God’s New Testament economy consummates in the golden lampstands and in the New Jerusalem. In this chapter we want to see that the searching and infusing by the seven Spirits as the seven eyes of the redeeming Lamb issue in this age in the golden lampstands (Rev. 1:11-12). As we have seen, the book of Revelation is the conclusion of the entire Scripture. In this book we see things both new and old. Some things revealed in this book are altogether new, and other things were already revealed in the Old Testament. Genesis is a field where the seeds of nearly all the divine truths were sown. All these seeds grow in the following books until we reach the last book of the Bible, Revelation. In this book there is the reaping, the harvest, of all the divine truths that were sown as seeds in the book of Genesis.
The first issue of God’s New Testament economy is the golden lampstands, which are signs or symbols of the churches. The lampstand is not a new item, because in Exodus 25 we see the lampstand in the Holy Place of the tabernacle (vv. 31-40). In Exodus 25 we see that in the tabernacle, which was God’s dwelling place on this earth, there was neither light made by God from the heavens nor light made by man in a secular way. There is no natural light, but a particular light was there shining and enlightening the entire Holy Place. That light was the light of the lampstand. The lampstand in Exodus 25 is a type of Christ being the light from God to us. The second instance of the lampstand in the Scriptures was in the building of the temple in 1 Kings 7:49. The third instance had very much to do with the rebuilding of God’s temple in Zechariah 4:2-10. The lampstand in Zechariah 4 does not signify Christ, but it symbolizes the children of Israel. The children of Israel should be a lampstand shining out God.
In the book of Revelation we see that the lampstand is repeated again, but this time the lampstands are plural (1:11-12) because these seven lampstands are the figures, the signs, the symbols, of seven local churches. This shows that in the eyes of God every local church is a lampstand, and by this we can see that a local church is a reproduction, or a duplication, of Christ. When all the lampstands, or local churches, are added together, they are a multiplication of Christ. In Exodus 25 Christ was the unique lampstand, but in Revelation this lampstand has been reproduced, duplicated, and thus multiplied. Actually, there were more than seven local churches on the earth at the time of Revelation, so the number seven is a representative number. Every lampstand is a reproduction of the lampstand revealed in Exodus 25. The lampstand is an old item, yet it bears a number of new characteristics. In Exodus there was only one lampstand, but in Revelation there are seven. The lampstand was there in Exodus, but the sevenfold aspect of the lampstand was not there. The new aspect of the lampstand is its multiplication.
One of the great teachers in the Bible concerning the church was the apostle Paul. In the book of Ephesians, which is on the church, he tells us that the church is the Body of Christ (1:22-23), the fullness of the One who fills all in all (v. 23), the new man to fulfill God’s purpose on this earth (2:15), the kingdom of God, God’s household, which is God’s family (v. 19), God’s dwelling place in our spirit (v. 22), the wife, the bride, to satisfy Christ (5:23-32), and finally, the warrior fighting the battle for God’s kingdom (6:10-20). Seven items are clearly revealed in this great teacher’s Epistle on the church. When John spoke concerning the church, he brought in something new, which Paul never touched, and this new item is the lampstand. Paul unveiled seven wonderful items of the church in Ephesians, but in my opinion John exceeded Paul with his revelation of the church as a lampstand.
The most mysterious aspect of the church that Paul gives us is the Body as the fullness of the One who fills all in all. In Ephesians 1 the fullness is the fullness of Christ as the One who fills all in all, but the same fullness in chapter 3 of Ephesians is the fullness of the infinite God (v. 19). In Ephesians 3 Paul prays that Christ may make His home in our hearts so that we may know His dimensions—the breadth, length, height, and depth—that we may be filled unto the fullness of the infinite God. The fullness is first of the unlimited Christ, the very Christ who fills all in all, and then of the infinite God. This fullness is a mystery that has been wrongly interpreted by many teachers as the riches of Christ. Fullness, however, in the book of Ephesians is not the riches but the issue of our enjoyment of the riches of Christ. Our enjoyment of the riches of Christ issues in this mysterious fullness.
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