THE MENORAH

 (Continued from yesterday)

  The Menorah is a representation of the Tree of Life. As such, it also a representation of the Messiah. The number seven is God’s number, so the seven candlesticks of the Menorah can mean many different things. Of course, any and all of those things must have something to do with light from God.

  Since Jesus is the light of the world, (John 8:12) it should have something to do with Him. On the other hand, Matthew wrote about Jerusalem, “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid” (Mat 5:14). Jesus Himself said,

“I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (John 9:4-5)

  “I AM” is used before the “light of the world” thus the light is the object of I AM, meaning I AM equals Light of the World. God is without name, He just IS, and in English that is I AM, in Hebrew Yehovah (JHVH), and in Greek Ego Eimi. In the Greek, “I” is implied, leaving “AM” or the “Existence.”

  The Existence is the Light of the World, and the Menorah would represent that Light or Presence.

¹ In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. ² And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. ³ And God said, “Let there be light: and there was light.” ⁴ And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. ⁵ And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. (Gen 1:1-5)

  Before anything God WAS, hence He was all of EXISTENCE. As such, all things come from Him.

 In the Hebrew, that Pre-existence is called “Shekhinah” which is the Presence of the EXISTENCE that we call “God.” As such, before anything, God was the Light of Existence. He was the SEVEN LAMPS somehow that represent Him.

  Jesus mentioned work in the same context as Light of the World, then He went about His work (John 9:6) “He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.”

  That blind man was Bartimaeus; the man who when he first saw the light, saw Jesus. Not only that, He saw Jesus as a tree walking! He saw the Light of the World first as the Tree of Life, if that is the true meaning of scripture. Why else would it have been written by Mark that Bartimaeus only saw Jesus, but said, “I see men; as trees walking”?

  Where was Jesus in the beginning of the world: “And they heard the voice of the LORD GOD walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden” (Gen 3:8).

  Of course, the “Tree of Life” was real, but was it a metaphysical “Tree” that could walk? Had GOD been in the midst of His creatures in Genesis 2:9 along with Lucifer in their midst as well in a metaphysical tree of knowledge?

  Adam and Eve walked to the forbidden tree, but the Tree of Life walked to them. Had Bartimaeus, given the Light of Jesus, seen Jesus as the Tree of Life and his belief is what healed him? Note that the LORD GOD, the EXISTENCE, formed man from the mist of the ground to make clay, and that the Light of this World made clay from spit to heal Bartimaeus!

  Without question, the Menorah represents the PRESENCE of the LORD GOD who goes where men go, even unto the darkness of sin to bring Light to the blind as He did for so many during His ministry.

  How long is the Light of the World to burn? Jesus said, “As long as I am in the world.” But Jesus is no longer in the world, is He not? Not so, the Comforter (the Holy Ghost) is just as much the Presence of God as the Tree of Life in the Garden, and the PRESENCE walking in the Garden.

  I believe, just as many Hebrew theologians, that Jerusalem is the “midst of the Garden of Eden” and Israel, defined by the former Kingdom of David, is the GARDEN, and it remains to this day, the fertile crescent, except for the Dead Sea that was as the Garden of God.

  Ezekiel described greater Assyria all the way to Lebanon when he compare the fall of Egypt to the fall if the Assyrian Empire: “The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chestnut trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty” (Ezek 31:8). Ezekiel saw the previous Kingdom of David as the Garden of Eden, and King Sargon II as the tree of beauty, or the Tree of Knowledge whose beauty Eve could not resist.

  Jerusalem would be the midst of the Garden and Jerusalem the center of the Presence of God; hence both the LORD GOD and Jerusalem are the “Light of the World” just as scripture indicates, and that the Garden of Eden was either a Garden of Metaphors or even metaphysical as implied!

  Mankind, either good or evil, would remain in the Presence of Jesus whether He be dead or alive (John 9:5). He was there in the Garden as the Voice walking in the Presence of Adam and Eve. The Word (John 1:1) was the Tree of Life walking in the Garden.

  That “Tree” was the first manifestation of Jesus, and the manifestation of Him in heavenly Paradise (Rev 22), remembering that the Tree of Life on the River of God has the Lamb of God in it. Hence, the Tree of Life represents the One LORD GOD with three substances.

  Now think of the Menorah. It is one candelabra with seven lamps. One lamp is in the midst of the others with three on each side. Obviously, the Menorah may represent one Tree with different branches. From here, one can only guess.

  Perhaps the center lamp represents the Tree of Life, and the other lamps, other trees. Trees in scripture represent things and mostly people of various types. The “trees” as antitypes in the Bible are the olive, fig, oak, cedar, shittim, and even the vine and bramble bush.

  Perhaps the Menorah represents the seven “trees” of scripture with the olive as the Tree of Life in the middle. If so, then the Menorah would represent the kinds of men who were the immortal souls surrounding the Tree of Life in the Garden.

  The mode in the ancient days was Tabernacle worship with the Tabernacle of God in the middle with the tents of the Hebrews surrounding His Presence.

  That was typical of Garden worship, with the Tree of Life with its canopy in the middle and the surrounding trees with their canopies, or naturally made tents.

  The crucifixion was also a negative type of worship with the Tree of Life in the middle and different types of people surrounding the “Tree” to which Jesus was nailed, and it all happened right there in the middle of the “Garden”!

²⁰ And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always. ²¹ In the tabernacle of the congregation without the vail, which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning before the Lord: it shall be a statute for ever unto their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel. (Exod 27:20-21)

   Olive oil is for the fuel for the Light. It represents the Presence of God. For that one reason, perhaps the olive tree was the physical Tree of Life and Jesus the metaphysical in that it was real, rooted, grounded, but walked as if a man.

  The olive tree represents life and so does the Presence of the LORD GOD. Jesus is the physical Presence of the LORD GOD and the Holy Ghost the invisible Presence. The olive oil would represent the Holy Spirit of God that emanates from Him for the Light.

  The seven Churches of Asia were assigned to keep the Light burning. They were to bring the oil and cause the Lamp to always burn. Each Church, from the Book of Revelation, brought different amounts of oil, some “oil” of which burned, some burned little, and some went out.

  The seven churches of Asia were one prominent Church surrounded by six lesser churches, one of whose fire went nearly out (Laodicia). Those Churches were antitypical as well — typical of the Church ages. In the Age of Aquarius, it is the last Church age. It is when the lampstand burns low with only Laodicia smoldering.

  I believe that the Great Reset is the process of putting on the lampstand entirely, and it corresponds with the Age of Lucifer whose “water” puts the last lamp out. If some are right, that age began on December 20, 2020. The Light is growing dimmer, and soon it will be put out.

  But the last lamp can be delayed for a time; and that depends on the Church:

¹⁴ Do all things without murmurings and disputings: ¹⁵ That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world. (Phil 2:14-15)

  Those who walk in the Light of Jesus and shined on by the Presence of the Holy Ghost remain lit among those in a dark and perverse world. Just as the few in Sodom and Gomorrah delayed the destruction of those two cities, when God has had enough, the few whose lights are still burning will be raptured out, and then the rest go the way the Sodomites went.

  Is it midnight yet? Are there enough Christians to keep the Light of Jesus burning?

  Much like the destruction of Sodom, perhaps God will rapture the few before utter destruction comes. The question is: How much tribulation will God tolerate before the rapture? In Sodom it was when there were few lights left burning?

(picture credit: Hoshana Rabbah)