The Candlestick.—Exodus. 25:31-39

To understand the candlestick, we must consider its pattern and material. The pattern of it was the pattern of the almond in all its various stages; each branch had bud, flower and fruit. The almond tree is especially a type of resurrection, the meaning of it in the Hebrew is " to hasten." Thus we have in Jer. 1:11: " Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. Then said the Lord unto me: Thou hast well seen, for I will hasten my word to perform it." Now why is it called " to hasten?" It is the first tree in Palestine to bloom; it blossoms in January. Thus also is Christ the "first-fruits of them that slept." Its pattern, then, suggesting resurrection, and its material being entirely of gold, we have a figure of the risen Christ. But the candlestick did not give any light, you know; the light was not in the candlestick, but in the lamps on the tops of the seven branches. In the lamps the oil was put, and the oil gave the light. Now all will understand oil to mean the Holy Spirit throughout the Scriptures. It is a type, then, of Christ and the Holy Ghost. Christ was the true light that came into the world men preferred darkness to light. They crucified Him, and now, risen from the dead, He sheds down light here by the Holy Spirit. Just as the golden candlestick upheld the lamps which gave light in the tabernacle, so the risen Christ up there sheds down light here by the Holy Spirit. Now you can readily understand that with all these coverings on, no light from the outside world ever entered here, all light came from the golden candlestick. If that candlestick had not been there, the man who went inside would not see that table and the twelve loaves there. And the reason believers do not see their place is, because the Holy Spirit does not get His place amongst them. The Holy Spirit is grieved thus, and consequently believers are in darkness. In John 7:39, we read that "the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified." Thus the giving of the Holy Ghost (distinct from the prior operation of the Spirit) was made dependent upon His glorification. When He was glorified, then the Holy Spirit came down on the day of Pentecost. Redemption must first be accomplished, and Christ have His place in glory, as declared to be the Son of God with power, before believers could have that (the Spirit) which alone could give them the intelligence of Christ's work. This, then (John 7:39), is a key to the type of the golden candlestick. The candlestick (or lamp bearer) itself is a type of the risen and glorified Christ; the light of it (given by means of the oil) a type of the light given by the Holy Spirit, shed forth by Him whom the world rejected. Seeing this will make intelligible to us Ex. 25:37, " And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof; and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light over against it (Hebrew, the face of it)," for John 16:14 says, "He (the Spirit) shall glorify me; for He shall receive of mine and shall skew it unto you." Thus, just as the glorified Christ is shown to us by the Spirit, so was the golden candlestick made visible by the lamps.
There was no size given to the candlestick. We are told the size of the altar, table, curtains, etc., but there were two things only which we are not told the size of, they are the candlestick and the laver. Why are we not told the size of the candlestick? God giveth not the Spirit by measure " (John 3:34). Again, "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." It is not a portion of the Spirit that the believer receives, but the Holy Spirit Himself. " Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?" All that Christ has done would be in vain had we not the Holy Spirit to make it true to our souls; but having this, things which eye had not seen nor ear heard, God has revealed unto us by His Spirit. Some have asked me, " How can I know that I have the Spirit?" I answer, " If Christ is made known to your soul, depend upon it it is by the Holy Ghost He is made known to you."