Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Revelation 1:12

"And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And having turned I saw seven golden candlesticks;" — Revelation 1:12 (ASV)

For the OT tabernacle, Moses constructed a seven-branched lampstand (Exodus 25:31ff.). Subsequently this lampstand symbolized Israel. Another golden sevenbranched lampstand appears in a vision of Zechariah; it was fed by seven pipes and was explained to him as the “eyes of the LORD, which range through the earth” (Zechariah 4:10). Thus the lampstand relates directly to the Lord himself. Since other allusions to Zechariah’s vision of the lampstand appear in the Revelation— e.g., “seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God” (Revelation 5:6) and the “two witnesses” that are “the two olive trees” (11:3–4), it is logical to assume here a connection with that vision as well.

But there are problems in any strict identification. In v.20 Christ tells John that the “seven lampstands are the seven churches,” and in 2:5 that it is possible to lose one’s place as a lampstand through a failure to repent. Thus, the imagery represents the individual churches scattered among the nations—churches that bear the light of the divine revelation of the gospel of Christ to the world (Matthew 5:14). If Zechariah’s imagery was in John’s mind, it might mean that the churches, which correspond to the people of God today, are light bearers only because of their intimate connection with Christ, the source of the light, through the power of the Holy Spirit (1:4b; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6).