“Then he made the ten golden lampstands in the way prescribed for them and he set them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left.”
2 Chronicles 4:7 NASB
The 10 golden lampstands were arranged in rows of 5 with each row on opposite sides. Although the mobile tabernacle only contained one lampstand, this permanent structure contained 10. The purpose of the lamps was to symbolize the light of God’s creation and to continually remind the people that God Himself is light.
Later in the NT, we find that Jesus uses these exact words to describe Himself.
Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness but will have the Light of life.”
John 8:12 NASB
In the same way that the sunlight provides warmth and vision, Jesus does the same spiritually. He does this in two ways. The first is by illuminating sin. This is the part of His light that can cause us to hesitate. Sometimes we don’t want to illuminate the dark corners of our lives because it forces us to deal with the mess. The beauty of Jesus as the light is that He will bring awareness as well as healing.
The second way Jesus becomes the light is through vision. It should be normal for us as Christians to look upon our lives in a completely different way after we encounter Jesus’ light. Things that were once appealing to us are darkened as His light shifts to paths that were once dark but are now illuminated. This is the process that must take place in order to fulfill obedience.
We must not hide from the light, but welcome it. There’s no doubt that when we have been living in darkness for so long, the bright light of Jesus will cause us to squint and struggle as we attempt to see a new direction to travel. A dangerous but fruitful prayer is to ask the Lord to light up the dark areas of our life!