Beha’alotcha: In your going up – lighting up; When you kindle
B’midbar (Numbers) 8:1 – 12:16
ZekharYah (Zechariah) 2:10 – 4:7, I Corinthians 10:6-13
The sun had set and the skies were darkening. After a delightful Shabbat, Leslie and I enjoyed a large, full moon rising in the east, softly lighting up the darkened landscape. Our hearts were glad to realize that Sukkot, to be starting on a full moon, is now only four lunar months away! I’ve often wondered why a rising full moon is so attractive to us.
When the moon is oriented in just the right position across the earth from the sun, when it fully faces the sun and the earth at the same time, it shines its maximum light upon the earth. It’s interesting to me how the people of the Earth will get all excited about dark eclipses and blood-red moons. Yet when YHWH presents to us a full moon bathed in beautiful white light, we tend to overlook it and let it pass without appreciating this precious sign in the heavens (Gen 1:14). It’s a sign of full light that the Creator gives us every, single month. Other planets in our solar system have multiple moons orbiting them; we Earthlings have just one to rule the night with its light. What does that say?
One Light, Seven Branches
In a literal translation for Beha’alotcha, YHWH tells Moshe to tell Aharon, in his going up, to light up the Aleph Tav lamps in the Holy Place, so that the seven lamps give light as one light. The command in Hebrew says that the seven faces are to shine as one face, not seven separate ones, but as one light facing towards the front of the menorah.
The high priest was to go up in the lighting up of the lamps, like the Malak (Angel) of YHWH, Who ascended (Hebrew alah) in the fire on the altar of Manoach (Judges 13:20).
The root word for Beha’alotcha is also alah, spelled ‘ayin lamed hey.’ In paleo-Hebrew in this context, alah means: ‘to fix the eye on the staff of authority to be revealed.’
This paleo-Hebrew understanding gives credence to the interpretation that when the high priest went up to light the lamps, all seven branches of the menorah were somehow oriented in such a way as to mutually submit to the authority of the center. By being oriented in this fashion, all cups of the seven branches could then burn as one light towards the front of the menorah. What a beautifully brilliant sight to behold!
Why as one light? Only one authority, only the Anointed One, has all authority given to Him in Heaven and earth (Matthew 28:18). He is to be seen as the Divine Light. As grafted-in branches, we are one in Messiah, Who is the One Head and Authority over His Body.
We know Yeshua to be One like the Son of Man Who stands amid the seven lampstands with seven stars in His hand (Revelation 1:13). What are the seven lampstands? What does the Messiah want us to understand about the Menorah in our day?
The Profound Symbology of the Menorah
Our Messiah is really into symbolism. Consider His many parables and the Book of the Revelation of Yeshua. Symbols are real, physical things that we can understand with our five senses. Symbols in the Scriptures give us an understanding of what cannot be perceived in the natural realm, that is, the Kingdom of Heaven and the realm of the Spirit. What symbol represents an assembly of the spirits of the righteous?
For millennia, the menorah has been the most commonly accepted symbol of the assemblies, the congregations of the God of Israel. Often, an olive branch is placed on each side, depicting the prophecy of the two olive trees next to the seven pipes of a menorah (Zechariah 4:2-3). Yeshua the Messiah says that the seven menorahs represent the seven assemblies (Revelation 1:20)
So how are we as a congregation to shine as a menorah? The meaning of the title ‘Beha’alotcha, in your going up to the light,’ tells us that we are to shine as one light – shining out the Light of Messiah. It is His will that His light would be extended out to His grafted-in branches, extending out the Light of Messiah to the world.
The most profound artifact of a menorah in my view is a one-of-a-kind piece displayed in the Museum of Israel that appears to be just a crude carving in limestone. But notice the dominant feature of this priceless find!
“On one branch there shall be three cups shaped like almond-blossoms, each with calyx and petals.” (Exodus 25:33).
