They made the lampstand of pure gold and hammered it out, base and shaft; its flowerlike cups, buds and blossoms were of one piece with it. – Exodus 37:17

Today’s Scripture Reading (June 25, 2012): Exodus 37

In T. H. White’s “The Once and Future King” there is a scene where Guinevere is sent into the Northern England with Mordred as the Lord Protector while Arthur reluctantly is off hunting Lancelot. In the scene, darkness falls on the land (it is late winter and the darkness is still arriving early) and Guinevere asks her attendant Agnes if it is possible to get some light. Agnes moves to get the rushlights to add light to the room and Guinevere bemoans the fact that they do not have any candles in the northern territories – that she would have to make do with the rushlights. What she really wants are the candles of home, but here, it is only rushlights.

It is a bit of an odd comment for us in our more advanced world. For most of us light comes from the flipping of a switch. Oh, sometimes we still light our candles, but it is more about ambience then actually needing the light that the candle gives to us. And rushlights are totally unknown. But it has not always been that way.

So God tells Israel how he wanted the tabernacle to be lit. They were to make lampstands of pure gold. Normally the candle sticks of this era would have been made of wood and then overlaid with gold or silver, but not in the tabernacle. In the tabernacle the light would be the purest possible, and it would arise out of lampstands that were just as pure. And there were no rushlights allowed.

The tabernacle and its gold lampstands are long gone now, as are the poor rushlights of Northern England, but commentators have commented that the pure light of the tabernacle has been replaced by the light that now comes out of the Bible. Now it is the light that shines on our path, a light that is purer than any other light that we can imagine – and lights the way through our darkness.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 38