Exodus 37:17-24

¹⁷ And he made the lampstand out of pure gold. He made the lampstand by shaping it with a hammer. Its base, its stem, its cups, its bowls, and its flowers were fashioned from one piece. ¹⁸ And there were six branches going out of its sides, three branches of the lampstand out of one side of it and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side of it; ¹⁹ three cups made like almond blossoms, each with bowl and flower, on one branch, and three cups made like almond blossoms, each with bowl and flower, on the other branch- so for the six branches going out of the lampstand. ²⁰ And on the lampstand itself were four cups made like almond blossoms, with their bowls and flowers, ²¹ and a bowl from the same piece as it under each pair of the six branches going out of it. ²² Their bowls and their branches were from the same piece as it. The whole of it was a single piece of pure gold, shaped with a hammer. ²³ And he made its seven lamps and its tongs and its trays of pure gold. ²⁴ He made it and all its utensils out of a talent[1] of pure gold.

spotlighting his face

The Menorah and all of its utensils were to be fashioned out of one huge block of pure gold. Although the lampstand was a complex thing, this insured that it would serve a single purpose. As one entered the sacred place, the light from the Menorah would draw his focus onto the table of face bread, directly to his right. The purpose of the light was to focus the worshipper’s attention on the symbol of the presence and provision of God.

As we lead people to Christ, we must be careful to keep them from being distracted by us, and keep them focused on the LORD himself. The Christian light is not like a chandelier, drawing attention to our own ideas or brilliance or beauty. It is more like a spotlight on Christ himself.

LORD, give us wisdom to light our world with a focused beam on the presence and provision of our Savior.

[1] The talent was a measure of weight, about 75 pounds or 34 kilograms.