The Menorah Design
of the Coming Shemitah!
Patterns Formed with Seven and Ten (and multiples there of) reveal the divine nature
By Judy Gassett
On September 13, 2015 we start a new Jubilee year. The new Jubilee starts with a partial solar eclipse. It is of special note that this is the 40th Jubilee Year since Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem. It is also the 70th Jubilee year since the first one was proclaimed by God.
This is turns out to be a Menorah pattern like the many seen in the life of Christ and in the Old Testament prefiguring His ministry (see below written in 2004 for Spirit Daily) and modified by awesome new information coming in next year's Shemitah. The Savior is represented by the fourth light in a series of seven oil lamps on the ancient Menorah. The other lights were lit from the fourth light or the "servant lamp". For me it is an enormous indication that final redemption and the settling of old accounts is very near.
Spiritual truths are manifested in certain patterns of seven which directly and literally reflect our perfect God. With these patterns, biblical truths are emphasized, amplified and illuminated. Recall our discussion of the number seven in which we stated that it was the number of spiritual perfection. In seven we see God‘s divine nature as truth, Light of the World, The Word, The Branch, and other attributes of His perfection in a unique pattern of sevens known as a menorah design. These sequences are found in both the Old and New Testaments. Today, J.R. Church, Ph.D. and Gary Stearman, of Prophecy in the News, are the leading researchers in this area and have written a book, Mysteries of the Menorah, describing their findings. Please note that not every series of seven will necessarily be a menorah design.
What was the Menorah?
The menorah was a lamp stand with its lamps consisting of seven branches each terminating in an oil lamp, six of which foliated from a central trunk. The design was specified by God. The fourth lamp in the sequence crowned the central stem. The three lamps on each side actually were turned to face the center lamp, or the fourth lamp or "Shamash." As viewed from the front, the Shamash pointed toward the observer. From the fourth light the other six were always lit and for this reason the fourth lamp was also called the "servant lamp."
The Lord God told the Hebrews to make the Menorah out of one solid ingot of pure gold to emphasize that He was a single and supreme deity. From one ingot it was hammered into its final form by experts. The Menorah, although sometimes called the "candlestick" in translations, never burned candles, but only the purist consecrated virgin olive oil in its seven pure gold oil lamps. It took "six eggs worth" or the volume held by six hen’s egg, of olive oil each day in each lamp. The Menorah was to be the only light in the ancient tabernacle sanctuary (prior to Solomon), and after Solomon, in the temple sanctuary. It stood on the west wall opposite the Table of Showbreads. The Menorah branches were embellished by almonds, olive and apples leaves and blossoms, all hammered out of the same solid gold from the same single ingot.
Use of olive oil fuel was appropriate as a metaphor for God. Hebrews considered the olive tree to be eternal, impossible to eradicate. If cut down, a shoot reappears. It is a symbol both of enduring life and salvation. The bird brought back an olive branch as the first living thing seen after the Deluge. To this day Torah scrolls are traditionally wound on olive wood dowels. This assembly, Torah and dowels, is called "the tree of life."
The Menorah Reflects the Perfection of Jesus Christ
The Isaiah tells us that God will not rest until the salvation of His people is manifest as a brightly burning lamp (Isa 62:1). The word for salvation in Hebrew was Yeshua, or Jesus in English. Therefore, the real meaning of any menorah structure with the three lamps on each side pointing to the center lamp or Shamash, designates the Lord, Jesus Christ, centerpiece of human history, in His embodiment as Light, of the World and dispeller of darkness who came to serve. This interpretation is made all the more valid when you consider the continuing spiritual war and Satan’s attacks as the battle between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman over who will preserve as ‘light of the world" , as stated by J.R. Church. Prince of this world, Satan, in his interminable war with God, covets the position of Shamash. Interestingly one of Satan’s names is Lucifer, Latin for "bearer of light". The Shamash is God’s own beloved son, His Word, The Christ. Lucifer is the lie, the direct opposite of the Word. Whenever Jesus is seen, He is manifested in light that the Menorah radiates. This website’s archive is full of encounters with the Lord in which He appears as the purest light, very bright, but which can be viewed without pain by believers.
Since it was fashioned from one ingot of gold, manufacture of the menorah required considerable metallurgy expertise including melting, pouring and hammering. In fact, the manufacture of the Menorah, which bears God’s True Light is a paradigm of refinement required for the manufacture of believers who radiate God’s light as stated in Rom 8:29.
