Week 7: Exodus 21 – 33 and Psalms 43 – 49

As we make our way through God’s commands for all things moral, civil, and ceremonial, we land in His very specific instructions for the tabernacle and the items within it.  The golden lampstand just outside the curtain to the Most Holy Place and the pure beaten olive oil used to light it have captured my attention!

“You shall command the people of Israel that they bring to you pure beaten olive oil for the light, that a lamp may regularly be set up to burn.  In the tent of meeting, outside the veil that is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening to morning before the LORD.  It shall be a statute forever to be observed throughout their generations by the people of Israel.”
Exodus 27:20-21

Here we have a pure golden lampstand (“menorah” in Hebrew) with seven branches, ablaze with the highest quality olive oil, tended to day and night to give continual light to the Holy Place.

Let’s talk about the pure beaten (or “crushed” in other translations) olive oil for a moment…On my trip to Israel, our group had the amazing opportunity to take a tour of the Nazareth Village.  It has been reconstructed to carefully represent Nazareth of the 1^st century at the time that Jesus would have been growing up there.  The tour was visually fascinating!  The most memorable part for me was the explanation of the olive oil press.

The guide explained the process that the olives go through once they are harvested from the trees to become the “EVOO” we see on the shelves at the grocery store.  Once the olives have been gathered, they are put into a large press where the olives (with the pits) are crushed into a thick pulp.  Defying all modern technology, the press in Nazareth Village was operated by a donkey and a 1,000-pound mill stone!  After about 20 minutes of crushing, the olive pulp is put into baskets that are stacked on top of one another.

The olives then go through a process of three applications of pressure to press the oil out of them.  The first “press” is actually just the gravitational weight of the baskets on top of each other.  This produces the finest quality and purest oil, which is the oil that was used to light the golden lampstand in the tabernacle.  It was considered the first fruit and therefore was reserved for offering to God and for anointing the kings, priests and prophets of Israel.

The second press of the olives occurs by applying pressure from large weights on top of the baskets.  This produces oil used for food, medicine and perfume.  The third press requires even more pressure from the weights and brings forth the lowest quality oil, used for lighting the oil lamps and soap.

The imagery of Jesus throughout the process of the olive pressing is absolutely breath-taking!  First, just as the olives are crushed before the pure oil can come out of them, so too Jesus gave Himself to be crushed to fulfill His ministry to us.  Isaiah 53 foretold of His experience on Earth:

“He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed.”  Isaiah 53:5

The oil from the first “press” was the first fruit, a pleasing and acceptable gift to the Lord, used to fuel an everlasting light for God’s people.  Jesus was the first fruit of all those that would be brough to life in God (1 Corinthians 15:20-23) through His resurrection.  He too was the acceptable offering, once for all on our behalf. The golden lampstand was to be tended to day and night, giving everlasting light to all those who would draw near to the presence of God.  Jesus is the true light which gives light to everyone (John 1:9), and who is in Himself the very presence of God.

While Jesus is like the highest quality pure beaten oil that lights the lampstand, He also subjected himself to the pressing, like that of the olives, that produced the oil for the everyday oil lamps.

The oil press is called gat (“a  place for pressing oil”)  shemanim (“oils”)  in Hebrew.  The English version if this word is “gethsemane.”  When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives, three times he pressed into anguished prayer as the heaviness of our sin began to crush Him.  He endured the weight of all that was meant for us, until what came out of Him were drops of blood dripping down His face like sweat (Luke 22:44).  As He hung on the cross and suffered a criminal’s excruciating death, He became like the olives that are squeezed until absolutely nothing remains.  Jesus held nothing back on our behalf.  He drained Himself completely.

The 3^rd press of the olives produced oil for the everyday lamps to light the houses of God’s people. Those lamps guided them through the darkness of night and lite their paths when they could not make out what laid up ahead.  Jesus’s suffering provides us with the same.  We no longer navigate the struggle and pain of our everyday lives without His light.  He has gone before us, into the darkness and has made the perfect provision for what we will need there.  When the darkness closes in on us, He is our light and our salvation (Psalm 27).

So, where are you today?  Do you feel darkness closing in on you?  Are you navigating something in life, wondering if anyone has ever paved a way through to the other side?  Or are you weighed down by the monotony of everyday life that feels so uninspired and tiresome?  Jesus came to be purest source of light to the world that would illuminate the way to the presence of God.  Yes, He lights the golden lampstand, but He also came to light the everyday oil lamp.  He came to be crushed on your behalf.  He came to be pressed to death so that He could be the oil that lights up you home, your mundane tasks and your ordinary struggles.  He came to be the oil in the lamp that shines upon the very next step you need to take to get through the season you are in.  He is the lamp to your feet and the light to your path.  He gave of Himself completely, so that you would never be alone in the darkness.  He loves you.   He always has and He always will.