Ten Lampstands

The number ten and its multiples has a large place in the Temple arrangements. The Temple itself was 60 cubits long, 30 cubits broad, and 30 cubits high; the Oracle was 20 cubits long, 20 cubits broad, and 20 cubits high; and the porch in front of the house was 20 cubits long, 20 cubits high, and 10 cubits broad. Amongst the furnishings we find ten brazen lavers set upon ten bases; ten candlesticks (lampstands) of gold (1 Kings 7:49); ten tables of gold, and a hundred golden bowls for sprinkling (2 Chron. 4:8).
Numbers in Scripture have meaning. Ten is the number of responsibility, evidenced in the ten commandments of the Law. The prominence of ten in Solomon’s Temple is thus a reminder that everything was being set up on the ground of responsibility, and that the continuance of that marvelous system of glory and blessing depended upon the faithfulness of king and people. “The candlesticks of pure gold, five on the right side, five on the left, before the Oracle, with the flowers, and the lamps, and the tongs of gold” (1 Kings 7:49). The Tabernacle had but one lampstand, and for the Millennial Temple none at all are mentioned. The ten in Solomon’s temple are therefore particularly suggestive. Would the royal house of David be true to its trust as witness for God amongst the nations? Alas, for the answer! Yet the forbearance of God was wonderful. When in His anger He told Solomon that his kingdom should be rent, He added, “but I will give one tribe to thy son for David My servant’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake which I have chosen” (1 Kings 11:13). To Jeroboam He said that David His servant was to have a lamp always before Him in Jerusalem, “the city which I have chosen Me to put My name there” (1 Kings 11:36). When recording the unfaithfulness of Abijam, Solomon’s grandson, God said, “Nevertheless for David’s sake did Jehovah his God give him a lamp in Jerusalem, to set up his son after him, and to establish Jerusalem” (1 Kings 15:4).
In 2 Kings 27 the whole situation as regards Israel is divinely summed up. After 260 years of separate national existence under nineteen kings, all evil, Jehovah gave the ten tribes up to the Assyrian oppressor. “Jehovah was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of His sight: there was none left but Judah only” (vss. 8). Judah learned no lesson from the ruin of their brethren. For 130 years longer Jehovah bore with their evil ways, and finally gave them into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. “Judah kept not the commandments of Jehovah their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made. And Jehovah rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hands of spoilers, until He had cast them out of His sight” (vs. 19-20). The “throne of Jehovah,” established in Jerusalem, was overthrown; and David’s lamp was extinguished. All is lost on the ground of responsibility, but grace will yet more than restore what Solomon and Israel so foolishly threw away. God has pledged Himself that David shall never want a man to sit upon his throne. Christ is the fulfillment of this. Rejected by the people in their blindness at His first corning, He now sits at Jehovah’s right hand in heaven. “Sit Thou,” is God’s word to Him today; “Rule Thou” will be His mandate to Him shortly (Psa. 110:1-2). Until that great day Israel and the nations must continue to writhe in ever-increasing wretchedness. “The times of the Gentiles” must run on to their appointed end (Luke 21:24). Sin’s wages are very terrible.
John in Patmos was shown seven golden lampstands (Rev. 1:3). These represented seven local Assemblies then existing; and prophetically they show us the Church as a whole from first to last. It was a testimony set up in divine righteousness, but the failure is made painfully clear. The lampstand will be removed. Christ alone is God’s “faithful witness” (Rev. 1:5).