Title: Pure Olive Oil (Exodus 27:20-21)
Contents The light using the oil extracted from the olive fruit was always clear and transparent and there was no soot.
So this oil was always pure and clean oil, and it had the meaning of purity.
Some commentators interpret this passage as foreshadowing the pure character of Jesus, who burned his whole body to illuminate the dark and sinful world of mankind.
God's command in today's text was to prevent darkness from dwelling in the tabernacle that worshiped God from evening to morning.
And he commanded that the light be possible only with pure oil, not with the light of miscellaneous oil.
1. God Demanded Pure Oil
Those who extend their hands of service in God's temple are always called for purity.
God's word to use only pure oil for the temple as the oil for the lamp to light the tabernacle gives many meanings to today's church.
A dedication honed in careful preparation and deep meditation is just what God wants.
He demands the fruits of service and devotion with a pure spirit that cannot be involved in the calculation of miscellaneous interests or honor.
2. The blood of Christ as pure oil
No one calls the blood of all the death row prisoners on the cross shed for their sins as pure blood or precious blood.
Because the wages of sin is death.
But the blood that Jesus Christ shed on the cross of Calvary's fortress was truly precious blood.
The reason is that he suffered the atoning death in a sinless body.
It was an event that forever lit the lamp of salvation on mankind as a truly pure oil.
Because of that unquenchable lamp of salvation, today we have the privilege of worshiping God in His temple.
3. The lamp as a symbol of the church
The tabernacle is recorded as a holy place that God revealed to Israel and was with them for about 500 years from the Exodus (1446 BC) to the completion of Solomon's Temple (959 BC).
The lamp light revealed here can be interpreted as a model of the church that illuminates the world.
This rationale can be easily understood when we recall the seven candlesticks that point to the seven churches of Revelation (Revelation 1:20).
“You have seen in my right hand the mystery of the seven stars and the seven golden candlesticks, which are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks are the seven churches” (Revelation 1:20).
The lamp in the sanctuary is the witness and symbol of the church, the believers.
Just as the censer is a model of their role as witnesses to God, and the seven candlesticks are a model of their role as a light to the world.
4. God's command not to allow darkness
The light mentioned in the Bible has always been associated with the work of the Holy Trinity.
In the modern church, the Holy Spirit continues to be a source of light.
Wherever there is poverty, disease, or suffering, what we see in the suffering field of believers is the light of the Holy Spirit.
The work of the Holy Spirit is a pure lamp that leads to a new world, whether in the tabernacle or today's church.
Those who saw this light and stood up and obeyed were always with God, and those who did not were destroyed in the world of darkness.
In the Most Holy of the Tabernacle in Israel, lamps were lit from the evening when the darkness began to the morning when the light began, so darkness was not allowed in the tabernacle.
Today, we hear the following command from God to light a lamp that emits light while burning pure oil in the hearts of the people who serve God.
“For ye are blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, to be shining among them as lights in the world…” (Philippians 2:15)
Application 1). Integrity is always an attribute and form that God desires.
I find in myself what I can offer to God as being clean.
2). Thinking about the pure blood of Christ and his connection with himself, he thinks about the grace of salvation.
3).Check again that the lamp lit by pure oil is on me.