The Tree of Life: The Menorah as a Messianic Symbol

Hosea 14:5-6 "..he will send down his roots; his young shoots will grow.  His splendor will be like an olive tree." 

Psalm 80 "Thou didst bring a vine out of Egypt, thou didst drive out the nations and plant it.  Thou didst clear the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land.  The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches; It sent out its branches to the sea, and its shoots to the River." 

Jeremiah 11:16 "The LORD called your name, "A green olive tree, beautiful in fruit and form"" 

The menorah was a seven-branched candelabra that once stood in the Temple in ancient Israel.  It looked something like a golden olive tree with seven branches holding up seven flaming olive-oil lamps.  It represented the light of G-d being offered to mankind.

As Messianics, we believe that this Light for the World is Yeshua, the promised Messiah of Israel.

Dear reader, do you know where you will be when you die?  Will you go to the place of light?  Or will you go to the place of darkness?

The place of darkness is reserved for those who have no desire to obey G-d:

2 Thessalonians 1:8,9 "He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Yeshua.  They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might"

Jude 1:13 They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever. 

2 Peter 2:17These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 

Matthew 25:30 "And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'" 

Matthew 25:46 "These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." 

But the place of light is reserved for those who love G-d:

John 3:14-21"14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.