54. SEVEN STARS AS THE MENORAH

54. Seven Stars as the Menorah

According to Zondervan, the Menorah should be translated “lampstand” as there were seven olive-oil lamps emanating from one stem. The plan or arrangement of these seven was in the form of a six-point star with the center of it being the seventh lamp.[i]

This six-point star, revolving around a center point could be used to represent, or perhaps to sight, the equinoxes and the solstices of the year.  The word Menorah may well be a contraction of a compound word mânâh, meaning “to divide, be divided.”  One form of the word (Niphal), means to be numbered, etc, plus the word ’ûr, meaning “light.”  The compound would therefore relate to the dividing and numbering of the lights of the heaven for purposes of determining the calendar.[ii]

Psalm 19:1: The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

The word translated “declare,” (KJV), or “are telling,” (RSV), in the original language has the sense of numbering, or tallying.  In Old English we have this same sense in the expression: “a tale that is told” which can signify “a story that is related” or “‘a numerical problem that is solved.”  So the heavens, in Psalms 19:1, are not only telling the glory of God but are also numbering it by the cycles of the times.  Zechariah also saw this lampstand as part of a builders tools in the context of rebuilding the temple after the Babylonian captivity, (also Zechariah 1:16; 2:1; 4:1-10):

And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which [are] upon the top thereof, (Zech. 4:2).

The Angel interpreted this for Zechariah:

For who hath despised the day of small things? For they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel [with] those seven; they [are] the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth, (Zech. 4:10).

Here we see that the seven golden candlesticks were a “plummet,” that is, a builder’s instrument for aligning a building, a plumb bob. [The word with is supplied at the translator’s discretion and was not in the original text.] Builders have used the stars to align buildings since some of the earliest historical records, (for example, the pyramids of Egypt.) Therefore, the plummet in the hands of Zerubbabel was, naturally speaking, the seven-branched candelabra, which was spiritually analogous to the Seven-fold, or Covenant Spirit of God. 
The heaven is God's throne: "Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?" Isaiah 60:1. So these "seven-stars," also called the "seven lamps of fire burning before the throne," Revelation 4:5, represent the "seven Spirits of God" before the heavenly throne.

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[i] ZONDERVAN PICTORIAL BIBLE DICTIONARY article "Candlesticks." See the drawing at this place, showing the six-point star arrangement.

[ii] See my Word Studies Candlestick at 1:12.

 Josephus' Antiquities 3.7.7, the seven branched candlestick is said to represent the seven planets. However in Wars 7.5.5, he makes the candlestick an emblem of the seven days of creation. Whiston in a footnote, (p.75 on 3.7.7), says that Josephus’ description of the candlestick as representing the planets is taken from Philo and "is fitted to Gentile philosophical notions." This is no doubt true, but how else could the idea have been translated for the Greeks without a very large commentary on the subject? Since the days of the week were named for the seven planets, it may have been a matter of semantics rather than philosophy that caused Josephus to describe them as representing the planets in one place and the days of the week in another.

[iii] Some Scriptures that show how important this concept was in the Bible are: Isaiah 40:11; Jeremiah 23:3; 31:10-12; Ezek. 34:10-31; Micah 4:8; Zech. 9:16; Luke 12:32; John 10:1-16; Acts 20:28-9; 1 Pet. 5:2-3.

This lesson is an edited excerpt from my book Revelation In Context.

My Book is available at the Living Word Bookstore in Shawnee, Oklahoma and is also available online at www.amazon.com or www.xulonpress.com. Free downloads are available at www.revelationincontext.sermon.net .