LEVITICUS 24
The teaching of this chapter has reference to a time of general darkness, for it is “from evening to morning” that Aaron is to dress the lamp; and in the reviler we see a figure of apostasy. The whole chapter is one section, for, as we have remarked before, each section of this book is introduced by the words, “Jehovah spoke to Moses”. In presence of surrounding darkness spiritual light is to be maintained, and in presence of conditions which will culminate in open apostasy the reality of how God would retain His people before Him for His pleasure is to be maintained in faith and love. These are exercises which are peculiarly appropriate at the present time. For it is still the night of Christ’s rejection, and apostasy is imminent in the christian profession.
It is the exercise of all saints to bring “pure beaten olive oil” for the light, to light the lamp continually. The shining of the light depends on each one; every one of us is either contributing to the light, or more or less hindering and obscuring it. Not even an apostle could bring a spiritual ministry among a carnal people. Paul told the Corinthians plainly that he could not speak to them “as to spiritual, but as to fleshly; as to babes in Christ. I have given you milk to drink, not meat, for ye have not yet been able, nor indeed are [p. 265] ye yet able; for ye are yet carnal” (1 Corinthians 3: 1 - 3). Amongst a carnal people the ministry even of the greatest gift is restrained and limited, and unless there is extraordinary spiritual power in the vessels of ministry what is ministered soon drops to the level of the people.
The ministry of Christ is still here in the power of the Spirit, but it is maintained in human vessels, and through the spiritual exercises of the saints generally. We are all responsible to bring oil for the light. This supposes that we have bought oil for ourselves (Matthew 25: 9), and have it in our vessels — that we have a supply of the Spirit, and are able to pray in the Holy Spirit. The saints, as possessed of the Spirit, are furnished with that which alone will maintain the light. The fact that we have the Spirit should beget peculiar and intense exercise; this is suggested in “beaten” oil. It is as we give place to the Spirit ourselves that we can bring oil for the light. We are to be interested in the testimony, and prayerfully concerned about the servants and the ministry, not supposing that it rests with the gifts to supply the oil. The three thousand converted on the day of Pentecost “persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in breaking of bread and prayers”. No doubt their prayers would be largely of the same character as the prayer in Acts 4: 29, which had its answer in verse 31. When Paul asks for the prayers of the Ephesian saints “in order that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the glad tidings ... that I may be bold in it as I ought to speak”, he is calling upon them to contribute to the maintenance of the light!
All through the night of Christ’s rejection and absence He is to be maintained as light amongst the saints in a ministry which is wholly in the power of the Spirit. We have all to be concerned that the purity and brilliance of the light should not wane. It is striking how purity is emphasized in these verses — “pure beaten olive oil for the light”, “the pure candlestick”, “the pure table”, “pure frankincense”. There needs to be holy jealousy in a time of darkness and departure merging into apostasy that all connected with the light and the table should be maintained in purity, uncontaminated by human admixtures. This is “outside the veil”.
Bringing beaten oil for the light suggests a spiritual exercise to be taken up by all saints, but it is instructive to see that Aaron was to dress the lamp continually from evening to morning. The priestly service of Christ in connection with the maintenance of the light is indispensable. Each vessel of ministry must prove that His grace alone suffices, and that His power is perfected in weakness, and that it is only as His power tabernacles over one that there can be a shedding forth of “pure” and spiritual light (2 Corinthians 12: 9). “The Lord stood with me, and gave me power, that through me the proclamation might be fully made, and all those of the nations should hear” (2 Timothy 4: 17). It is sweet to know that the priestly dressing of the lamps, and their arrangement before God, will be carried on by the skilful hand of Christ until the “morning”. Indeed all is of Himself, and by the grace of God. If spiritual conditions are brought about in the saints which enable them to contribute “oil for the light” it is the fruit of divine grace; and then the living activities of Christ secure [p. 267] the continual shining of that precious ministry which is the light of the holy place.
We learn from Exodus 30: 7 that whenever Aaron dressed the lamps he burned “fragrant incense” on the golden altar — “a continual incense before Jehovah throughout your generations”. The maintenance of the light is associated with that which speaks of the intercession of Christ — an intercession in which the “holy priesthood” can have part with Him. Spiritual light cannot be maintained without prayer.
In the early days of the assembly the light was undimmed. There were spiritual and prayerful conditions amongst the saints, and the apostles and other gifts ministered Christ in purity, and in the power of the Holy Spirit. And I believe God is working now to bring about faithful and devoted affections in His people, so that spiritual conditions may contribute to a full shining of the light. He would have the light undimmed at the end even as it was at the beginning. The words “before Jehovah” occur four times in verses 1 - 8. It is a question of what is preserved in spiritual reality and power as before God for His pleasure. Is it not a great delight to God that there should be the shining forth in spiritual light of the preciousness and beauty and glory of Christ amongst His saints in the holy place while all around is darkness? And while the very air of christendom is filled with the spirit of the coming apostasy? If things are secured first before God for His pleasure there can be no doubt they will be effective as witness here.
