In the Bible the golden lampstand is revealed in three stages. The first is in Exodus 25, where the lampstand typifies Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God. The second is in Zechariah 4:2, where the lampstand represents the children of Israel who are in the position of receiving grace. The third is in Revelation 1, where the golden lampstand is the church. In the foregoing message we considered the lampstand as a type of Christ, who is the embodiment of the Triune God. In this message we shall go on to see that the lampstand signifies Israel as God’s testimony and also that the golden lampstands signify the seven local churches as God’s testimony.
The lampstand is first mentioned in Exodus 25. Near the end of the Old Testament, the lampstand is mentioned again in Zechariah 4:2. “What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof” (Heb.). Here the lampstand signifies Israel as God’s testimony in the Old Testament and in the millennium. In Old Testament times, whenever the nation of Israel was in a normal condition, it was God’s testimony. In the coming millennium, the restored nation of Israel will once again be God’s testimony symbolized by a golden lampstand.
In Exodus 25 we only have the lampstand with the seven lamps; there is no mention of what the seven lamps refer to. In Zechariah, however, we are given a definite interpretation of the seven lamps, for in this book we are told that the seven lamps are the seven eyes of Jehovah (4:10) and the seven eyes of the stone (3:9).
The golden lampstand in Zechariah 4 shines through the seven eyes (Spirits) of Jehovah. Zechariah 4:10 says, “For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth.” Here “those seven” refers to the seven lamps in verse 2. Those seven are “the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth.” Therefore, the seven lamps on the lampstand are the seven eyes of Jehovah.
In Zechariah we have the seven eyes and the seven lamps but not the seven Spirits. But in Revelation the seven lamps are developed into the seven Spirits. “Out of the throne come forth lightnings and voices and thunders; and seven lamps of fire are burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God” (Rev. 4:5). Here we have a new and further development of the seven lamps as the seven Spirits, for we are told clearly that the seven lamps are the seven Spirits of God. Since the seven lamps are the seven eyes and also the seven Spirits, then the seven eyes in Zechariah 4:10 are the seven Spirits. This gives us the ground to say that the lampstand in Zechariah 4 shines through the seven eyes, the seven Spirits, of Jehovah.
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