Title: The Lampstand

Topic: Salvation

Summary: The lampstand in the tabernacle is an image of a permanent capacity in our minds to see God.

Use the reference links below to follow along in the Bible as you watch.

References:
Exodus 25:31-40; 26:35; 27:20-21; 35:10-14; 37:17-22; 39:37; 40:3-4, 24-25
Leviticus 24:1-4
Numbers 8:1-4
1 Kings 7:48-49
2 Kings 4:9-11
2 Chronicles 4:6-8, 19-22
Psalms 119:104-105
2 Chronicles 13:11
Zechariah 4
Matthew 5:8, 14-16; 25:1-12
Mark 4:21-23
Luke 11:33-36
Ephesians 1:17-18
Revelation 1:12-174, 20; 2:1-5; 11:4
Matthew 18:10
Acts of the Apostles 2:25

424. 'A craftsman' in the Word means a person who has wisdom, intelligence, and knowledge. Here 'a craftsman in bronze and iron' means people who have a knowledge of natural good and truth. In John,

Babylon the great city will be thrown down with violence and will be found no more; and the sound of harpers, and minstrels, and flute players, and trumpeters will be heard in you ¹ no more. And every craftsman of every craft will be found in you ¹ no more. Revelation 18:21-22.

As previously, 'harpers' stands for truths, 'trumpeters' for the goods of faith. A 'craftsman of every craft' stands for one who has knowledge, that is, knowledge of truth and good. In Isaiah,

The craftsman casts an idol, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts silver chains for it. He seeks for himself a wise craftsman to make ready an idol, that is immovable. Isaiah 40:19-20.

This stands for people who fabricate falsity - an idol - for themselves out of delusions and teach it in such a way that it looks like truth. In Jeremiah,

They are at one and the same time foolish and stupid; that wood is a way of learning vanities! Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, gold from Uphaz; the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the moulder. Their clothing is violet and [purple]. These are all the work of the wise. Jeremiah 10:3, 8-9.

These statements mean the person who teaches falsities and who compiles material from the Word to produce some figment of the imagination. This is why it is called 'a way of learning vanities' and the 'work of the wise'. In the past such people were represented as craftsmen fashioning idols (falsities) which they decorated with 'gold' (imitation good) and with 'silver' (imitation truth) and with 'violet and [purple] clothing' (natural things which are seemingly in agreement).

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