Exodus 27:20-21

THE LIGHT FOR THE CANDLESTICK

"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 Jehovah: it shall be a statute forever throughout their generations on behalf of the children of Israel."

That the light mentioned here is that to be provided by the golden candlestick appears in the definite article "the light," the same being the only light mentioned thus far in the narrative, and the further fact of its location within the sanctuary before the veil that screened off the Holy of Holies (Exodus 27:21).

The requirement for "beaten oil" distinguished it from olive oil made by crushing olives in a stone press. The finer oil was made by gently pressing the olives in a mortar.[10]

The ordering of the light "from evening to morning" was thought by Keil to, "consist, according to Exodus 30:7-8 and Leviticus 24:3-4, in placing the lamps upon the candlestick in the evening and lighting them, that they might give light through the night, and then cleaning them in the morning and filling them with fresh oil."[11] Some believe that the Golden Candlestick was kept continually lighted both day and night. "But if we regard the lamp as extinguished during the day, we would then be required to understand `continually' here as `regularly, every night."[12] We prefer the view that it was kept burning continually day and night. In support of this, it does not appear from the descriptions given us that there was any other light whatever available in the sanctuary.

Exodus 27:20-21 have appeared to be misplaced in the views of some scholars, Rylaarsdam, for example, saying, "This regulation (Exodus 27:20-21) was probably inserted here by an editor to serve as an introduction to the section on the priests (Exodus 28-29)."[13] Such a view is possible only in those who reject God's authorship of the whole Pentateuch through Moses. There is a far greater mystery to us in that "phantom editor" so frequently summoned to the aid of critics, than there is in the mystery of these verses appearing just here. To us, there is no problem whatever.

As this court of the tabernacle was completed and the articles of furniture assigned to their several places, one of the first things to become apparent was the absolute need of illumination, without which, much of the elaborate construction would have remained in perpetual darkness. Therefore, these verses which relate the provision of the light are most logically placed. Whether we are right or wrong on this is actually immaterial. As Rawlinson so truthfully phrased it:

"It is frequently difficult, sometimes impossible, for the keenest human intellect to trace the connecting links between one portion of God's Word and the next. In such cases, it is best not to speculate on the nature of the connection, but to content ourselves in laying to heart the lesson which each portion teaches separately."[14]

The first thing God did in creation was to command, "Let there be light"; and it can hardly be an accident that the first thing God did here upon nearing the completion of the tabernacle was to issue the commandments of Exodus 27:20-21, which for that tabernacle had identically the same function, "Let there be light!"