LAMPS

Your Word is a LAMP to my feet, and a LIGHT to my path – Psalm 119:105

Scriptures consistently depict the ‘Lamp’ as a channel of light. God’s Word is a LAMP to the believer’s feet (Psa.119:105). His “commandment is a LAMP and the law a LIGHT…” (Pro.6:23). God ordains a lamp for His anointed (Psa.132:17). He judges the wicked by putting out their lamps (Pro.13:9; 20:20). Lamps meant much to the people of Israel. Lamps and candles were used to illuminate homes, the temple, and travelling paths (Gen.15:17). Lamps in the Old Testament were made out of pottery; traditionally an open bowl with a spout to support the wick, and oil burning within.

In the Tabernacle there was a Golden Lampstand with three branches or bowls extending from the center. Each branch was to later have seven spouts. The Jews referred to a seven branch candle holder as a Menorah, which became a symbol of Jewish worship in Israel. An important Feast in Israel, preceding the Feast of Dedication, was Hanukkah – the Feast of Light – an eight-day festival to remember the cleansing of the temple. During Hanukkah one candle was lit a day for eight days. Not only was there a festival of light, there was new bread and new curtains hung in the temple. Hence, this Dedication of Light involved the establishment of a New Altar – the Lamp is fundamental to the Altar!  When the Great Temple was destroyed, the Hanukkah – hope of new light – was celebrated in private homes.

The Lamp and the Torch therefore constitute a major Bible type. Samuel, for example, knew the value of the lamp. One of the saddest seasons in Israel’s history was when “the lamp of God went out in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep” (1Sam.3:3). God’s people were elegantly displaying the Ark of the Covenant, the visible symbol of His Presence, but He was being pushed out the back door by the Darkness of Sin. This was to foreshadow dark days in the Church, days devoid of open vision, when the preacher’s eyes have grown dim (1Sam.3:1). Thank God, for the sake of the one who kept close to the lamp, “the Lord appeared again in Shiloh. For the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord” (1Sam.3:21). Remember: “Your Word is a lamp…”

Gideon also knew the power of torches and lamps: “Then he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet into every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and torches inside the pitchers” (Jud.7:16). He experienced the Power of Light in the battles of Life. God literally magnified the light of the torches and sent the camp of the enemies into panic and pandemonium (Jud.7:16-22). It takes a little light and a Great God to win in life’s battles. Talking of Victory, “this is the Victory that has overcome the world – our faith” (1Jh.5:4). Faith is like a lamp; it is of little or no use in daylight. The only opportunity faith will ever get to be displayed is now, in this world of darkness and sin. Faith is the Overcomer’s Lamp!

We would not need Faith to operate in heaven where there is nothing at risk, and faith will be lost in sight (1Cor.13:12-13). Faith is our auto pilot for the earth-flight, not for when we’ll march the crystal floor of glory. Ultimately, we are destined for the place where Jesus, the Lamb is the Light: “The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light” (Rev.21:23). There, we’ll never need lamps: “There shall be no night there: They need no LAMP nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever” (Rev. 22:5).