Let your Light Shine

Good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every weekday morning we get together, we have a little bit of coffee, we get into God's Word, and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2024, Lord willing, we'll make it through the books of... Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Hebrews. Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Hebrews. That's right. Let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's Word. Father we thank you so much for this day and we thank you for your word. Please God help us to understand it and have it apply to our lives in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, Numbers chapter 8 and we will read the first four verses. Who wants to read? I will. Okay.
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to Adam, and say to him, When you arrange the lamps, the seven lamps shall give light in front of the lampstand. Aaron did so. He arranged the lamps to face toward the front of the lampstand, as the Lord commanded Moses. Now this workmanship of the lampstand was hammered gold from its shaft to its flowers. It was hammered work, according to its pattern, which the Lord had shown Moses. So he made the lampstand. Okay, so the Lord speaks to Moses, right? He speaks to Moses, and what's He say to, what's He commanding Moses to tell Aaron?
Yeah, so this is a menorah, right? So there is a lamp stand, right? And it had flowers and almost kind of like a tree, right? You guys have seen a picture of the lamp stand before that I've shown you? Or the model of it? Well, each of the lamps is almost like a flower would come off.
And the high priest would go into the holy place, not the holy of holies where the Ark of the Covenant is, but you know how we saw the altar of incense and the table of showbread and the lampstand? Well every day if he's offering the incense, he's also got to keep the lampstand burning all the time. But what happens when you have a fire or you burn a candle or something like that?
There's smoke. There's smoke? What else is there? There's wax or some type of ash, right? And so somebody's got to clean that all off or else what will happen? There'll be a lot of wax. Well yeah, it wouldn't work anymore, right? So this is Aaron's job, right?
So seven lampstands shall give light in front of the lampstand, right? So the point is the lamps come off, he cleans them off, he puts them back on, and now they're going to point that way. So the lamps are pointing that way? Oh yeah, they're almost like, we don't know exactly, but we think they're almost like cups, where they're directing light most likely towards both the curtain and the altar of incense. Right? And so that's one of Aaron's jobs. Now, what do you think these lampstands are meant to show? Or this lampstand? You want the 12? No. The other two? So...
What do you think the symbolism is of having these lampstands on all the time? God's eternal light. Okay, God's eternal light, maybe. What do you think, Debra? That we should point towards God. Okay, maybe that we should point towards God. How many people get to see this? The priests. Yeah, just the high priest. So it's just the high priest who gets to go in here. So it's just him. He gets to go in there.
And the light though, if we flipped over to the book of Revelation. Do you remember anything in the book of Revelation about lampstands? No. There are lampstands for each of the churches. And God walks in the midst of the lampstands. So it's the Lord Jesus Christ himself who walks in the midst of the lampstands. The lampstand was meant to be there as a sign of both God's eternal light, but also the congregation before the Lord day and night. Also that altar of incense, same idea.
So, what do you think that this should teach us about our life? concentrate isn't it? Yeah. What you guys don't see is off-camera Daniel sitting on the couch making a lot of noise with an Etch-a-Sketch type pad. I think it should be that we should point towards the Lord. Oh maybe that we should point towards the Lord? Good. What do you think bud? We can always know that God is watching over us. Oh, maybe we can always know the Lord's watching over us. I think those are two great applications. Good job. Alright, you guys ready to pray? Yeah. Okay.
Lord, we thank you that you are the one who established the tabernacle. You are the one who created these types and shadows of the Old Testament to point us towards the heavenly tabernacle where we know Jesus Christ, our High Priest, walks among the lampstands.
That he is the one who keeps us and cares for us. Lord, we pray that we would follow after you. We pray that we might know that your presence is always with us. And Lord, we pray that we would also let our light shine that you have given us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, may the Lord bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace that comes from knowing that the God of light shines upon you. And may your light be known to all men. We'll see you guys next time. Wanna say bye? Bye!
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.