Oil for the Lamps – Made in the Image of God
THE fourth great division of this book now commences. Throughout it we are carried on in thought to the future. From chap. 1.-16. inclusive God's provision in grace to meet the sinful creature in his need, and to bless him fully is delineated, as we have pointed out in Vol. iv., pp. 112-212. Thus far the spiritual teaching of the book has instruction for God's saints during the present dispensation. From 17. to 23., however, we have traced out in the subjects treated of, and in the order in which they are presented, an outline of that which especially concerns the people of Israel.
Called to maintain the truth of the unity of God, as His creatures, and as Jehovah's people, they were thus to live in the wilderness, and subsequently in the land (17). Taken up, therefore, by Jehovah to be His people, what became them in their social life and in intercourse with each other is set forth for their instruction in 18-20. Then follow special directions for the priests of Aaron's house (21.-22.). After which the historic outline of God's ways in grace with His people is set forth in 22. Now in 24., we begin a new section of the work with the provision for keeping the people nationally ever in sight before God, though apostasy, when it manifests itself, must be rigorously dealt with.
Again the Lord addresses the law-giver, “Command the children of Israel that they bring unto thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamps to burn continually. Without the veil of the testimony in the tabernacle of the congregation shall Aaron order it from the evening unto the morning before the Lord continually; it shall be a statute forever in your generations." When in the mount with God Jehovah, gave Moses a command about this (Exod. 27:20) very similar in terms to that which he was authorized now to communicate to the people. Oil for the light was one of the items which the Lord then told Moses that Israel might offer to Him (Ex. 25:6). Communicating that to the people after his second sojourn on Sinai with God (Ex. 35:8), the rulers we read provided it, (v. 28), in response to Jehovah's invitation. So in Ex. 39:37, we are told how all was in readiness for the setting up of the Tabernacle on the first day of the first month of the second year, dating from their departure out of Egypt. And in Num. 4:16, we find that to Eleazar belonged the charge of the oil, when the congregation was on the march. Here in Leviticus the direction about the oil olive beaten appears in connection with the twelve loaves of shewbread, that were each week to be placed on the golden table before the Lord.
From evening to morning the lamps burned (1 Sam. 3:3; 2 Chron. 13:11). At the time of the offering of the morning burnt sacrifice, it was Aaron's duty to trim them. At the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, between the two evenings, it was his work to relight them (Ex. 30:7, 8). Thus throughout the night of darkness the seven lamps burned, illuminating the chamber called the holy place, in which, just opposite to the candlestick which was placed on the south side, stood the golden table on the side of the tabernacle northward (Ex. 40:22-24). As long, therefore, as the lamps burned so long was the table with the twelve loaves visible by their light, which shone on them; a beautiful illustration of the twelve tribes being ever in remembrance, and as a whole in acceptance before God. For ages have the tribes been dispersed: but God has not forgotten them, as Paul reminded his hearers in the hall of audience at Caesarea (Acts 26:7). Of this, too, James is a witness, who addressed his epistle to them (James 1).
In Ex. 25:30; 35:13; 39:36; 40:23, we have mention of the shewbread. Here we are told of the number of the loaves, of their composition, and of their arrangement on the table. The twelve loaves were arranged in two rows. Each row, therefore comprised six loaves, and each loaf, or cake, as it is called here perhaps from its roundness, was composed of two tenth deals of fine flour, the same measure as that appointed for the meat offering which accompanied the sheaf of firstfruits, that was waved before the Lord. Placed on the pure table on each Sabbath, with pure frankincense laid on the two rows of bread, there they remained throughout the week, the light from the candlestick shining on them, throughout each night that they were before the Lord. At the end of the week, those twelve loaves were removed, fresh ones being put in their place; the frankincense which had been upon them was then burnt, an offering made by fire unto Jehovah, and the loaves were eaten by the priests in a holy place, most holy they were of the fire offerings of Jehovah. Such were the directions about them. The twelve loaves, by their number, symbolized the twelve tribes of Israel, and they were placed on the pure table, made of shittim wood, and overlaid with gold, typical in itself of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is both God and man. On the march, that table was itself covered with a cloth of blue, telling us thus plainly, by the color, of whom it was a type. But over it and the loaves which remained on it, was put a cloth of scarlet, indicating that the glory of earthly rule is His whom the Table prefigured, and that He will exercise that rule in connection with the tribes of Israel; for on the day of His glory the people will be named the priests of the Lord, and men shall call them the ministers of God (Isa. 61:6). Then will be seen the perfection of administrative power exercised by man, and in connection with the tribes of Israel, whose names will be engraven on the gates of the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:12), and after whom the twelve gates of the restored earthly city will be severally named (Ezek. 48:31-34). But that power will really be centered in one man, the Lord Jesus Christ; so the composition and measure of each loaf have reference to Him as the perfect, spotless man.
