One Piece of Hammered Gold, Seven Imperfect Churches, and the First Love the Church Forgot

The Menorah That Will Not Stay in Rome

When I visited Rome for the first time with my wife Marcia in 1969, one of the most emotional moments of my life was standing before the Arch of Titus in the Roman Forum. Titus and his father Vespasian were the men who destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple and carried the valuables from the Temple to Rome, marching them through the streets in celebration of their victory over Judea. On the wall of this Roman victory arch is the golden Menorah taken from the Temple of the Lord. But right underneath the relief of the golden Menorah, some Israeli Jews had scratched in Hebrew: THE NATION OF ISRAEL IS ALIVE.

The Roman Empire is dead and will never return to the former glory of Ancient Rome. Israel and the Menorah — the symbol of the State of Israel — still give light. Israel is a major center of innovation and invention in medicine. It is the start-up nation, and so many innovations and inventions that bless humanity still come from Israel to bless the world.

Why Seven Candles? And Why Made From One Piece of Gold?

The reason for seven candles is not complicated. Seven is the number of creation — there are seven days of creation — and the light in the world is reflected in the sanctuary of the Tent of Meeting and later in the Temple in Jerusalem.

But the detail that changes everything for reading the book of Revelation is this: the Menorah was made from one piece of gold, hammered into shape. It has a central shaft with three branches of different sizes on each side — all connected at that central shaft. It was not molded. It was hammered. The word "hammered" is the key. Translated differently: put through the mill, put through difficulties, going through persecution, having internal problems.

That is the imagery John is reaching for when he describes the seven churches of Asia Minor as a seven-candle Menorah. Here are some of their problems, directly from Revelation chapters 2 and 3:

There are very serious sins and big problems — and yet they are still a part of the same Menorah. They are still candles that have light and give light in the dark pagan atmosphere of the Eastern portion of the Roman Empire. They are not cut off from the body of Christ. Some are threatened that if they don't change their light will be put out — but even to the most problematic, the Laodiceans, the Lord says:

The First Love the Church of Ephesus Abandoned

The Menorah is today the symbol of the State of Israel — unity and diversity embodied in one structure. We have Sephardic Jews, Ashkenazi Jews, Ethiopian Jews, Asian Jews, South American Jews, and Jews from the Arab countries, all unified under the menorah symbol. This is why the menorah signifies the unity of the Jewish nation from the whole world who have returned to the land God gave to Abraham and to His seed forever (Genesis 13:15 and another 20 examples throughout the five books of Moses).

The only sin I will help you identify directly from Revelation's list is the sin of the church of Ephesus who left her first love. I propose that the first love of the Church was the love of Israel, exhibited in a loving relationship with the Jewish community. My opinion is based on God's first love — Israel is God's firstfruit, as stated in Jeremiah chapter 2.

The unity of the body of Christ is not compromised in these seven churches — they are still a part of the same Menorah, still made of the same gold, still connected to the central shaft. There are so many divisions and enmity between denominations over far lesser problems than those of the seven churches of Asia Minor. Unity is not decided on issues of minor theological interpretation — like what words the preacher said at your baptism, or whether you take communion with matzah bread or regular bread. Unity is an issue central to the survival not of one denomination or another, but of a biblical faith altogether and an obedient expression of the body of Christ in the world. The Lord commanded, in both Isaiah 42:6 and Isaiah 49:6, that Israel should be a light to the Gentiles. The disciples of Yeshua were declared to be the light and the salt of the world — and the non-Jews in the body of the Messiah have the same commission because they were grafted in through the blood of Yeshua to the commonwealth of Israel, a commonwealth created by God from the time of Abraham.

The Menorah still shines, reminding us that God’s people are called not to separation and rivalry, but to unity, faithfulness, and light.