Everyday the priests of God filled the lamps with oil so the light would burn continually before the Lord. They also burned sweet-smelling incense unto the Lord and offered daily sacrifices as a sweet savor unto the Lord. The priests did these three tasks every evening and every morning, which formed the basis of their daily service to God.
God has chosen us to be a kingdom of priests, thus we look forward to the millennium when we shall be the priests of God and of Christ. But even now we should be keeping a daily service patterned after the Mosaic priests.
Each of the three daily duties of the earlier priesthood corresponds to one of our daily duties today. Furthermore, each of our daily duties focuses our attention on Christ.
Lord willing, this article will be the first of three in which we study our daily service in more detail. For each of the three tasks, we cite the command to the priests, then we study its spiritual significance and its connection to Christ. The purpose of the study is to encourage each of us to improve our daily individual worship services.
Oil in the lamps
“And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee pure olive oil beaten for the light, to cause the lamps to burn continually. Without the vail 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 for ever in your generations. He shall order the lamps upon the pure candlestick before the Lord continually” (Lev. 24:1-4; cp. Exo. 27:20-21; Num. 8:1-4).
Spiritually, keeping oil in the lamps is our daily Bible reading and study. And the shining light itself is our preaching efforts.
God’s word a lamp
The lamps represent God’s word. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psa. 119:105). “For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light” (Prov. 6:23).
Daily readings
We must fill our minds with God’s word, teaching it diligently to our children and talking about it at home and on the road, in the evening and in the morning. We should surround ourselves with God’s word so that it will guide our actions and thoughts. Our homes, inside and out, should be filled with God’s word.
Such is God’s command to us, His true spiritual Israel (Dt. 6:4-9). We might do well to imitate the devout Jew, who recites these words every day. They are indeed a good way to begin a new day, setting our minds on those things from above.
We must meditate day and night on the statutes of the Lord. As the Lord commanded Joshua (and us), “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night” (Josh. 1:8).
We join the Psalmist in celebrating God’s law, “Blessed is the man…[whose] delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night…O how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day” (Psa. 1:1,2; Psa. 119:97; cp. Psa. 19:711; Hymn 22; Psa. 119:97-98,103-105).
We often point out in first principle classes the importance of the Bible as our only authority and daily guide. The Bereans provide an illustration, because they “received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11). We should do the same.
The king’s copy
God’s kings were specifically commanded to write out a copy of the law (DL 17:18-20). The king was to keep this copy and read from it every day of his life. By doing so the king would learn to fear the Lord, to keep the words of the law, and to do them. Furthermore, it would keep the king from thinking more highly of himself than his brethren. Kings who obeyed this law would reign longer.
It has been suggested, and there seems to be no reason to doubt, that Jesus did this in preparation for his kingship. The law was in his heart, and it was his delight to do God’s will. Christ’s life was devoted to carrying out God’s commands.
In preparation for our role as kings and priests, we must also read from God’s word every day.
Christ the word made flesh
The connections with Christ are clear. Jesus is the word made flesh, dwelling among us. He came to fulfil the law and the prophets and to be God’s spokesperson, for he was the prophet like unto Moses. God said, “I will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him” (DL 18:18). Indeed, “He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God” (Jn. 3:34). Since Christ is the light of the world, his words will judge us when he returns.
Shining forth the word of life
“God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (II Cor. 4:6).
Being filled with this light, God commands us, “Do all things without murmurings (against God) and disputing’s (with men): that ye may be blameless (before God) and harmless (among men), the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life” (Phil. 2:14-16).
Having filled ourselves with the oil of God’s word, we are like an oil-burning lampstand shining bright. Just as we would not put a lit candle under a bushel basket, so we should not hide our “light” from the world. Rather, we should preach to those around us, our light being the glorious gospel of Christ.
We are to be like John the Baptist, who “hath borne witness unto the truth…He was the lamp that bumeth and shineth: and ye were willing to rejoice for a season in his light” (Jn. 5:33,35 RV).
I think it was Bro. Roberts who wrote that preaching the gospel was the “radiation of truth from the enlightened mind.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One