It is only in the NT that we get an expanded vision of the menorah that was only hinted at in the Tabernacle in the wilderness of Midian.

That tent of meeting was a portable sanctuary that moved under orders. Only when the cloud lifted did the sanctuary move forward. The church was in the cloud and so the church kept in step with the cloud. If you entered the church without cloud, something was wrong. Either the cloud had moved and the church was left behind, or the church had run ahead and when the Spirit had in fact, stood still. The physical menorah in that portable tabernacle was earthy, metallic and solid but the message of the menorah is eternal and light and universal.

The witness of the NT writers are all of one mind. Paul, Peter, John all speak the same thing as Moses, Isaiah, Zechariah. A clue is in the numerology and prestige among the people of the Book of the 7’s involved as we unpack the significance of the sequencing and order of each item in relation to a masterplan yet to be decoded and defined according to source-codes that must not be tampered with.

(1.) Early church worship was held in secret and away from the prying eyes of informants and false teachers. The decentralisation of believer’s worship meant that the secret of menorah was easily passed from person to person, from region to region and ultimately into public domain over an excruciating period of years, decades and centuries. The secret was preserved for succeeding generations through oral tradition kept alive through word of mouth and on occasion, through letters or epistles sent from those in the know to noviciates or the newly catechised.

(2.) What did these writings contain that was of such interest to the early followers of Jesus and what can we deduce as modern followers today of messiah Jesus? They contained lists, lists of virtues and of vices, records of rights and wrongs, what is kosher and what is unclean in terms of behaviour and conduct. But no ordinary lists, lists of sevens, a discernible literary pattern that provokes further investigation. It is curious that the biblical writers grouped items together in patterns of 3’s (way, truth, life) in patterns of 4’s (lion, ox, eagle, man) but it is in the pattern of 7’s that reveal a truth stranger than fiction.

(3.) It is without doubt that Providence has left us with a trail of breadcrumbs that has led us, over an extended time of research, into these archetypal lists and in the interests of time we shall be looking at 2 or 3 such lists, each corresponding to the other, one in Colossians and the other in 2 Peter. This exploration takes us right back to two of the most prominent figures in the new testament, Peter and Paul.

M.E.N.O.R.A.H. = modal excellencies noted & observed regards archetypes & habits