(From historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/civil/israel/isrel621e.shtml)
Notice that although the branches are carved ornately, the cups on top were not carved individually, but were carved as one solid unit. One unit of light reminds us of the earth’s one moon when it’s fully bathed in the light of the sun. Could whoever made this thing had the revelation of the oneness of an assembly, that a congregation is to shine as one light, one in the Anointed One, the Messiah, shining out the Light of the world? John did:
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overpowered it. There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify about the Light so that through Him everyone might believe. He was not the Light, but he came to bear witness concerning the Light. The true Light, coming into the world, gives light to every man. John 1:4-9
Like the full moon, the branches of the menorah do not produce their light, but are dependent on the High Priest filling our cups and lighting our spirits up! For it is:
“Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says YHWH of Hosts. Zechariah 4:6
When we focus our eyes on Yeshua, looking to the Author and Perfecter of our faith, Yeshua… (Hebrews 12:2a), we see the seven assemblies as One in Messiah, as One body shining One Light, the Light of the Anointed One, the Messiah. That’s how the 120 disciples of Yeshua were oriented as they were:
‘in one accord in one place.’ Acts 2:1
The ancient teachers of Israel called the Temple, “The Light of the World.” The Body of Messiah, the Temple of the Holy Spirit, shines as one light to the world around us when each branch is oriented towards and submitted to the authority of Yeshua the Messiah.
The Shamash, Servant Candle
In a short article, The Puzzle of the Menorah, Bruce Baber recounts the history of the high priest lighting the menorah. See fivedoves.com/letters/sep2013/bruceb921.htm
The lamps of the menorah were lit up daily, ‘from evening until morning,’ starting from the central lamp, called the Shamash, and then moved right to left (Exodus 27:21). It is believed that when Aaron would rekindle the lamps every evening, he found the Shamash still burning, so he simply refilled it with oil and trimmed its wick. This miracle is also recorded to have occurred during the Temple period, though it abruptly ended about 40 years before the destruction of the Second Temple (c.30 AD), after the death of the Messiah, the true Servant and Branch of YHWH (Zechariah 3:8). The center candlestick, the Shamash, represents the Light of the Suffering Servant, Messiah Son of Joseph, the Anointed One. By His Spirit, the Messiah serves to light up His grafted-in branches.
The word shamash is spelled with the same three letters – sheen, mem, sheen – as another word ‘Shemesh,’ which means ‘sun.’ The menorah again connects to the sun serving the moon with its light. This reinforces the reality of how we have no light of our own – the anointing comes only from the Anointed One, the Mashiyach. It is no coincidence that the words Mashiyach (Messiah) and Shamayim (Heaven) have the same two letters – sheen and mem. The Word in Hebrew is so amazing!
The Testimony of Yeshua
A mark of true prophesy is the testimony of Yeshua. John wrote this command:
Worship Elohim. For the testimony of Yeshua is the Spirit of prophecy. Revelation 19:10
The will of YHWH wants not just for His prophets to prophesy, but for all His people to testify of Yeshua the Anointed One under the anointing of the Ruach Ha’Qodesh.
What did Peter and the apostles preach on the day of Pentecost when they were filled with the Holy Ghost and all fired up, lit up with tongues of fire like a menorah?
Peter preached the Gospel of Yeshua, calling men to repentance and to be baptized in the Name of Yeshua the Messiah (Acts 2:14-41). If we are going to shine like the menorah as one light, we also will declare the same Gospel, calling sinners to the foot of the cross to be baptized in the Name of Yeshua and to receive the gift of the Spirit.
Just calling men to repent and turn to the Torah misses the picture of lighting up the menorah. If we preach the Gospel of Yeshua and turn hearts to the Living Torah, the anointing oil of the Ruach Ha’Qodesh will fill hearts and Yeshua will fire up other branches too. Do you see any other way to true revival we so desperately need today? Do you and I have a spirit within that bears witness of Yeshua the Messiah revealed in the Scriptures, in the Torah, in our lives, in our mishpocha, a nd in our relationships?
Refilling the Cups of the Menorah Today
Although the anointing and the Light are only from Yeshua, the human intervention of the priesthood was necessary for the menorah to shine as one, glorious light.
Where do we begin to be refilled with the Spirit?
Repent, therefore, and be turned so that your sins may be blotted out and that times of refreshing (recovery of breath, revival) come to you from before the presence of YHWH. Acts 3:19
It takes being a humble vessel of His anointing oil through praise, prayer, and spiritual songs, for the soul to be refilled with the Ruach Ha’Qodesh
And be not intoxicated with wine wherein is dissipation; but be filled in Spirit. Ephesians 5:18-21
Only then we can shine as one light when we find ourselves in the Spirit with the right attitude –
subjecting yourselves to each other in the fear of Elohim. Ephesians 5:21
May the times of refreshing and real revival fill our souls as we turn our hearts more and more to our Messiah. May the Anointed One refill the cups that we lift up in submission to Him for His anointing oil to refill us. May the Messiah light us all up as one Light, shining forth the Gospel, giving glory to Him in everything we do and say.
B’rakhot b’Ruach HaQodesh,
Blessings in the Holy Spirit,
David Klug