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The Tabernacle that from one "talent of pure gold" the candlestick was beaten out by hand in delicate and highly ornamental workmanship. The shaft, or base, upheld the one central branch, from which sprang three branches on each side, the one paraUel with the other. In the seven branches were seven lamps. The "bowls, knops, and flowers," of course, refer to the ornaments on the branches, which were the result of the "beaten work." The bowls were "made like unto almonds." As another has expressed it: "Each side branch had three sections. Each section had spindles shaped like almonds, a knob at the upper end and a flower. The central shaft had four of these sections," with "golden lamps ... on the top of the flowers" (I. M. Haldeman). What an exquisitely beautiful work of art it must have been! 1. "The Light of the World" and His "Lights in the World." Our Lord's own words and the testimony of Zacharias, Simeon, and the inspired apostles leave us in no doubt as to the typical significance of the golden candle- stick: "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me s~all not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.... The sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world" (John 8:12; Phil. 2:15). "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.... Ye are the light of the world" (John 9:5; Matt. 5 :14). "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all . . . Let your loins be girded about, and your· lights burn- ing" (I John 1:5; Luke 12:35). The Golden Candlestick-A Type of Christ and His Church
The Tabernacle "In him was life; and the life was the light of men. ... That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.... Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light" (John 1:4, 9; Eph. 5:8). "The dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. ... A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. . . . For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (Luke 1:78, 79; 2:32; II Cor. 4:6). "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanscth us from all sin" (I John 1:7). When Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, ad- dressing his own infant son, prophesied concerning "the dayspring from on high," he was bearing witness to Israel's long-promised Messiah, and quoting from the Old Testa- ment Scriptures. When Simeon entered the temple and saw the Infant Jesus, with Joseph and Mary, who had taken Him to Jerusalem when He was eight days old, in order to fulfill the Law of Moses, he prophesied concerning the long-expected Messiah of Israel and Saviour of the world, also quoting the Old Testament concerning the "light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of ... Israel." When John the Baptist, "a man sent from God," testified concerning Jesus, "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world," he "came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might be- lieve. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear wit- ness of that Light" (John 1:6-8, 29). From Genesis to
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