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And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the
candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers,
shall be of the same. And six branches shall come out of the sides of it; three
branches of the candlestick out of the one side, and three branches of the candlestick out
of the other side: ... And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof: and
they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light over against it.
... And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount.
Exodus 25:31ff
The symbolic meaning of the Number Seven reaches its apex in the Menorah, the seven-branched candlestick designed
by God Himself to be a perpetual light in His Tabernacle. The Lord emphasized its Divine origin when He
twice instructed Moses to be sure to follow the pattern that He Himself revealed when they met for forty days
on Mount Sinai (Exo 25:9, 40). Like the Seven Feasts, God designed the whole structure of the Tabernacle and its
instruments as a prophetic picture of His Son, the Word of God who "became flesh, and dwelt (literally tabernacled)
amongst us" (John 1:14). God instructed that two symbols of His Word – Manna and the Ten Commandments – be put
in the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of holies in the heart of the Tabernacle. Thus the "Word became flesh" in this
symbol in anticipation of the incarnation of the Living Word, Jesus Christ, the True Tabernacle (John 2:21).
The Menorah stood before the vail covering the entrance to the Holy of Holies. It is a Divine symbol
that unites the whole panoply of meanings of the Number Seven – fullness, completion, perfection, and holiness – with
the idea of the Light of God's Word. The perfect union of these ideas is astounding to behold. As with
the Sabbath and the Number Seven itself, it begins in Genesis. The Menorah stands as an eternal memorial
of the Seven Days when God created everything by the power of His Word and spoke His first command,
"Let there be light." And just as the Menorah is called the Lamp of God (1 Sam 3:3), so also is God's
Word twice referred to as a Lamp:
- Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. ...................... Psalm 119:105
- The commandment is a lamp; and the law is light...................................... Proverbs 6:23
These descriptions are more than mere metaphors, and the Menorah is more than a suggestive symbol of
the Light of God's Word; it actually displays the sevenfold symmetric perfection
of the Canon Wheel.
The image shows the seven canonical divisions numbered on the Canon Wheel and listed at the bottom
in accordance with the Three Cycles. The Menorah displays the periodic radial symmetry of the Canon
Wheel (Bible Wheel book, pg 33). Divisions that align on the same set of Spokes – 1/4, 2/5, 3/6 – are
shown on paired branches, with the sequences listed in order towards the central lamp representing the New
Testament Epistles (7th division). Like the Sign of Deity in
Christian iconography (tri-radiant halo),
this symbol of Divine Light revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai now appears as nothing less than another
prophetic image of the Holy Word. The unity of these two symbols is as simple as it is obvious, as
beautiful as it is profound. This correlation is a key to understanding how the Bible Wheel fulfills
Ezekiel's prophecies of the wheels within wheels.
Yet this is but the beginning of wonders. God used exactly the same sevenfold symmetry when
He designed the Seven Days of Creation! The first Three Days correspond to the second Three Days;
the First with the Fourth (1/4), the Second with the Fifth (2/5), and the Third with the Sixth (3/6). This
pattern has been noted by numerous scholars, such as Scroggie, who also sees a hint of its structure in the
phrase "formless and void" from
Genesis 1:2. The first Three Days were Days of Formation that were empty and void until God
filled them on the Three Days that followed. As shown in the table below, this is identical to the form of
the Seven Divisions of the Canon Wheel. Both follow a 3+1 pattern with the same three pairs of numbered
elements – 1/4, 2/5, 3/6 – and the Seventh Day/Division set apart by itself. This means that God prophetically
set the pattern of the entire Bible, revealed now thousands of years later, in the creation account of
Genesis 1! The numerical structures of the Word of Creation and of the Holy Bible are ONE.
Both were designed symmetrically upon the Number Seven, and both exemplify the full set ideas associated with
it. What prophecy! What Wisdom! How mighty are the Lord’s Works! This is the Wisdom by which God "founded the earth"
(Prov 3:19) fulfilling Proverbs 9:1: "Wisdom hath builded her House [Word/Cosmos], she hath hewn out her seven pillars."
