21and a bud under two branches of one piece with it, and a bud under two branches of one piece with it, and a bud under two branches of one piece with it, for the six branches going out of it. 22Their buds and their branches were of one piece with it. The whole thing was one beaten work of pure gold. 23He made its seven lamps, and its snuffers, and its snuff dishes, of pure gold. 24He made it of a talent of pure gold, with all its vessels.

This passage describes the making of the golden lampstand for the sanctuary, the menorah. It was hammered out of a single talent of pure gold, one solid piece, with a central shaft and six branches, each branch worked with cups shaped like almond blossoms, with buds and flowers, and seven lamps set upon it. Base, shaft, branches, blossoms, all were of one piece of beaten gold, and its lamps and snuffers of pure gold as well. It was the light of the holy place, the lamp that stood before the LORD.

Two things about the lampstand are worth catching. The first is that it was a lampstand, not the light itself. Its whole purpose was to hold and lift up the seven lamps, to bear the light so that it could shine in the holy place; the gold did not glow of itself, it carried the flames. That is a fitting picture of what God's people are called to be. We are not the light; Christ is the light, and we are lampstands, made to hold him up and let his light shine through us, bearers rather than sources. To forget that is to make ourselves the point; to remember it is to know our dignity lies in carrying a light that is not our own. The second thing is that the lampstand was beaten work, hammered from a single piece. The beauty and the light-bearing did not come without the hammer; the gold was shaped into its branches and blossoms by being struck, worked, formed under repeated blows. Those who bear God's light are often shaped the same way, formed into what can carry the light through being worked and struck by hard experience, until the shapeless lump becomes something that can hold a flame. And it was all of one piece, an integrity, no part soldered on or divided from the rest. The lampstand made to bear light was pure gold, of one piece, and beaten into shape. So, often, are those God fashions to carry his light into the world.

Do I remember that I am a lampstand and not the light, made to carry a flame that is not my own, and can I accept the hammering that shapes me, as the lampstand was beaten from one piece of gold, into something that can bear God's light?

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