AP

Leviticus 24:1-4  The LORD said to Moses, “Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning continually.  Outside the curtain that shields the ark of the covenant law in the tent of meeting, Aaron is to tend the lamps before the LORD from evening till morning, continually.  This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.  The lamps on the pure gold lampstand before the LORD must be tended continually.

Every time I read this part of scripture my mind goes back to my Sunday School days where, in spite of my waywardness and disruptive, acting-the-clown behaviour, a small group of faithful, patient Sunday School teachers prayed for me and taught me about Jesus.  I used to love singing, mostly loudly but out of tune, “Give me oil in my lamp keep me burning, give me oil in my lamp I pray; give me oil in my lamp keep me burning, burning, burning, keep me burning till the break of day!.  Sing ‘Hosanna’, sing ‘Hosanna’, sing ‘Hosanna’ to the King of kings …”.

Little did I (or they) know then that their faithful prayers would be answered, and that eight decades later this frail and battered lamp that they were constantly filling with oil would, by God’s grace, be still burning!  (If you don’t know the song, it’s worth Googling, but you run the risk of getting an earworm!).

Keeping the lamps burning continually in the Tent of Meeting, just outside the Most Holy Place that contained the `Ark of the Covenant with its Mercy Seat’, was a constant reminder to God’s people, Israel, that he was always with them, and the basis of his Presence was the Everlasting Covenant of Grace he had made with them at Sinai.

This side of the first Easter, and this side of the destruction in 70 AD of the Jerusalem Temple which superseded the Tent of Meeting, we no longer need to carry out the procedure instructed to Moses.  Jesus has now come and has said, “I AM the Light of the World.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12); and as he died on the cross for their sins, as their substitute to seal the covenant, the curtain that separated the people from the symbol of this covenant was “torn in two, from top to bottom”! (Mark 15:38)

This instruction in Leviticus, like everything else regarding the sacrificial system, was always only ever foreshadowing, and finally fulfilled in, the atoning work of Jesus.  Nevertheless, there is a sense in which I still need to pray the prayer of this old song, so I will keep singing it!

In his Sermon on The Mount, Jesus said to all who would follow him: “You are the light of the world.  A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.  Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-16)  And the ‘oil in my lamp’ is the Holy Spirit applying God’s Word in my heart and in my life, which is why I need to read God’s Word each day in order to keep my lamp burning!

– Bruce Christian