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Unlocking a Sacred SecretRevelation—Its Grand Climax At Hand!
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The Stars and the Lampstands
5. How does Jesus explain “the seven stars” and “the seven lampstands”?
5 John has seen Jesus in the midst of seven golden lampstands with seven stars in his right hand. (Revelation 1:12, 13, 16) Now Jesus explains this: “As for the sacred secret of the seven stars that you saw upon my right hand, and of the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars mean the angels of the seven congregations, and the seven lampstands mean seven congregations.”—Revelation 1:20.
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Unlocking a Sacred SecretRevelation—Its Grand Climax At Hand!
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9. (a) What do the seven lampstands represent, and why are lampstands a fitting symbol for these? (b) Of what would the vision likely remind the apostle John?
9 The seven lampstands are the seven congregations to whom John directs the book of Revelation: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. Why are congregations symbolized by lampstands? Because Christians, whether individually or collectively as congregations, have to ‘let their light shine before men’ in this bedarkened world. (Matthew 5:14-16) Additionally, lampstands were among the furnishings of Solomon’s temple. Calling the congregations lampstands would likely remind John that, in an illustrative sense, each local congregation of anointed ones is “God’s temple,” a dwelling place for God’s spirit. (1 Corinthians 3:16) Moreover, in the antitype of the Jewish temple arrangement, members of the congregation of anointed ones serve as “a royal priesthood” in Jehovah’s great spiritual temple arrangement, of which Jesus is the High Priest and where Jehovah dwells personally in the heavenly Most Holy.—1 Peter 2:4, 5, 9; Hebrews 3:1; 6:20; 9:9-14, 24.
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