Do you know what a menorah is?  When I mentioned the word, someone had never heard it before, so here we go!  It is one of my favorite things – the seven-branched candlestick designed by God Himself, and He even gave two men the skill to make the first menorah.

It all started in the Exodus, when Moses led the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt .  The pillar of cloud led them into the desert wilderness in about 1400 B.C. 

 Whaaat?  You can’t be serious!  You mean you take the Bible literally?  Well, yes I certainly  do.  It is God’s book, like no other book on the planet.  It is full of miraculous events, chock full of the supernatural.

Getting back to the menorah, Moses was on the mountain top for 40 days and nights and God was giving Him not only the Ten Commandments, but specific instructions for building a portable tabernacle in which God Himself would dwell and meet with Moses.

The instructions included the menorah, the seven-branched candlestick which would be the only light in the Holy Place, the  inner room of the Tabernacle which led to the Holy of Holies.

The whole study of the Tabernacle is precious, but we’ll stick with the menorah today. 

In Exodus 25:31 onwards,  God gave Moses the design of it – made of pure gold beaten into shape from one large piece of gold weighing about 75 pounds.  I have heard that this would be impossible to do, but we’re quoting God here and as the angel Gabriel once said:  ‘Nothing is impossible with God.’  (Luke 1:37)

It is reminiscent of an almond tree, with the branches and buds, and bowls for oil and wicks at the top.

In Exodus 35 people with willing hearts donated all the materials needed to make the Tabernacle, including the gold for the menorah.  God loves a cheerful giver! 

In Exodus 35:30 onwards Moses reveals the names of two men who have been specially gifted by God to complete the work and teach others what to do.  Their names – Bezaleel and Aholiab. 

Apart from the Lord Jesus, they must be the most skilled men to ever walk the earth.

So God gave the design, picked the workmen, and specially gifted them to make the menorah, and even gave the people willing hearts to donate the gold.

So the first reason I love the menorah is that God is the designer.

Another reason I love the menorah is that the seven branches remind me of the seven prophetic feasts of Israel .*

The first three branches remind us of the spring (Passover) feasts, foreshadowing the death, sinless life, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. 

Then there is the central trunk, holding the other six steady.  That reminds us of the fourth Jewish feast,  the Feast of Weeks, Pentecost, 50 days after Passover and the death of Christ, the birthday of the church, when the Holy Spirit came on the 120 believers in the upper room.

The final three branches remind us of the last three of the annual Jewish feasts.  These are in the autumn after a long, hot summer with little rain.  They are:  Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Feast of Tabernacles.

As the first four feasts were literally fulfilled, the last three will be as well, possibly quite soon!

Trumpets may be fulfilled by the Rapture of the church, as many of us believe.  The Day of Atonement will be fulfilled during the Great Tribulation when the survivors of the Jews will finally cry out to accept their Messiah, the Lord Jesus, and He will then come back in glory!

The last light on the menorah reminds us of the Feast of Tabernacles, the final of the seven feasts of the Jewish calendar.  This will be fulfilled when the Lord, having destroyed all His enemies with the brightness of His coming, sets up His 1,000 year Millennial Reign on the earth.

All nature will be restored to its original beauty and peace.  The wolf will lie down with the lamb; the lion will eat grass.  Every official of government will be a Jesus appointee! 

If you are faithful today in little, He will put you over much!

His administrators will rule with His rod of iron.  Sin will be punished immediately.   No clever lawyer will be able to get anyone off on a technicality thenl  There will be perfect justice.

So those seven Jewish feasts, all still kept today in Israel, are seven reasons I love the menorah.

But there is an even better reason.  It reminds me that the Lord Jesus is the Light of the World, as He said in John 8:12.

I have a little menorah on a chain around my neck which reminds me of all this every day.   I never wanted to wear a cross, that awful instrument of torture.  But I love my little menorah.

• I thank Dr Arnold Fruchtenbaum, of Ariel Ministries, for teaching us about the seven feasts.  And I hope to thank Chuck Missler one day in Heaven for relating the seven feasts to the menorah.
•  The seven feasts were given by God to Israel as special prophetic holidays.  Read about them in Leviticus 23 and Deuteronomy 16.  They all point to the Lord Jesus.  The first four have been literally fulfilled on the very day when each feast was being celebrated.  The final three will also be fulfilled.