Oil for the Light
by T. Austin-Sparks
by T. Austin-Sparks
The book of Exodus, chapter 27 at verse 20: "And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee pure olive oil beaten for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continually. In the tent of meeting, without the veil which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall keep it in order from evening to morning before the Lord: it shall be a statute for ever throughout their generations on behalf of the children of Israel."
Oil for the light. It is my growing conviction dear friends, that the greatest need of our time is a true knowledge and understanding of the Holy Spirit and His work. Such knowledge, if spiritually apprehended, would really solve by far the greater number of the problems which beset Christians and the church today. If only we really lived in the good of the indwelling Holy Spirit with all that that means as a matter of light... how different everything would be.
So I say again, the pressing need of our time is for such knowledge, such understanding. And so, what follows this morning is just touching on the very fringe of that matter; not by any means an attempt to cover it or exhaust it.
This simple fragment: "thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring pure olive oil for the light…" You notice this is a command to the Lord's people. This is an imperative. This is a necessity. This is indispensible, this is essential - a command. It is not optional, left to choice; this is an obligation: "Command the children of Israel that they bring oil for the light".
Now, first of all note the place of the light. The lampstand, as you know, was in the holy place, between the outer court and the most holy place. It was in that place which in type is a between place, a place between heaven and earth, heaven and the world - there's the outside and there's the inside. There is all that is here in this world on the one side, on the other side there is all that which is essentially heaven - the very presence of God. And in between heaven and earth, this light was to be a place which united heaven and earth and yet divided them.
I think the meaning is what our Lord meant in His great prayer. It seems to me that He was standing very much in this position when He prayed in John 17: "They are not of the world even as I am not of the world, and yet… and yet they are in the world, these are in the world. I come to Thee, they are not of the world."
It is so familiar a truth, almost a hackneyed phrase, "in the world but not of it". Here is an in-between place which is the place of believers in this present dispensation at this present time. It is our place between heaven and earth in a very real sense. Well, we know that don't we? We know that on the one hand we are here in this world, right enough and it's very real. And yet it is just as real that we don't belong to it, we are not of its life, we're in an in-between place. We know that we're not yet literally and actually in heaven, and yet and yet! Somehow or other we are deeply linked with heaven. The place between... that is where the light was to be or where the light was; a place which divides heaven and earth and yet brings them together.
There were no windows in that place. No windows in the holy place. No provision was made for natural light. Natural light was excluded. But for this lampstand, it would have been totally dark. All that was there represented in type and symbol, all the values and functions of that place were only possible, capable, of being effective by a light which was not the light of nature.
