Lesson: Lampstands in God's Dwelling Places (No. 110

Goal:

To review the basic concepts related to the lampstands in God’s dwelling places.

Objectives:

1. Children will be able to state how many lampstands were in the Tabernacle in the Wilderness.

2. Children will be able to state how many lampstands were in the Temple Solomon built.

3. Children will be able to state how many oil lamps were on each lampstand.

4. Children will be to offer some ideas of the symbolism related to the lampstand.

Resources:

The Temple Solomon Built (No. CB107)

Lampstands of God’s Dwelling Places (No. CB110)

The Tabernacle in the Wilderness (No. CB42)

Relevant Scriptures:

Exodus 25:31-40; 31:8; 37:17-24; 1Kings 7:48; 2Chronicles 4:7; Zechariah 4:2

Memory Scripture:

Exodus 25:37: “You shall make its lamps seven in number; and they shall mount its lamps so as to shed light on the space in front of it.”

Format:

Open with prayer.

Ask the children what they think the lampstand represents and what function it serves.

Conduct the lesson on the Lampstands in God’s Dwelling Places (No. CB110).

Conduct the activity associated with the lampstand.

Review the questions and answers.

Close with prayer.

Lesson:

Read through the paper: Lampstands in God’s Dwelling Places (No. CB110), unless it is read as a sermonette, with the children present.

Children’s questions are in bold. This is a general review of the material covered in the Bible story. Rotate asking the questions to the children with each child participating.

Q1. Who is the Father of light?

A. Eloah, God the Father (Jas. 1:17).

Q2. Are the Commandments of God a lamp unto our feet, and light unto the world?

A. Yes, they are (Ps. 119:105; Prov. 6:23).

Q3. What was the lampstand made of in the Tabernacle in the Wilderness?

A. It was pure gold and made out of one piece of metal (Ex. 25:31-40; 31:8; 37:17-24).

Q4. From the one central shaft or stand how many bowls for oil were on top of each branch?

A. It had one central shaft with three branches out of each side, and with places for seven oil lamps on top of each branch.

Q5. How often were the lamps cleaned, or tended to?

A. The lamp was ‘dressed’, meaning that the wick was trimmed and oil added daily.

Q6. When were the lamps burning?

A. The lamps were kept burning before the Lord from evening to morning (Ex. 27:20-21; Lev. 24:2-3).

Q7. What do we think the seven lamps represent?

A. These seven lamps seem to represent what was understood as the seven Spirits before God’s Throne.

Q8. What could the seven bowls represent?

A. The seven bowls seem to represent what was understood as the seven Spirits before God’s Throne operating in each of the Ten stages of the faith extended into the function of the Messiah and the seven churches, and the Two Witnesses, and their prayers.

Q9. What does the number seven represent?

A. Seven signifies or represents spiritual perfection.

Q10. What side of the Tabernacle was the lampstand on?

A. The lampstand was on the south side of the Tabernacle (Ex. 26:35; 40:24).

Q11. What type of oil was used in the lampstand and how was it made?

A. The oil for the lampstand was pure olive oil. The oil was not ground in a mill but it was beaten to produce finer oil (Ex. 27:20).

Q12. Are we to be a light to the world?

A. Yes, we are to be reflecting the light of God’s Holy Spirit to the world.

Q13. Did any of the Ten Virgins neglect, quench, grieve the Holy Spirit and find themselves without oil/Holy Spirit in their lamps?

A. Yes, five of the foolish virgins found themselves without oil and missed their place in the First Resurrection. (Mat. 25:1-11).

Q14. How many lampstands were in the Temple Solomon built?

A. Ten golden lampstands (1Kgs. 7:48 and 2Chr. 4:7).

Q15. If each lampstand had seven bowls on it how many bowls were there in total?

A. 7 times 10 equals 70 bowls in total.

Q16. What else can you think of that has the number 70 in it.

A. The Council of God has 70 Beings in it.

Q17. Where were the lampstands placed in the Temple Solomon built?

A. The ten golden lampstands of Solomon’s Temple were placed five on the right and five on the left (1Kgs. 7:48 and 2Chr. 4:7).

Q18. What do we think the 10 lampstands represent?

A. Messiah is the main or central lampstand from which the other lampstands come. Therefore, we have the sequence of the 10 lampstands composed or made up of Messiah, the seven Churches (Rev. 1:20), and two Witnesses (Rev. 11: 4).

Q19. In Zechariah chapter 4 what is the meaning of the golden lampstand and two olive trees on either side of the lampstand?

A. Messiah is the great lampstand and the two olive trees on either side of the lampstand are the Two Witnesses.

Q20. How long will the Witnesses be on the planet?

A. 3 ½ years or 42 months (Rev. 11:3).

Q21. Do the Witnesses die naturally? Are they buried?

A. No, they will be killed and lie dead in the street for 3 ½ days (Rev. 11:7-9).

Q22. Do the Witnesses remain dead forever?

