After many years of study, I came to the realization that in Exodus the golden lampstand was not only a type of Christ as the light from God to man. The lampstand is also the embodiment of the Triune God. This corresponds with Colossians 2:9 which says, “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” As the embodiment of God, the lampstand has three crucial aspects. First, the substance of the lampstand is gold. Second, this gold is not merely a lump of gold but it has a shape, a form. Third, the lampstand has seven lamps shining. Three crucial aspects of the lampstand are the element, the shape, and the expression. When I considered these three aspects of the lampstand, I began to realize that this is a picture of the embodiment of the Triune God. The golden element according to typology always typifies the divine nature of God the Father. The shape of the lampstand signifies Christ as the embodiment of the invisible God. The form of the lampstand undoubtedly signifies God the Son as the very embodiment of God (Col. 2:9). The seven lamps of the lampstand are the seven Spirits shining in the dark age. Therefore, the expression is God the Spirit. The element refers to God the Father, the shape signifies God the Son, and the expression is God the Spirit. The lampstand which typifies Christ is also the embodiment of the Triune God.
This embodiment, which was unique in Exodus 25, has been multiplied by the local churches which are composed of all the believers. All the believers are also the multiplication of Christ. In John 12:24 the Lord Jesus indicated that He was as a grain of wheat falling into the ground to die and that when He died He would bear much fruit. When the Lord died on the cross many grains were produced in His resurrection, and the many grains are the multiplication of that one grain. Also, Paul said in Philippians 1:21a, “For to me to live is Christ.” This is another indication of the multiplication of Christ. Furthermore, 1 Corinthians 12:12 tells us that Christ is not only the Head but also the Body. In Exodus the lampstand was Christ and in Revelation the lampstands are the churches. This indicates that not only Christ Himself is a lampstand but every local church is also a lampstand; therefore, the lampstands as the local churches are the multiplication of that unique lampstand.
We have mentioned already that all of us have some amount of gold in us, and gold signifies God in His nature. When we believed in the Lord Jesus, we received God into us (1 John 4:15). All the believers have been born of God (John 1:13). This matter of being born indicates that something substantial of God enters into the children whom He begets. When a father begets a child something of the father is imparted into that child. As those who have been begotten of God we have to believe and realize that the divine substance has been born into our being.
In John 4:24 the Lord told us that God is Spirit. This means that God is Spirit in substance. To say that a table is wood means the table’s substance is wood. The Lord also went on to say that since God is Spirit, those that worship Him must worship Him in their spirit. Many of us think that to worship means to kneel down or bow down to God. However, the entire context of John 4 does not give us this kind of concept. Rather, in John 4 to worship is to drink (vv. 13-14). When you drink the Lord as the living water, this is your real worship to God. To worship God is to contact God in your spirit. The very God whom you worship in John 4 is the living water. It would not be logical to contact the living water by kneeling down to it. The living water is here for us to drink, and our drinking of the living water is a real worship to God who is the living water. When we drink the living water we receive something as a kind of element into us. Furthermore, in John 6 the Lord told us that He was the bread of life (v. 35). Life is very abstract, but bread is solid. When you eat bread, surely some element gets into your being. The New Testament shows us that we believers have received something of God substantially into our being and after believing we should drink of Him and eat of Him, continually receiving some substance of Him into our being.
When I was young, I was taught and encouraged to pray every day and to tell God what I needed and wanted. Eventually, however, I learned that the first thing in prayer is not to ask for what you want. To pray is to drink of God and to eat of God (John 6:57). The more you pray, the more you eat and the more you drink, and the more you drink and eat, the more of God you will substantially receive. Paul said that he planted and that Apollos watered but God is the One who makes to grow. Growth comes out of something substantial. If plants are not fertilized, they will not grow that much. If your children are not fed, they will not grow. Many of the American children grow substantially because of eating the rich food of America. After eating the riches of America and being constituted with them, they become “the fullness of America.” We can only grow in Christ by receiving additionally and continually the divine substance into our being. The divine nature of which we partake (2 Pet. 1:4) is typified by gold. As believers, we need to eat (John 6:57), drink (John 7:37; 1 Cor. 12:13), and breathe the Lord (John 20:22; Lam. 3:55-56). When we do this, we are drinking “golden” water, eating “golden” bread, and breathing “golden” breath. Whatever we are drinking, eating, or breathing is gold because it is divine.
Although, humanly speaking, I can see many weaknesses in the church, I must testify that I see the increase of God in all the saints. Undoubtedly, our growth is very slow in the same way that our physical growth is also slow. From day to day the parents notice little growth in their children. After five years, however, a noticeable amount of growth has actually taken place. After twenty-two years, some children may grow up to be taller than their parents. After planting, watering, and fertilizing the plants, we can go home to rest because God gives the growth. This also applies to our growth in life, in Christ. All the churches are growing in the Lord.