Gold Rush
Exodus 25:31 & 37
“You shall make a lampstand of pure gold. The lampstand shall be made of pure hammered work: its base, its stem, its cups, its calyxes, and its flowers shall be of one piece with it. … You shall make seven lamps for it. And the lamps shall be set up so as to give light on the space in front of it.”
God is very clear in His blueprints that both the Mercy Seat and the Lampstand should be made of pure gold and I find both the adjective and the noun significant here.
Metaphorically speaking, there’s a lot of gold and a lot of light in the world, isn’t there? We’ve discovered traces everywhere: in the Gilgamesh epic, in Hammurabi’s Code, in Plato’s Republic, in Aesopian fables, in Virgil’s Aeneid, in Samurai ethics, in Shaolin temples, in ascetic caves; and that gold continues to filter down through the rivers of our literatures and laws, imbedding in the sediments of our ideologies, settling in the foundation stones of our politics, but mingled with the eroding elements of sin, often diluted, often compromised, and often corroded.
Not so with Jesus. Our Savior is pure gold! Gold without impurities, without a single blemishing thought, word, or deed. Even when He’s concealed in a manger as an outcast, even when He travels along the byways as a poor sojourner, even when He’s nailed to a cross as a criminal, we see Him for what He is: the Fullness of those little light-rays we discovered in fragments. The untarnished Source from which all the gold dust in the world emanates! He’s the Candle and the Lampstand in One. He’s pure, undiluted light shining through pure, undefiled Heart! How remarkable then that He has commissioned us of all people to share in His lamp-lighting ministry?
And the lamps shall be set up so as to give light on the space in front of it. Friend, we don’t have to busy ourselves trying to light up the whole world. God knows we’re far too small for that. So shine right where you are today—in that home, boardroom, doctor’s office, school classroom, wherever. Brighten that little space of the cosmos in front of you. And trust God to do the rest.