THE LIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS #198 | THE LIFE OF MOSES #179
Pastor Christopher Choo
Lesson 3884
THE LIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS #198
THE LIFE OF MOSES #179
MOSES AT MT.SINAI#78
THE TABERNACLE OF MOSES ( Part 37)
THE MENORAH #7
GOD GAVE ISRAEL A VISUAL REMINDER OF THE MENORAH
How did the image of the Menorah became embedded in the consciousness of God's people as their national icon?
It was found all over the countryside as a type of sage plant.
Thus the seven branched Menorah (Lampstand) of the ancient Holy Temple is widely recognized as an organic, botanical image, a variety of salvia or “Menorah Plant.”
Botanists discovered that Israel is rich in salvias or sages (over twenty types), and that several among them bear a remarkable resemblance to the basic design of the bible’s Menorah, not only when dried and pressed (when the calyxes, the envelope that holds the blooms, are very prominent), but even when the plants are growing in the ground.
Salvias are members of the mint family, which means they have square-sided stems and are usually strongly aromatic, their leaves rich in essential oils.
The Menorah Salvias are perennial small shrubs, growing from two and half to three feet tall and are often heavily musk-scented, attracting bees to their blooming flowers. These are small and two-lipped, ranging in color from light yellow to pinks,. lilacs and violet-purple, growing prolifically around the plant’s stem in showy whorls from distinctive calyxes. Leaves, usually rough in texture and tapered, occur mainly at the base of the plant. This allows the branches to show off their esthetically pleasing Menorah-like design without distractions.
Some locals gave the native salvias the Hebrew name Moriah for the hill country, land of Moriah in the Bible, where they flourish and where Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac (Genesis 22:2).
As a group, salvias represent a virtual pharmacopeia of herbal uses. Their Latin genus name, Salvia, is derived from salveo, meaning “I save.” From ancient times, sage was employed to treat everything from snake bites and warts to infertility and amnesia.
The salvia fruit is widely used among Israeli Arabs and Jews from Arab lands to treat, among other ailments, stomach-ache and ear-ache, and as a diuretic. Herbal doctors in the Middle East use this sage to regulate menstruation, enhance fertility, strengthen the muscles of the womb before and after childbirth and to treat problems associated with menopause.
Possibly anti-bacterial in action, salvias may have other, yet undiscovered, applications.
It is not difficult to imagine this plant as a model for the Tabernacle Menorah. In common with the other menorah-like salvias, it has a history of medicinal use. Its galls are called “little peach” in Arabic.
We may never know whether sage plants inspired the design for the ancient menorah, but the fact that they grow in many places in Israel today and answer so well to the Exodus description is very suggestive.
Whatever plant, or plants, the author of the biblical text had in mind, the botanical puzzle reaffirms, in a most graphic way, the close ties between the people of ancient Israel and the plants of their everyday landscape.
The very idea that the Menorah, the oldest symbol of the Jewish people, actually springs from the soil, from a living and useful herb, gives the Menorah a fresh meaning as a blessing from God.
