Revelation Pt. 5 - The 'Tree of Life'
Before we dive in to the next portion of our Revelation study, I’d like to take a minute to dispel some of the fears you may have concerning the perceived difficulty of this book. I say this because the Revelation is the most avoided book in the New Testament, primarily because of it’s seemingly incomprehensible symbolism and apocalyptic nature. For over 1900 years, few have made any real progress in unraveling it's mysteries, so in large part it has remained a mystery to the Church. That general feeling of frustration towards this masterpiece was recorded by Thomas Jefferson over 200 years ago in his letter to General Alexander Smyth, where he stated;
“It is between fifty and sixty years since I read it and I then considered it as merely the ravings of a maniac, no more worthy nor capable of explanation than the incoherences of our own nightly dreams.”
Perhaps you have felt that way in the past? I know I did. But the problem is a simple one; we have been examining this book from our western mindset, when a Hebraic mindset was required. So in this series of lessons we have attempted to return to the roots of our Christianity by examining the culture and traditions of the Hebrew people that lived it. From that perspective, things begin to fall into place.
This Past Summer & Fall
In our summer and fall sessions we learned that the ‘Festivals of the Lord’ would set the table for all of the events of the approaching end times, and that the Menorah structure of these Festivals would provide the foundation for all of the events to follow. On the heels of that, this past fall we learned that the Bible contains a wedding contract called a 'Ketubah', and that the book of Revelation actually describes portions of this contract as Jesus Christ points to His upcoming marriage with His intended bride, the Church.
The 'Tree of Life'
And now we are going to begin adding to our foundational 'Festival' menorah by revealing it's expanded master menorah structure. This structure is actually seven mini-menorahs within one larger master menorah, which altogether gives us 49 candles. And it is these 49 candles that represent the 7 groups of 7 events that characterize the book of Revelation. In it’s structure, these mini-menorahs are stacked upon each other like branches on a tree, symbolically forming the 'Tree of Life' that is spoken of throughout scripture. You’ll see what I mean in a few minutes, but for now we’ll established the basis for this symbolism.
On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.” I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone “like a son of man,” dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. (Rev 1:10-13)
To begin with, we need to identify what the ‘lampstands’ are in this passage. While most of us would envision these lamp stands as seven individual candles atop seven individual golden stands, that is not the intended picture. The intended imagery is that of seven golden stands that each contain seven individual candles. Why? Because the Hebrew word for ‘lamp stand’ in this instance is ‘menorah’, which was the seven-candled lamp stand that stood first in the Tabernacle, and later in the Temple.
This identification with the seven-candled menorah is so profound that it became the national symbol of Israel. The basic shape of the Temple menorah is depicted in this image on the Arch of Titus in Rome, built as a memorial to the Roman sacking of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. It is primarily through this illustration that the world is reminded of the menorah’s original construction.
This translation of 'menorah' for 'lampstand' can be confirmed in the Hebrew New Testament, called the 'Brit Chadashah', where the actual word used for 'lampstand' is 'Menorot'. Menorot is a form of ‘Menorah’, and both forms of the word are defined in Webster‘s New World Hebrew Dictionary in the following way;
menor|ah/-ot nf lamp; chandelier; (+of; -at).
From this we can see the direct interpretation of ‘lamp’ in English, which is correct, but if we were comparing apples to apples, we might call it a ‘candelabra’ instead, because that would denote multiple candles on one stand, much the way that the menorah does. But the important thing to remember is that this passage in the Revelation doesn’t identify just ONE menorah, it identifies SEVEN menorahs when it describes “seven golden lamp stands”.
This is where the ‘tree of life’ symbolism comes into play, and just for the sake of argument, imagine that they were laid out in the configuration shown on the adjacent illustration. This certainly takes on the shape of a tree, hence the analogy. But as we venture into the Revelation, there is much more to come that supports this structure. The Revelation has seven different groups of seven events each, for a total of 49 significant events that fall within the structure of this master menorah. Once these 49 events have taken place, something spectacular is going to happen.
If your Christian antennas just went up again, they should have, because the number 49 represents the completion of seven Sabbath cycles of seven years each, as noted in the Jubilee cycle in the Old Testament period;
Count off seven sabbaths of years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbaths of years amount to a period of forty-nine years. Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan. (Leviticus 25:8-10)
Right of the bat we can make the connection to the number 49 by comparing the 49 years in this Jubilee cycle with the 49 candles on the 'Tree of Life' master menorah. But the analogy that is less obvious is what happens AFTER the 49 events have been completed.…. when the number ‘50’ is reached. With the Jubilee calendar, the 50th year was reserved for the ‘liberty’ that would be proclaimed throughout the land when the 49 years were over. And with the Revelation, it is also ‘liberty’ that will be proclaimed for mankind once the 49 events are over. God’s Jubilee calendar serves as a ‘type’ for the events of the Revelation.