Yet there is still more. There is a strong correlation between the thematic flow of the Seven
Days with that of the Seven Divisions of the Bible. While a detailed analysis is beyond the scope of this section,
a few highlights should make the correlation clear. The First Division
is called the Torah (Law).
This is not a human convention; the Bible itself frequently uses this name for the first Five Books as
when Christ referred to the "law of Moses" (Luke 24:44) or when He said He came to fulfill,
not to destroy "the law, or the prophets" (Matt 5:17). As noted above, the Bible declares that "the law (torah) is light"
(Prov 6:23) and this corresponds exactly with the primary event of the First Day when God said
"Let there be light." Likewise, the Second Day is characterized by the division of the waters, and this
marks the primary event initiating the Second Division,
the Twelve OT History Books, when the waters of
the Jordan river were "cut off" (divided like the Red Sea in the Second Book) and the children of Israel
"passed over on dry ground" into the Promised Land (Joshua 3:17). The pattern continues with the Third
Division, the Five Wisdom Books, corresponding to the Third Day when God created trees bearing fruit,
for indeed Wisdom is a "tree of life" (Prov 3:18) and her fruit is "better than gold" (Prov 8:12).
The correlation becomes profoundly theological in the Sixth Division,
the Five NT History Books, which record the primary event of the Incarnation when God became Man in Jesus Christ
(Mat 1:23, John 1:14). This corresponds precisely with the Sixth Day when God created Man in His image!
The parallel is both perfect and precise, and it recurs in many different aspects of the word (see the Synopsis of
Spoke 6, Bible Wheel book, pg 206). Finally, the full flowering of the spiritual meaning of the
Seventh Day unfolds in the Seventh Division of the Bible.
The Twenty-Two Epistles are unique in that they alone contain the full and explicit revelation of the fundamental
doctrine of salvation by grace through faith, and not by works. This characterizes the New Testament Epistles.
The most famous is probably Ephesians 2:8f:
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
This is the clarion call of the Gospel taught in the Seventh Division; NO WORKS! We must rest in
the finished Work of Christ! The correlation with the Seventh Day Sabbath could be no clearer.
Thus we have a full integration of 1) the Days of Creation, 2) the Menorah, 3) the symbolic meaning of the Number
Seven, 4) the geometric structure of the Holy Word, and 5) the fundamental Christian Doctrines of the
Incarnation of God (with its implication of the Deity of Christ) and Salvation through Faith Alone!
Yet again we see the content of the text imprinted in its form! God engraved all these
fundamental Christian doctrines, and countless others, in the very structure of the Holy Bible!
Has ever such a wonder been seen in the history of the world? Yet for all this we have only just begun,
for truly there are no limits to the glory of God's Word!
Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
Isaiah 30:26
The sevenfold light prophesied in the Book of Isaiah reiterates the connection between the
Number Seven and Light that God established in His design of the Menorah. It is a symbol of the Divine Light that
will shine in the New Jerusalem at the end of time when all the words of God are fulfilled,
as declared in the Last Book of the Holy Bible (Rev 21:23):
And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of
God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
And again in the last chapter of the Last Book (Rev 22:3ff):
And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it;
and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face [which shines as the sun, Rev 1:16];
and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle,
neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.
Isaiah's revelation of the Sevenfold Light of God also hearkens back to the original Seven Days of Creation
when God created everything by the Word of His Power (Heb 1:3) which is itself the essence
and source of all Light, as it is written (John 1:1ff):
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made
that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the
darkness comprehended it not.
We have a perfect and complete union of the ideas of Creation, God’s Word, Light, and Life.
The Bible begins with God’s first command, "Let there be light" (Gen 1:3) and ends with God Himself revealed
as the Eternal Light of Heaven (Rev 22:5). As Orr noted above (BW book pg 41),
"the end folds back on the beginning, and, when the whole is finished, we feel that here again, as
in the primal creation, God has finished all his works, and behold, they are very good." Yes, the Bible
begins and ends with the Light of God, and yes indeed, it is very good! Amen.
Next article: The Bible Sealed with Seven Seals
This article is essentially identical to pages 47-49 and 51
of the Bible Wheel book.
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Bible Wheel Forum
The Sevenfold Light of God's Word