Phase Four. The fourth aspect of the plan of redemption is of special significance in that four is halfway between one and seven. In all three scriptural orderings of the seven furnishings of the Tabernacle, the Lampstand is always number four.

In the seven Levitical feasts, Pentecost was observed by itself apart from any of the other six observances. It is at Pentecost, or at the Lampstand if you will, that we begin to grow past the aspects of redemption that are limited to our personal benefit, our salvation from destruction, and move into the areas of grace in which we become the servant of the Lord.

Taking the fourth element of each of the four major types of redemption we have as follows: the creating of the sun, moon and stars in the firmament of heaven to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and night, to divide the light from the darkness and the day from the night, and for signs; the giving of the Law on Sinai with the Levitical statutes and ordinances, and the directions for the construction of the Tabernacle of the Congregation; the solid-gold Lampstand with its seven lamps; and the feast of Pentecost.

The main elements are the creating of the sun, moon and stars; the Law from Sinai and the design and construction of the Tabernacle of the Congregation; the Lampstand; and the waving of the two loaves of wheat (the feast of Pentecost) signaling the end of the wheat harvest.

Here we find the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Church, and on us as individuals; also, our baptism into the Body of Christ. We begin to understand that the Head and Body of Christ, the Servant of the Lord (Isaiah, Chapter 42) will show the light of the knowledge of the Glory of the Lord to the farthest reaches of the earth.

The two leavened wave loaves of the feast of Weeks (Pentecost) speak to us of the double portion of God's Spirit that will be poured on the earth in the days to come.

The Lord Himself has sworn that the knowledge of the Glory of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. The Glory of God and of the Lamb will light the new Jerusalem so that the holy city will have no need of the sun or moon.

It must have been the Glory of God and the Lamb that lighted the heaven and the earth at the beginning, for there were no sun, moon or stars during the first three evenings and mornings of the creation.

When discussing the four major types of redemption we are not suggesting that these elements did not exist exactly as recorded in the Scripture. The history of the creation found in the first chapter of Genesis, for example, is accurate in every detail.

What we are claiming, however, is that all these real things and people of the Scripture have symbolic meaning for God's plan of salvation in Christ. They were written for our admonition on whom the end of the age has come and were freely used by Christ and the Apostles as symbols and illustrations having to do with the Church of Christ.

To be continued.