I enjoy the “Exodus” part of Exodus. I mean, it sounds almost blasphemous to say you don’t get a thrill from reading Exodus 3 where God talks to Moses through the burning bush and tells him his name is, “I AM WHO I AM.” And the soundtrack from The Prince of Egypt that accompanies most people’s imaginations when they read it helps the dramatic effect for sleepy early morning readers.
But when Moses starts to receive all the (incredibly specific and descriptive) instructions from God about how to build the tabernacle and all its many elements…man. I just get bored. I know there is tons of symbolism and maybe if everything weren’t measured in “cubits” I might be able to visualize it more. But without really studying it, it’s hard to not read it like an instruction manual. Because it was.
However, in an attempt to really read it and not just skim, I am making sure I am checking the notes to see that a “cubit” is about ten and a half feet and am trying to picture things in my head. When I taught Confirmation at my church I had the students read through some of these descriptions and to “illustrate five things quickly, three things with some detail or one thing in great detail.” I am choosing the first (as did the grand majority of the students, by the way).
So when I came to the description of the lamp stand in Exodus 25:31-37 I mentally followed the description: “pure gold, flowerlike cups, one piece, six branches, almond flower, lotsa cups, all attached, one pair under another, buds and branches, all be of one piece, pure gold, one talent (check it: 75 pounds) of gold (pure gold) for everything.”
Now I know there is probably tons of symbolism here, but what caught my eye is the repetition of “everything being attached” or “connected,” and how everything is made from “gold, pure gold.”
As a literature major, one of the parts of studying the Bible that I enjoy is that you can “interpret the Bible by itself.” I remembered that lampstands appear in Revelation. My quick look to the beginning of the book says, The mystery of the…seven golden lampstands is this: …the seven lampstands are the churches” (1:20). Thanks for making that one easy, God!
The point is obvious to make but oh so difficult to live out. We, as the church, need to be one. There are intricate details about who we are, where we are placed and what our purpose is within the unit. But we are all pounded out from the same material—the same pure material—and attached and connected to one another so as to make one unshakable agent for the distinct purpose of sharing the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
But of course we aren’t one. We aren’t all connected. And the seeming impossibility of ever being able to rejoice at the completion of Jesus’ prayer that “they may be one even as you and I are one,” so many of us give up and think, “I’ll just love people on my own.”
But just as some of the glory of a good marriage is shown when two people who are opposite in every way come together to sacrificially love one another despite differences and disagreements, so we need to come together in love and respect and service and appreciation and encouragement and faithfulness and forgiveness and gentleness, so as to fulfill Jesus’ new command: “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all [people] will know that you are my disciples if you love one another” (John 13:35).
We don’t have to agree. We won’t on everything. But what we can agree on is that God’s love is shown the most when we love one another. We are made from the same material: we are made from Love and by Love. Let us remain attached and connected to one another as we, in the darkness, shine forth our love for and from the Source.