As mentioned, the ancient Menorah also has an arborescent nature: It foliates and has branches coming off of one main stem. It is no coincidence that it looks like a tree for it was specifically designed by God, Himself (unlike any other object used in religious ceremonies). As mentioned, the fourth branch becomes the main stem crowned by the Shamash or "servant lamp" from which the others are lit. Netzer is the Hebrew word for branch and is the same root for "Nazareth" or "Nazarene". The Bible is full of metaphors alluding to the fact that the coming messiah is the "branch, stem, or root" of Jesse. However, there is no sacred writing in the Old Testament where it is stated that "He shall be called a Nazarene" (Matt 2:23). We know the prophecy is true for the Bible does not deceive. So the prophecy could come from the tree and its light embodied in the menorah. In its arborescent nature, the Menorah perfectly reflects the Messiah who is also the stem and branch of Jesse. The Bible is full of fascinating word puzzles and puns like this.
Menorah is God's Light and the Word
More amazing is the fact that the Menorah was regarded by the Hebrews as an ideal representation of God as Messiah in the Torah. He is the divine light at the beginning of time on the first day of creation when He decided to make Himself known as light ("Let there be light" Gen:1:3) and flooded the universe with His presence. (The luminaries, sun, moon were not created until the fourth day). The Jewish people have long believed that the very first "primordial" light was the manifest Royal Messiah. God’s own words creating this primordial light became the illumination for the patriarchs, and later a ‘light to the gentiles’ (Lk 2:32), although national Israel was blind to this incarnated light and remains blind to this day. The Sages of Israel say that God put His light into the Torah because mankind was unworthy to receive it directly. It is no coincidence that the Jewish race was chosen by God to finally bring light into this world, be it God’s Word, the incarnated light, Jesus, the Christ, OR illumination of His Works through the brilliance of Albert Einstein.
So in the Menorah, we see the Messiah in two cultures, as both Light of the World, the Branch and Root/Stem of Jesse, the Word of God made flesh to dwell among us, and also God's holy word, the Torah, as the Royal Messiah for Israel. Now for some outstanding examples of Menorah designs. I will use my favorites.
Jesus’ seven utterances from the cross are of a menorah design. The fourth was intimately related to light and darkness: "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me". None of the Gospels mention all utterances. One needs spiritual insights to discern the correct sequence. Catherine Emmerich’s Dolorous Passion confirms this sequence.
Of the several signs and wonders given the day Christ died, one spiritual sign not mentioned in the Bible was that fourth lamp of the menorah from which the other lamps are lit, went out NEVER to burn again even to this day. Both Jewish historian Josephus and the Talmud records this as occurring about 40 years before Jerusalem was sacked by the Roman. This puts it right in the window for the Crucifixion. "While I am in the world, I am light of the world" (Jn 18:4-5). All kinds of things were tried, new wicks, fresh oil, 24/7 prayers. Nothing worked. It is interesting that wicks for the Menorah were made from swaddling of the old priestly vestments from temple service each year. The Light of the World was enveloped by swaddling immediately after His birth.
Thus, on Crucifixion day, we received a profound yet divinely subtle sign that Light of the World would go out on the Menorah Shamash, yet not be extinguished, but to burn in the hearts of gentile Christianity starting on that first Pentecost. Real literal flames, not figurative ones, appeared over the Apostles. We note that God’s Word comes to man in the form of a fire, even as it came to Moses from the burning bush. The literal translation of the Torah (Exodus 20) shows that fingers of fire wrote God’s word into the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, itself. Cecile B DeMille was right on in depiction of this in The Ten Commandments.
Got Oil?
Providing oil for the flame is essential. That oil is the Holy Spirit which comes down just as it did on that first Pentecost to ignite the flame carried in the lamp within each believer. This point is driven home in the parable about the ten virgins sleeping (Matt 25:1-13), five prepared with oil, and five with no oil. At midnight, the cry that the bridegroom was coming went out. This serves as a riveting metaphor that the return of Christ will see the world preoccupied and slumbering. A great re-awakening (warning) will precede His return. But even then, many will not have any oil (the Holy Spirit) in their lamps. Therefore, the lamp’s flame (God’s Word) cannot illuminate their paths. They will be shut out of the bridal chamber (Millennial Kingdom) forever.
Names of Jacob’s children form a menorah design and a profound prophecy.
