The Exodus. Day 94, The Table And The Lampstand

Our current chapter regards the objects that will be housed within the wilderness sanctuary, otherwise known as the tabernacle. Later, when King Solomon builds the temple at Jerusalem, these same objects will be placed inside it. So far we've studied the offerings that were needed to begin the sanctuary project and we've taken a look at the Ark of the Covenant. Now we move on to two other objects that will reside in the sanctuary.

Moses is still on Mount Sinai with the Lord and it is the Lord who is speaking, saying, "Make a table of acacia wood---two cubits long, a cubit wide and a cubit and a half high. Overlay it with pure gold and make a gold molding around it. Also make around it a rim a handbreadth wide and put a gold molding on the rim. Make four gold rings for the table and fasten them to the four corners, where the four legs are. The rings are to be close to the rim to hold the poles used in carrying the table. Make the poles of acacia wood, overlay them with gold and carry the table with them." (Exodus 25:23-28)

I've added an artist's rendering of what the table may have looked like. We can tell from the Lord's description of this table that it would have matched quite nicely with the Ark of the Covenant. Both of these objects are beautiful as well as functional.

Beautiful tables are usually set or decorated, aren't they? The Lord isn't telling the Israelites to make the table only so it can look pretty in the sanctuary. Important things are going to be placed on this table. "And make its plates and dishes of pure gold, as well as its pitchers and bowls for the pouring out of offerings. Put the bread of the Presence on this table to be before Me at all times." (Exodus 25:29-30) There needs to be plates because on every Sabbath twelve cakes made with fine flour will be placed upon the table, in two stacks with six cakes in each stack. Gold pitchers will contain liquid offerings. There will be bowls made of gold to hold frankincense and there will be gold spoons (or small pans) with which to sprinkle the frankincense. We will be studying all these things in far more detail as we move on through our study.

A lovely lampstand will be placed in the sanctuary to provide light. "Make a lampstand of pure gold. Hammer out its base and shaft, and make its flowerlike cups, buds and blossoms of one piece with them. Six branches are to extend from the sides of the lampstand---three on one side and three on the other. Three cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms are to be on one branch, three on the next branch, and the same for all six branches extending from the lampstand. And on the lampstand there are to be four cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms. One bud shall be under the first pair of branches extending from the lampstand, a second bud under the second pair, and a third bud under the third pair---six branches in all. The buds and branches shall all be of one piece with the lampstand, hammered out of pure gold." (Exodus 25:31-36)

I don't know about you, but I have some difficulty picturing the lampstand based on its description here in Exodus 25. When I did an internet search for images of the lampstand it seems pretty much every rendering of it looks like this, so I'm inserting the photo above to help us imagine what it may have looked like.

"Then make its seven lamps and set them up on it so that they light the space in front of it. Its wick trimmers and trays are to be of pure gold. A talent of pure gold is to be used for the lampstand and all these accessories. See that you make them according to the pattern shown you on the mountain." (Exodus 25:37-40) The sanctuary is going to be a large tent made of curtains in the dark colors of blue, purple and scarlet. Imagine how gloomy it would be inside without the lampstand. Even on a bright sunny day the interior of the tent is going to need a source of light so the priests can go about their work.

The Lord solemnly reminds Moses that everything about the sanctuary and the objects within must be made exactly according to the pattern He's providing. You'll recall from yesterday's study that the earthly sanctuary and its furnishings are copies of things that exist in heaven. (Hebrews 9:23) We may get deeper into this subject later on, although we do not know a great deal about the ark which is in heaven or about the table which is in heaven or about the lampstand which is in heaven. We are not provided with much information in the Bible regarding the heavenly sanctuary of God, possibly because few have seen it and returned to tell the tale.

The Apostle Paul describes in his writings a near death or actual death experience he had when he was dragged outside of the city of Antioch, pelted with stones, and left for dead. His attackers believed he was dead and that's likely because he was for a few minutes. I think his enemies checked to see that he wasn't breathing and they may even have felt for a pulse or listened to his chest for a heartbeat. But during the moments while his body was in that state, he said he saw heaven. Even Paul wasn't sure whether he was actually dead or whether what he saw was a vision given to him by God. Interestingly, he never really tried to describe exactly what he saw! I think he couldn't describe it in a way that could do it justice or in a way that anyone could possibly have begun to picture it in their minds. Whatever he saw was so glorious that for the rest of his life he longed to depart this world to be with the Lord, but he stated that for the time being it was necessary for the Lord to let him remain on earth to minister to the church and to get the gospel message out to those who were not yet believers.

But Paul does allude to the fact that there is a sanctuary in heaven and that this structure and the objects within it are the true and original things after which the earthly sanctuary and its objects were patterned. We already mentioned Hebrews 9:23 today where Paul says that the things the Lord told Moses and the Israelites to make were "copies of the heavenly things". He also says that the Lord Jesus Christ took His own blood and carried it into the sanctuary in heaven and sprinkled His blood on the mercy seat of the ark there. (Hebrews 9:11-12, 24) So we know that there is a place in heaven that resembles the earthly sanctuary and its furnishings.

The Apostle John, when given the visions of Revelation, saw heaven and described a lampstand there, burning before the throne of God. (Revelation 4:5) This is almost certainly the lampstand in whose image the earthly lampstand for the sanctuary was fashioned. John, however, does not describe what it looked like. He may have assumed his Jewish readers would know it resembled the lampstand of the sanctuary. John himself was a Jewish man and would have recognized the lampstand as the original one that the earthly lampstand was patterned after and he may have known his Jewish readers would make the same automatic association.

We can also conclude that these true and original things are far more beautiful than their copies on earth. As lovely as the gold and gold-plated objects of the sanctuary were, and as colorful as the royal colors of the tent coverings were, they can't even begin to compare to the things that were made by God's own hands. I believe the men of the Bible who were given glimpses into heaven chose not to try to go into detail about the objects they saw because the beauty of these objects was beyond compare. To try to describe them in earthly terms was to do them an injustice. Any description at all was going to fall far short of what these men actually saw. I think these occasions were the type when the one who experienced them is compelled to say, "I guess you just had to be there."

But thanks be to God, someday we'll see these things with our own eyes. Someday we'll behold our Redeemer face to face. And on that day we'll know exactly what the Apostle Paul meant when he said, "No human mind has conceived the things God has prepared for those who love Him." (1 Corinthians 2:9)