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: 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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