The children of Jacob’s first wife, Leah, form a menorah design, even in their names. Leah, is described with a visual impairment of some sort (Gen 29:17). She is the prophetic picture of the blindness Israel would show toward their messiah (first noted by St Justin Martyr). Leah bore Jacob 7 children, 6 sons and one daughter. Judah whose name means ‘blessing of God’ and from whom the messianic line came, was the fourth son, bracketing David at the start of the fourth millennium and Jesus Christ at the very end of the 4th millennium. Dinah, the only daughter was the seventh child born. Her name, din in Hebrew means judgment. As a female she represents the bride of Christ to be married at the start of the 7th Millennium after the world is judged. In the biblical account of her she married with gentiles, representing gentile Christianity.
Within God’s own name, Jesus Christ is seen in the first verse of the Bible
Lastly, the best Menorah design of all in the first seven Hebrew words of the Bible, Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." The fourth word in Hebrew, not English, is a rarely used Hebrew expression for God‘s many names. It is composed of two Hebrew letters, the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet, "Aleph", and the twenty-second and the last letter in the Hebrew alphabet, "Tahv". The equivalent meaning in English is Alpha and Omega, the first and last letter in the Greek alphabet. Interestingly, the Omega, looks like a Tahv. However, a lot is lost in the Greek translation. When Aleph and Tahv are written together like this it means the "word of God", the beginning and end, and everything in between. Rabbinic thought has long held that the Aleph and Tahv are the "words of creation" because these letters include all letters in between and God created all things with His ten utterances recorded in the first verses of Genesis. The letter, Tahv, means final truth and perfection. It is positioned twenty second and last letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Twenty-two is the biblical number for light! Since we know Jesus Christ is God’s Word and is His light, this further conveys metaphorically that God is not only light but the beginning, end, final truth and perfection. More astonishing is how Tahv was written in King David’s time, not shaped like the Greek Omega, but like a cross! Take a look at Psalm 22 if you doubt this.
Also, in the last book of the Bible
We see Jesus as the fourth Hebrew word in the opening sentence of the Bible‘s first book as the Aleph and Tahv, but also He emphatically states that He is the Alpha and Omega in the opening verses of the Revelation, the Bible’s last book (Rev 1:8). The opening chapter of Revelation gives a view of Jesus, the embodiment of perfection and radiant light and standing in the middle of a seven branched menorah with a "countenance like the sun shining in its strength" (Rev 1:16). St. John takes care to mention that there are seven branches and Christ stands in the middle, the servant light position. Note the description of fire in His eyes and the pure white color of his hair. White is the color of truth, light, purity, and also judgment.
Understanding the number 70:
Seventy has a sacred meaning in the Bible that is made up of the factors of two perfect numbers, seven (representing perfection) and ten (representing completeness and God's law). As such, it symbolizes perfect spiritual order carried out with all power. It can also represent a period of judgment.
70 elders were appointed by Moses (Numbers 11:16). After reading the covenant God gave him to read to the people, Moses took 70 elders, along with Aaron and his sons, up Mount Sinai to have a special meal with God himself (Exodus 24:9 - 11)
Understanding the number 40:
the number 40 generally symbolizes a period of testing, trial or probation. During Moses' life he lived forty years in Egypt and forty years in the desert before God selected him to lead his people out of slavery. Moses was also on Mount Sinai for 40 days and nights, on two separate occasions (Exodus 24:18, 34:1 - 28), receiving God's laws. He also sent spies, for forty days, to investigate the land God promised the Israelites as an inheritance (Numbers 13:25, 14:34).
The prophet Jonah powerfully warned ancient Nineveh, for forty days, that its destruction would come because of its many sins. The prophet Ezekiel laid on His right side for 40 days to symbolize Judah’s sins (Ezekiel 4:6). Elijah went 40 days without food or water at Mount Horeb. Jesus was tempted by the devil not just three times, but MANY times during the 40 days and nights he fasted just before his ministry began. He also appeared to his disciples and others for 40 days after his resurrection from the dead.
The number forty can also represent a generation of man. Because of their sins after leaving Egypt, God swore that the generation of Israelites who left Egyptian bondage would not enter their inheritance in Canaan (Deuteronomy 1). The children of Israel were punished by
Now we have 70 Jubliees since God first demanded that the Jews recognize them with special devotions. Jesus died in the MIDDDLE on the fortieth Jubilee. A Jubliee is the final year of a seven year sequence. 7 X 7 = 49 years with the fiftieth year being the year after, called the "double Jubliee year").
