Leviticus 24:1-9 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs,
Today’s passage is Leviticus 24:1-9. Let’s go!
Leviticus 24:1-4 (NIV)
1 The LORD said to Moses,
2 “Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning continually.
3 Outside the curtain of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, Aaron is to tend the lamps before the LORD from evening till morning, continually. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.
4 The lamps on the pure gold lampstand before the LORD must be tended continually.
On verses 1-4: In Leviticus 24:2 God tells Moses that the lamps used to light up the tent of meeting are to keep burning continually. In the same way, you and I, as followers of Jesus, are what Jesus calls “the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14-16). Just like the lamps in Leviticus 24:2, we were made to keep burning continually and shining a light for God in this world.
How do you keep burning continually for God? You need His Holy Spirit. Just as lamps in Moses’ time needed the “clear oil of pressed olives…so that the lamps may be kept burning continually” (v2), so likewise we need God’s Holy Spirit to keep on burning. In fact, oil is often a symbol in the Bible for the Holy Spirit.
We can’t burn brightly for God on our own strength. If you try to burn brightly on your own, eventually you’ll just burn out. But when we depend daily on the Holy Spirit, God gives us the ability to keep burning for Him continually, even in our most difficult and most stressful times.
So ask the Holy Spirit on a daily basis to fill you, to empower you, and to guide you. Just as God commanded the Israelites to bring the oil, remember to bring the Holy Spirit into whatever you do – welcoming Him, asking for His guidance and wisdom, praising Him. The Holy Spirit is God’s awesome power source for you. I guess that’s why as a kid in Sunday School I was taught to sing, “Give me oil in my lamp to keep me burning”. It’s because we need the Holy Spirit every day.
Leviticus 24:5-9 (NIV)
5 “Take fine flour and bake twelve loaves of bread, using two-tenths of an ephah for each loaf.
6 Set them in two rows, six in each row, on the table of pure gold before the LORD.
7 Along each row put some pure incense as a memorial portion to represent the bread and to be an offering made to the LORD by fire.
8 This bread is to be set out before the LORD regularly, Sabbath after Sabbath, on behalf of the Israelites, as a lasting covenant.
9 It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in a holy place, because it is a most holy part of their regular share of the offerings made to the LORD by fire.”
On verses 5-9: Verses 5-8 describe the 12 loaves of bread that were to continually set before the Lord regularly, Sabbath after Sabbath. Verse 9 tells us that the priests were given this bread to eat “because it is the most holy part of their regular share of the offerings”. This is yet another reminder in Leviticus that as followers of Jesus we must take good care of the church and of the people who dedicate their working lives to serving God’s people, so that their needs can be continually provided for. So church, let’s be faithful in our tithes and generous in our offerings. Are you up to date in your giving?
Thank You Heavenly Father for sending the Holy Spirit to be the oil that keep us burning. In every season may we learn to depend on You and burn brightly for You in every circumstance. Holy Spirit come and fill me, empower me and guide me today. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen!
