Revelations from the Word

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The lamp is placed on the lampstand

by Jean-Louis Coraboeuf

“Also He said to them, Is a lamp [luchnos] brought to be put under a basket or under a bed (or covers it with a vessel [skeuos] in Luke 8:16)? Is it not to be set on a lampstand [luchnia]? For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. Then He said to them, Take heed what you hear [akouo]. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given. For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him” (Mark 4:21-25).

The lamp luchnos in Greek, represents Jesus, and the lampstand, luchnia in Greek, represents in general the Church, as is the case in the letters to the seven churches (Revelation 1:20). But here Mark addresses man and the word luchnia represents the person who has accepted Jesus-Christ into his life. The Greek word skeuos means that which furnishes a house (Mark 3:27) or a temple (Mark 11:16), man used as an instrument (Acts 9:15) and the human body (2 Timothy 2:21). When Jesus becomes the Light that shines in us, it is not so that our old man (the vase) hides it, nor that it is as a night-light (under the bed), nor to contain it in a bushel in order to limit or control it.

The parable of the sower (Luke 8:5-15) represents many different facets of the natural man:

• the rebel who has followed the way of his heart (Isaiah 57:17) of which Jesus wants to become the only Way (John 14:6),

• the rock which tries to resist the hammer of the Word (Jeremiah 23:29), but God wants to become the only rock of his heart (Psalm 73:26),

• the field of thorns inherited from fathers (Jeremiah 3:24-25) that God wants to clear (Jeremiah 4:3),

• the heart in which God will write His Torah (Jeremiah 31:33) in order to produce fruit for His Kingdom.

We have all that in our lives before receiving the seed of God. But when Jesus becomes our Light, He will reveal the ways of our hearts, the rocks of our idols, the thorns of our ancestors etc. that is all those things hidden and buried in us since our conception. Therefore our part will be "to take care of what we listen to [akouo]". If we do not listen to as a disciple, that is with a view to obeying, the little we believe we have will be taken away from us. But if we obey the Word of God, we will find His ways marked in our hearts (Psalm 84:6). He will be our only Rock (Psalm 73:26) and all our being will produce fruit for His glory.