The Lampstand

“And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same.”Exodus 25:31 · KJV

“And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof: and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light over against it.”Exodus 25:37 · KJV

One piece of beaten gold, seven lamps, and the only light in the holy place (Exod 25:31, 37). The tabernacle had no windows. If the priests did not tend the oil morning and evening, the room went dark. Jesus took the picture: “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12).

Then He handed it to the churches. The seven lampstands John sees in Revelation 1 “are the seven churches” (1:20), and the light is not theirs to make, only to carry; the oil was always supplied (Zech 4:6, “not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit”). And a lampstand can be taken away. To Ephesus: “repent... or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place” (Rev 2:5). The church that stops carrying the light stops being a lampstand. Ephesus is a ruin today.