Then the “twelve cakes” of “fine wheaten flour” speak of the saints as having Christ as their life. We cannot be too simple in recognizing that God has brought in everything for His own pleasure in Christ,
[p. 268] and that nothing else can come under His eye with complacency. It was once all here in “one loaf”, but now it is in “twelve”. God is going to make what was in Christ appear in the whole company of His people. It would be well for every young convert to get the idea at the very beginning, “God has taken me up that Christ might be my life, and that He might make me like Christ”. Such a thought would have a profound effect on his whole subsequent course.
“Christ ... who is our life”, is a wonderful statement. I understand it to mean that what the world is to the unconverted, Christ has become to the christian company. He has become our life. An old man was asked, “If I could prove that there was no such person as the Lord Jesus Christ, what effect would it have upon you?” His answer was, “I should fall to pieces”! Every true lover of Christ would say, “If you take away Christ you have taken all that is life to me”. The pleasure of God at the present moment is found in those to whom Christ has become life. Christ is cherished in their hearts as the Man of God’s pleasure, and therefore they cannot go on now with what is not after Christ. It is their continual exercise to give place to Christ, and to refuse what is not Christ. In that way the “fine wheaten flour” comes into evidence. It is remarkable that the twelve cakes should be spoken of as “an offering by fire to Jehovah” (verses 7, 9), for they were not burned as a sweet odour, but eaten by the priests. As baked they had been subject to the action of fire, and perhaps this indicates that there are testings which result in what is of Christ taking a definite shape in the saints for the pleasure of God. They come before Him as the fruit of exercises which they have passed through,
[p. 269] involving severe testing, but resulting in their having value as an offering.
The “two wave-loaves” of Pentecost typify the saints as found here in testimony — the “first-fruits” to God of that great harvest which He will gather from the earth. But the “twelve cakes” of shewbread give the thought of what is before God as “a bread of remembrance”. They bring before God the remembrance of what Christ was under His eye for His delight, and they indicate that God has it before Him in view of public administration. That character of things is soon to be in universal ascendancy, and the world to come will be under its administration. “When the Christ is manifested who is our life, then shall ye also be manifested with him in glory” (Colossians 3: 4). Think of being in the secret of this while all is darkness around, and the elements of apostasy present!
The “two tenths” in each cake would suggest uniformity. We do not see here a figure of the saints as differing in divine sovereignty, having “distinctions of gifts”, as in 1 Corinthians 12 or Romans 12, but as being all alike morally because Christ is the life of all. What we get in Colossians down to chapter 3: 17 are things in which the saints are characterized by uniformity. It is the grace of Christ in features which are alike in all. We can all be alike in “bowels of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, longsuffering”, and in “love which is the bond of perfectness”. All that is “fine wheaten flour”. The saints are thus seen in spiritual uniformity, as taking constitution and character from Christ. What a delight for the heart of God!
The “two rows, six in a row” suggest to my mind [p. 270] the thought of mutuality. In Colossians the words “one another” recur again and again. “Do not lie to one another”; “forbearing one another, and forgiving one another”; “in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another”. This is not fellowship, which is our common bond in a hostile scene, but mutuality — the way we act towards one another in the christian circle.
“Pure frankincense upon each row” would refer, I think, to the Spirit of Christ coming out in the way we pray for one another, and for all saints. Paul had deep exercise for the Colossians, and those in Laodicea, and for as many as had not seen his face in flesh (Colossians 2: 1). And he looked for the saints to “persevere in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us also”. He reminds them, too, that Epaphras was “always combating earnestly for you in prayers, to the end that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God” (Colossians 4: 2, 12). The saints are thus before God in the fragrance of a spirit of dependence and confidence in which everything is sought from God that will be for His pleasure. It suggests that the saints cannot be upon the pure table as a bread of remembrance apart from the fragrance of a spirit of intercession that confides in God, and draws all from God. I do not believe that a single grace of Christ appears in the saints under the eye of God, or is maintained, apart from prayer†.
The one who “blasphemed the Name” (verses 10 - 23) represents that amongst the people of God which is really apostasy. It is the product of a mixture of what is of God with what is of the world; for he was
†For other remarks on the candlestick and the shewbread, the reader is referred to “An Outline of Exodus,” chapter 25.
“[p. 271] the son of an Israelitish woman, but withal the son of an Egyptian”. Where such a mixture is found it leads to strife, and ultimately to blasphemy. When that point is publicly reached in what has been the christian profession it will come under the unsparing judgment of God.