Exodus 27:20 - Forerunner Commentary

Exodus 27:20

Commentaries:

No entry exists in Forerunner Commentary for Exodus 27:20.

Exodus 27:20-21
Excerpted from: Approaching God Through Christ (Part 5)

First of all, the oil that was used in the lamps was the purest it could be. It was the best oil that could be had from the olives. It had to be obtained in a special way. Usually, it was not quite ripe, and they would put them in a mortar, and then beat them, or pound them. And the oil from this initial bruising was the best, purest oil possible. It was not from a press (as it says above), and they were not crushed. They just beat them or pounded them to get this first initial bit of oil. There was also no heat used to extract this oil. This had to be the finest extra-virgin oil that could be had with their technology.

The New King James Version used the term pressed olives, but this gives the wrong impression. The Hebrew word used is for "beaten olives."

This oil was clear and colorless, and when burned it gives a bright, clear light, with little or no smoke. Think about the tabernacle. It was enclosed all the time, except whenever a priest went in, or came back out, so, you would not want a smoky fire in there, but rather a clear burning light as much as possible. And that is what this olive oil did.

Notice a small point here, that is sort of mentioned off hand, but it says that, "You shall command the children of Israel that they bring you pure oil." Now this shows that the children of Israel had a part to play in the burning of the oil, or in the offering of the oil. They had to be the ones who gave it to the Levites so that the priests could have it for use in the menorah.

What this shows me is that they were involved, even if only in this small way, in the work of the menorah—in the giving of light within the tabernacle. We will come back to this a little bit later. But just keep this in the back of your mind that God commanded them to participate in this function of the tabernacle—from a distance, maybe, but still, a specific command that they were the ones who had to supply the oil for the menorah.

This verse says that the lamp burned continually, and that seems to be the proper understanding of what God wanted to happen here, especially in view of the fact that the menorah was the only light in the holy place. The priests were not to go into the holy place and stumble about while doing their duties. There had to be light in there at all times. Even in the midst of the day, out in the wilderness, even at high noon, because of the tabernacle construction, it was still dark in there. And so, there had to be a light burning there.

There are two verses in the Bible that seem to contradict this fact—that the light was constantly burning. The first one is Exodus 30:8, which says that Aaron would light the lamps at twilight. Now, that sounds like the lamps were allowed to burn out during the day, and then the priests would come in later at twilight, and re-light them, burning through the night. However, here it may be that the priests were not re-lighting dead lamps, but that he was actually tending to them at twilight, making sure that they were re-filled with oil, and the wicks were replaced, and/or trimmed, so that they would burn through the night, with no further need to tend to them. So, if he noticed that the oil level was low, he would extinguish only the one, refill, and trim, etc., and then relight it, before going on to the next one; he most certainly did this for each of the seven. It was not that he had to go through and re-light, and so forth from scratch. So, there was never a time, then, even while doing his duties, that there was not a light shining in the tabernacle. There was at least one lamp lit, most likely more.

There is a second verse that seems to contradict this, and it is found in I Samuel 3:3. This is the story of Samuel, a young boy, where God called to him after he had gone to bed, to give him a prophecy of the house of Eli. Well, it says there that the lamp of God went out each night at bedtime. This also seems to be a contradiction to Exodus 27:20, the light … . . .

Exodus 27:20-21
Excerpted from: Oil For the Light

There are key points from this command that we can dive into today. First, olive oil was commanded and required by the people to bring. Not just any olive oil though, but pure olive oil was the requirement. The word used here for pure is Strong's number 2134, pronounced zak. In its 11 uses it either translates as pure or clean, meaning the oil was to be free of any contamination. For the light produced, this makes sense because most research points to the effectiveness of olive oil for providing a clean, steady, and clear light. This would have been necessary for the enclosed area where the priests performed their task in the Tabernacle. It would have been dark, and this could have been a source for light.

There are different interpretations for how this pure olive oil was produced. Some sources state this was from the first press of the olives. Adam Clarke's commentary notes this oil was produced from olives bruised in a mortar, with the mother drop being gathered as the purest form of the oil, purer than what would come from a press. Either way, the key here is that it would take a large amount of olives to produce this oil to keep the lamp burning.

Next, we have the duration of light. It is hard to tell what the scripture means about the period of burning based on what appears to be a slight difference between verses 20 and 21, at least it was for me.

Verse 20 states that the lamps are to be kept burning continually, where verse 21 states the need for tending the lamp in the Lord's presence all night, from evening until morning. Which one is it? A good understanding of this would be that the lamp did burn continually without going out. Continually follows the action of burning in these verses while the statement of "evening until morning" seems to relate more to the requirement for tending the lamps. The process of burning oil for light would have required some sort of tending, no doubt, with refilling or treating the wick. And the implication here is that the lamp would cease to burn if no one tended it at night.

Thus, the task had to fall on someone. And the priests were given the responsibility on behalf of the children of Israel, as the verse states. If we consider the light within the overarching symbolism of the Tabernacle as the presence of the Lord, then it would be safe to assume the children of Israel did not want the light to go out.

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