Construction (Exodus 25:31–40)
"And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same."
One talent of pure gold — about 75 pounds — hammered from a single piece. Not cast, not assembled, but beaten out of one solid lump. The lampstand is a unity. Seven branches, three on each side and one center stem. Each branch carries cups shaped like almond blossoms, with a knop and a flower. Twenty-two ornamental almond cups in all (Exodus 25:33–34). The whole structure is a stylized tree.
The lamps were fueled with pure beaten olive oil (Exodus 27:20). Not pressed with weight, but beaten — labor-intensive, the highest quality. The priests trimmed the wicks every morning and tended the flame every evening (Exodus 30:7–8). Aaron "shall order the lamps upon the pure candlestick before the LORD continually" (Leviticus 24:4). The lampstand was the only source of light in the Holy Place; without its flame, the priest would have ministered in absolute darkness.
Position
In the Holy Place, on the south side, opposite the Table of Showbread on the north. Bread on one side, light on the other — the priestly chamber was lit and fed.
The almond — the watching tree
The almond (Hebrew shaqed, שָׁקֵד) is called the watching tree in Israel. It is the first tree to bloom in late winter — its name and the Hebrew verb to watch (shoqed, שֹׁקֵד) form a wordplay Jeremiah uses directly: "What seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it" (Jeremiah 1:11–12). The almond watches; God watches; God's word does what He says.
The almond appears at three Tabernacle-adjacent moments: on the lampstand's cups; on Aaron's rod that budded with almond blossoms (Numbers 17:8); and in Jeremiah's call. The watching tree is the priest's tree. The light burns in a tree-of-watching at the center of the Holy Place.
Aaron's ordination — incense and light together
"And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it" (Exodus 30:8). The two priestly acts are paired. Whenever Aaron tends the lamps, he burns incense at the same hour. Light and intercession are not separable in the priestly service. "And Aaron lighted the lamps thereof over against the candlestick" (Numbers 8:3) — Aaron lights one wick from the next, every wick eventually traceable to the central shaft.
The typological argument — Christ the Light, the Church the lampstands
"I am the light of the world" (John 8:12). The lampstand's flame is Christ. But in Revelation 1:12–13, John sees seven golden lampstands — "and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man." The seven lampstands are explicitly named: "the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches" (Revelation 1:20). The light of the Tabernacle = the light of Christ = the light the church now carries. Christ stands among the lampstands, not above them. The Holy Place's single seven-branched lamp has, in the New Covenant, become seven separate lamps — each church a discrete witness, all of them lit from the central Light.
Commentary
Matthew Henry, Exposition (PD): the lampstand was kept burning continually, "a fit emblem of the Church's light, which must shine before men, and never be quenched." John Calvin, Institutes IV.1: the church is the lampstand, but the light is not the church's; the light belongs to Christ, who stands in the midst of the lampstands.
→ Cross-link: The Altar of Incense (light + intercession paired) • The Table of Showbread (the parallel furniture) • Trees (almond as watching-tree).