Woken by the Wind
As the Bible gives us a tour of the Tabernacle, the third item that is presented is what we can call the mysterious menorah, for it is that one item for which we are given so much information throughout the Scriptures and its description is quite extraordinary.
It’s first mentioned here in Exodus and continues to hold an important spot right through to the time of Zechariah the prophet who had a vision of the menorah in heaven with its powerful message. Then we find it again in the Book of Revelation where John hears Yeshua’s description of seven menorahs, which He calls the seven churches pointing to the fact that the menorah is about us, the believers. Then John has another vision; he sees those seven menorahs in front of the throne of God and there they are called the seven Spirits of God.
Of the seven branches of the menorah in the Tabernacle, the central one is named ner tamid, Hebrew for eternal light, meaning it never goes out. We read in Exodus 27:20–21, “You shall charge the sons of Israel, that they bring you clear oil of beaten olives for the light, to make a lamp burn continually…it shall be a perpetual statute throughout their generations for the sons of Israel.” In the Talmud, the lamp that burned continually, the ner tamid came to symbolize the Divine Presence, the Shekhinah that accompanied the community of Israel through its dispersion (b. Shabbat 22B). For them, the light of the menorah is a testimony that the Divine Presence resides in the midst of Israel. This idea was kept throughout history. Today, in synagogues you can still the evidence of this, with a light suspended over the Torah Ark, called the ner tamid.
At the Tabernacle, the priest would take the light from the ner tamid and light the other 6 branches. He would do this every single day in the same way as every believer is fed his spiritual bread from God on a daily basis. We also remember that that light is called the servant, the shamash. This of course points to the Servant who died for Israel in the same way that every believer takes light from the Messiah and brings His light to the world.
Here is an amazing piece of information that we find in the Talmud. The statement is found in both the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud, and it says: Our Rabbis taught: Forty years before the destruction of the Temple the western light went out … J Yoma 6:3. Here we learn when the ner tamid went out by itself. It happened 40 years before the destruction of the Temple, about 30 AD, around when Yeshua died and resurrected.
In this section of our study, there is something truly beautiful about the menorah. There is a short psalm which was made as if to describe the fulfillment of the message of the menorah. In psalm 67, we finally see the nations of the world and Israel in harmony, rejoicing in God. The movement of this psalm is from “us” that is Israel, to “all the earth”. There, the word nations, the earth, and the people are mentioned 10 times together. Psalm 67 begins with “May God … bless us” and as Israel does her work – the psalm ends with “our God blessed us.”
The message is further enhanced when we consider the way this psalm is constructed. It has seven verses and a total number of 49 Hebrew words. Just like the 49 spouts that Zechariah saw in his vision of the menorah. Rashi, a well know Jewish commentator (1040-1105 AD) noticed that the total number of the elements of the menorah including the bowls, knobs, the flower (42) plus the 7 branches added up to 49 words, pointing to the 49 elements of the menorah. Others have linked the number 49 to the Messianic age. Speaking of the 49 pipes of the menorah, Ibn-Ezra and Rashi both said, “There were 49 pipes (7×7) providing oil to the menorah symbolizing that in the future times – the Messianic Times – the light of the sun will be 49 times as bright as the light of the 7 days of creation.
And what is most amazing is that the number of words in each verse fits into one branch of the menorah. Each of the seven branches can be filled with one of the verses from Psalm 67 in a remarkable way. If you were to count the number of words in each verse, they show a remarkable reflection, a mirror image of one side of the menorah with the other.
Today a depiction of the menorah with its verses hangs on the walls of Jewish homes or synagogues, usually placed to indicate east, which would direct the individual to be looking in the direction of the Temple (Jerusalem).
In Hebrew it is called shiviti, meaning, “I have placed”. The word comes from a verse in Psalm 16: “I have placed God always before me.” It is a reminder that the Temple will be built very soon in Jerusalem. Tradition tells us that it was this menorah that was on David’s shield before it was replaced by the Star of David. And there is a beautiful story behind the composition of psalm 67. The legend is based on another psalm, psalm 119:62 where David tells us that “at midnight, I rise to give thanks”. The question asked in the legend is how did David know it was midnight? They say that at this moment, a wind rose from the north so that David’s harp began to play by itself at which time he rose to study the Torah but one night he rose to compose this song, what we have here in psalm 67.
This psalm is sung immediately after the evening prayer at the conclusion of the Sabbath to prepare the worshipper for a week of work, the work of proclaiming the Word of God and this is what this psalm is all about.
The psalm can be divided into three sections; in the first section, Israel blesses the nations of the world. This we see in vs.1-2, God be gracious to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us— Selah. That Your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation among all nations. This is the fulfilment of the Abrahamic Covenant, where God promises that all the families of the earth will be blessed by the nation descending from Abraham, that is Israel. And this prayer is adapted from the Aaronic Blessing in Numbers 6 where the priest blesses Israel but here in psalm 67 we have Israel the priestly nation, blessing the other nations.
This is how the Aaronic blessing begins: The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; Numbers 6:24-25. Once the Millennium will begin, the Israel will bless the nations and say: God be gracious to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us. As a response, the nations praise the Lord and this falls in the second section from vs.3-5. Yes, this day is coming soon. While prophecies have much to say about times of war, they also speak of times of great peace to come over this world. And it ends with the third section where we see how the Lord sends His harvest vs.6-7. The question is asked, which harvest is it? Some have compared the 49 words in this psalm with the 49 days of the Omer, the time between Passover until Pentecost.
That is significant, especially from a messianic perspective. At Passover, the Messiah dies and then resurrects but at Pentecost, we see the first people of the nations coming into the fold of Israel. It was at Pentecost when the nations begun to hear the Word of God from Israel.
Click Here for the Teaching: Exodus Sermon 27: The Mysterious Menorah