I recently re-read The Sabbath by the respected Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. The copy I bought had very abstract pictures of OT concepts at each chapter head. To be honest, they didn't make much sense to me... except for one. It was a picture of a "living" menorah.. a menorah made out of vines and almond blossoms. Like the instructions of a golden lampstand being made in the likeness of an almond tree. I quickly got a copy made and it now sits facing me on the table at the end of my bed to contemplate each time I glance at it.
I read a Christian theology textbook on the Tabernacle, so I could go into a lot of detail about the significance of all the details of the lampstand, but I want to focus on the most simple: it was to give light. Filled continually with pure olive oil by the designated priests, it was lit at all times. But it giving light is only the first part of what I want to focus on. What is important is what it illumined: the table of the shewbread, or the Bread of the Presence, eaten then replaced each week by the priests after fresh consecration.
I finally understood why this elusive picture of the lampstand had captivated me for weeks: it was a symbol of the illumination of the Presence of God in my life, particularly the vast, dark three years preceding this moment in time. I could see where he was all along in my sin, pain, and transgression: with me.
And if you're sitting there worried that, since this is an OT concept it doesn't apply to you and you won't be able to see the Presence of God in your murky past, your tenuous present, or your uncertain future, remember that Jesus is the Light of the world, the exact imprint of the nature of the God, given to us to know the Father. And his name is Emmanuel, which means "God with us."
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