It is in connection with Israel, then owned as God's people, that He will reign, and Jerusalem will become the metropolis of the whole earth, being the city of the great King, and the center to which the nations will turn, and from which the law shall go out,-and the word. of the Lord proceed. By the light, therefore, of the burning lamps, which kept the table and its loaves from being enshrouded in darkness, those in the sanctuary could see that God's thoughts about the kingdom, though long deferred from being put into execution, must yet be accomplished. The night might be long, and the gloom thicken outside, but inside the light from the lamps steadily burning, would show the priests who entered the sanctuary that God had not forgotten His people, nor the establishment in power of that kingdom, of which He had spoken to men from time to time since the fall.
Inside, then, during the night of darkness, by the light of the seven lamps which shone on the golden table with the twelve loaves arranged in order upon it there I was foreshadowed the future; but that could be seen, and was seen, only by the priests, who passed behind the curtain which screened the outer chamber from the eyes of those in the court of the tabernacle. And now we can understand the fitness of introducing the directions about the loaves of shewbread in the book of Leviticus, and especially in this part of it. For, coming as they do, just after the outline of God's ways in grace with the people has been traced out in the order of their different great feasts throughout the year, the Lord, after reminding us by the feast of Tabernacles of Israel's final blessing, would here tell us of the kingdom coming in power, which He has not forgotten, neither will He forever be wroth with the tribes of His inheritance (Isai. 63: 17). But Israel's acceptance, as the frankincense on the loaves portrays, will only be by virtue of the sweet savor of the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Such, then, is some of the instruction conveyed by this passage in the book, instruction, too, especially suited for the present time, that we should not forget to give Israel their proper place in connection with the coming day of blessing for earth; for if we were to interpret all the blessings which are predicted by the prophets, as if they concerned the Church of God, and not the earthly people Israel, we should fail to give them their proper place, in the declared counsels of God. But how different the scene inside the sanctuary from that which could, and we here read did, go on in the camp. All calm and silent within, the testimony to the coming kingdom in power, and Israel's connection with it being steadily kept in view, God's purpose was thus seen to be unchanged and irrevocable; for the nation's future is inseparably bound up with that which is due to the obedient man, the Son of God's love. In the camp, on the contrary, there was strife, and one was found, then but one (though by and by it will be the many, the mass) who, of Israelitish extraction on his mother's side, had the hardihood to blaspheme the name of the Lord. An apostate in heart and in act, he turned his back on Jehovah, and blasphemed Him who was Israel's Creator and God. This man was the fruit of an alliance with the world, for his mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan, but his father was an Egyptian. He has passed away from earth, his name unknown to us, though his crime has never been allowed to sink into oblivion, a warning, and surely a foreshadowing, too, of that which will characterize the mass of the Jews when antichrist will be their king and apostasy will be their crowning sin.
Charged with the guilt of cursing the name of Jehovah, he was brought to Moses, and put in ward, till the mind of the Lord should be shown them. For that they did not wait long. Jehovah revealed it to Moses, and it was accurately carried out. For the apostate there was no mercy "Bring forth him that hath cursed," was the word” without the camp, and let all that heard him, lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him " (24:13-14). And the children of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses. Condign punishment speedily overtook the offender.
But this sin necessitated a new revelation, for God knew full well that though only one was convicted of blaspheming that day, others would subsequently be guilty of it. Hence the law here given, verses 15-22. which prescribed the punishment to be awarded for that sin to any who so offended: " Thus shalt thou speak to the children of Israel, saying, whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sin. And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall surely be put to death."
Further, any one who took the life of man, the right to take which belongs only to God, or to those to whom he delegates the authority to execute His commands, such an one was to be put to death. And any one who took the life of a beast b'hemah, i.e., cattle, in opposition probably to chaiah, a wild beast, should make it good, beast for beast. And as for men, whosoever injured his neighbor, whether his eye, his tooth, or whatsoever it might be, he should be treated as he had treated his neighbor. Elsewhere these injunctions come in, the witness of the perfectly righteous rule established amongst them by the law (Ex. 21). But here they are introduced in connection with apostasy. If man would deny God His place, or attempt to deprive Him of His rights by apostasy, he might not be scrupulous unless thus enjoined to be careful of his neighbor's life, or his neighbor's rights, who in common with himself was made in the image of God.