A. No, the breath of life from God comes into them and they rise (Rev. 11:11) and meet Messiah, who returns to the Earth as King of Kings.

Q23. Is Messiah the light of the world?

A. Yes, Acts 26:23 and John 8:12 confirm it.

Q24. When Eloah returns to the Earth will the sun and moon still exist? If not where does the light come from for the inhabitants of the Earth?

A. The city does not need the sun or the moon. The glory of God will be shining on it, and the Lamb will be its light. Its gates are always open during the day, and night never comes (Rev. 21:23-26). The Lord God will be their light, and they will reign for ever and ever (Rev. 22:5).

Q25. Who will soon become the bright new Morning Star?

A. Messiah is Satan’s replacement as the new bright Morning Star (Rev. 22:16).

Activities:

A. Making lampstands for the Temple Solomon built

Materials: Two gold pipe cleaners for each lampstand. You will need ten lampstands for the Temple Solomon built, and one lampstand for the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, pliers to cut the pipe cleaners.

Preparation: For each lampstand cut one 7mm, 6mm, 5mm piece of gold pipe cleaner. This will result in a lampstand about 3 inches high. Again, no exact measurement is given for the height of the lampstand, but we are using 1 inch per cubit, so it will be 3 cubits high (which equals about 5 feet 4 inches). It is easiest to bag the supplies to prevent confusion of mixed pieces.

Procedure or assembly: Fold each cut piece in half. Take the long uncut pipe cleaner and bend at about 3 mm. Using the bend as the guide, secure the large pipe cleaner around the 3 cut pieces. The long pipe cleaner becomes the centre or 7th bowl of the lampstand; shape the other cut pieces to curve upwards. The remaining long part of the uncut pipe cleaner is bent ~ 1 inch below the lamps. From the stand, curl the remaining pipe cleaner around the “shaft” to create a base. If it does not stand on its own a piece of clay under the lampstand will assist it in being more stable.

B. Flashlight Jeopardy

Materials: 1 flashlight (and batteries) per team; fluorescent tag board. Copy of Q and A in “box form”, glue stick, scissors, tape.

Preparation: Glue the Q and A cards on fluorescent tag board; divide the questions into 4-5 colours. Once the questions are glued on to the tag board on the reverse side, award point values to the questions – 100, 200, etc. – on each of the colours.

Procedure: Mount the cards on the wall with lowest point value closest to the ceiling and grouped by colour. The game is played like Jeopardy except the team member shines their flashlight on the question they want. If they get the question correct they are awarded the points. If the question is not a True/ False Question it can go to the other team.

Considerations: This works very well if a black light is available to light up the fluorescent cards.

Note: black light is commonly referred to as simply "UV light". More information can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_light

C. Flashlight Tag “Lighting the Lampstands”

Materials: One flashlight per child, with room to move safely. The game can be played at dusk where there is still some light available.

Procedure: The girls are the lampstands and boys are the priests that light the lampstands. The girls stand with their arms out and up with their flashlights off. When a boy shines his flashlight on a girl she turns on her flashlight and becomes a priest and is able to light the other lampstands. Once all the lampstands are lit the roles reverse.

Safety considerations: If you have a lot of younger children you can increase the safety by asking the lampstands to stand still. If you are allowing the children to move, carefully observe the playing area in the daylight and have clearly defined safe boundaries.

D. Flashlight Tag

Materials: One flashlight; safe area to play in the dark or semi-dark.

Procedure: Children move in the dark and try not to be touched by the flashlight.

Rules: This game works best in a dark house and should be played at night. First, define a hideout area. This could be a room or a corner of a room. The person who is "it" waits at the hideout counting to 30 while everyone else hides. Hiders are allowed to move around and do not have to stay in one place. Then, using the flashlight, the person who is “it” searches for the others who have hidden but may be moving from one hiding spot to another. The flashlight must remain on at all times and may not be covered. When "it" spots someone, they must use the flashlight to get a close enough to look at the person to identify him/her and call out the hider's name. Tagging in this game is done by calling a name, not by touching.

What happens when a person gets caught, gives rise to variations of this game. One variation is to pass the flashlight to the caught person, so she/he becomes "it". Another variation is to send each caught person to a "hideout" to wait until everyone is caught. The first person caught then becomes "it".

E. Lampstand Game

Materials: Lampstand game board, questions, markers (buttons, pompoms etc), dice or colour-coded spinner to determine how many spaces one moves.

Procedure: Print or construct game board, and questions, assemble markers, dice or spinners. Game can be made on florescent tag board and done in the dark if you wish.

Rules: Children all start on the base of the lampstand and move forward based on the number they roll and correctly answering the questions. Once the players get to the vertical supporting rod/road for the 7 bowls the first player must move to the furthest bowl and the second following and so on. The game is finished when they each have at least one player in each bowl.

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