The Festival Menorah and The Revelation
Also notice that this Jubilee year would begin on the Day of Atonement in the fall. In our summer sessions we learned that Christ’s first coming was in fulfillment of the spring feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits, along with the Feast of Weeks that concluded with Pentecost. We also learned that Christ’s second coming will fulfill the fall feasts, which include the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles. Each of these festivals, both spring and fall, figure prominently in the events that are outlined in the book of Revelation. So once again, let’s briefly review the order of the Festivals on the menorah that forms the basis for our Tree of Life (remember, Hebrew reads from right to left);
While these festivals begin with Passover in the spring and end with Tabernacles in the fall, it is the feast of Weeks candle that was the servant, or the "shamash". As you may recall from our summer sessions, this middle servant candle was used to kindle all other candles on the menorah, and the servant candle is a representation of God. So it was no surprise to the early church that the feast of Weeks eventually culminated with the giving of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. This 4th position of the servant candle will have an additional application in a few moments.
You may also recall that each of these Festivals carry with them a particular theme that is unique to that Festival, and those themes on this symbolic ‘tree of life’ end up defining the 49 events of the entire Revelation. These themes are displayed in the table below, to the right of their respective Festivals, along with their corresponding events in the Revelation;
| FESTIVAL Passover Unleavened Bread Firstfruits Weeks Trumpets Day of Atonement Tabernacles | THEME Redemption Sanctification Resurrection Origination Rescue Atonement God Dwells With Us | REVELATION EVENT The 7 Letters The 7 Seals The 7 Trumpets The 7 Thunders The 7 Bowls The 7 Angels The 7 Kingdoms |
The Passover candle carries the theme of ‘redemption’, and so the Seven Letters to the Churches form the first set of seven events on our tree of life. Not surprisingly, the letters outline the criteria that God will apply to man in this redemption process. Man has a choice to be an ‘overcomer’, or to suffer the fate that it outlined in the Revelation for violating the ‘ketubah’ with God.
The Unleavened Bread candle carries the theme of ‘sanctification’, which is the process of setting something apart for sacred use. Well, when the ‘seven seals’ are spoken forth by the groom, the process of sanctification in the end times will begin in earnest.
The Firstfruits candle represents ‘resurrection’ since this was the day that Jesus, the firstfruits of the resurrection, rose from the dead. So it should be no surprise that the resurrection of the dead in Christ will take place on this candle during the sounding of the ‘seventh trumpet’.
The Weeks candle carries the theme of ‘origination’, which is a natural place for us to find the proclamations of God within the ‘seven thunders’. The origin of all creation began with a similar proclamation by God, and the origin of the events that lead to the return of Jesus will also begin with proclamations by God. As with the servant position of the feast of Weeks, the seven thunders are the proclamations of God that will ignite all the other end times events on our tree of life.
The Trumpets candle is defined by the general theme of ‘rescue’, and within this candle we will find Israel rescued from the antichrist as the 'seven bowls' are poured out on the antichrist's kingdom, and Israel's enemies are destroyed.
The Day of Atonement candle naturally has the theme of 'atonement'. Pretty obvious. So, on this candle we find the seven angelic proclamations that are made to mankind, designed to give man one last chance to atone for their sins and return to God, or suffer the penalties and plagues reserved for those who violate the ketubah.
The Tabernacles candle carries the theme of 'God dwelling with man'. As a result, this candle describes the seven evil kingdoms that will be displaced by the Kingdom of God at the beginning of the Millennial Age.
Now ‘Go With the Flow’……
While the 49 events on our tree of life will occur in a linear fashion from right to left (just as Hebrew is read from right to left), the interesting thing about this structure is how the oil flows within it’s framework. You may recall from our summer sessions that the branches on the Temple menorah were hollow in order to allow for the internal flow of oil that would come from the reservoirs in the middle "shamash" standard. This oil would saturate the l
ong linen wicks that were placed inside these branches, and these wicks would systematically be ignited with the flame that came from the middle ‘servant‘ candle.
Well, our ‘tree of life’ master menorah has a similar kind of flow, but with an additional component; these wicks not only get their oil from their main branch, but they also get oil from the mini-menorah on the level just below.
For instance, in the adjacent illustration you can see how the ‘7 Seals’ get their oil from the main branch that is attached to the middle standard, but you can also see where they get some of their oil from the last of the 7 candles on the ‘Letters’ menorah. This same concept applies all the way up the tree, and on both sides of the tree. In other words, the oil is provided to both sides of the tree from the bottom up. However, just as the individual 'Festival' candles are lit from right to left in a linear order, so the order of the events in the Revelation will also occur in a linear fashion. This means that the 7 Letters on the Passover candle will be lit first, then 7 Seals on the Unleavened Bread candle, and so on down the line. Only in this way can the compound FLOW of events in the Revelation be understood.
If you’ve ever wondered why the 7th Letter introduces the Seals, and the 7th Seal introduces the Trumpets, and so on, you now have your answer. A lot of commentaries have been written in an attempt to explain this dynamic, but out of necessity they all fall short of a full understanding because they do not reflect the Hebraic structure of this book. If you remove the master menorah structure, then you no longer have the ‘Tree of Life’ symbolism that the entire Revelation is built upon.
