Thursday, October 22, 2020

Leviticus 24:1-9 comments: candlestick versus lampstand

 

Leviticus 24:1 ¶  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2  Command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamps to burn continually. 3  Without the vail of the testimony, in the tabernacle of the congregation, shall Aaron order it from the evening unto the morning before the LORD continually: it shall be a statute for ever in your generations. 4  He shall order the lamps upon the pure candlestick before the LORD continually. 5  And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake. 6  And thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the LORD. 7  And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto the LORD. 8  Every sabbath he shall set it in order before the LORD continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. 9  And it shall be Aaron’s and his sons’; and they shall eat it in the holy place: for it is most holy unto him of the offerings of the LORD made by fire by a perpetual statute.

The lamps must be kept burning. What a contrast with how we are to not quench the influence of the mind of God within us. In the Bible we see the origin of the eternal flame in everything from ancient Persian religion down to the flame at a tomb or memorial in modern times. For the Christian the oil represents the Holy Spirit, in type, and the light it gives. We have the ability to quench the light the Holy Spirit gives us although not our salvation.

1Thessalonians 5:19  Quench not the Spirit.

We do this by sin, by our love of the world and our embracing of its standards, and by not focusing on God. There are several verses in the Old and New Testaments that are important to this idea. These are some but certainly not all.

We must keep our minds focused on God.

Isaiah 26:3  Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

 

Philippians 4:6  Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 7  And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

 

We must not adopt the world’s standards.

 

Luke 16:15  And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

 

1John 2:15  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

 

Much of our sorrow comes from misplaced loyalties, idolatry, and covetousness.

 

1Timothy 6:6 ¶  But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7  For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 8  And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. 9  But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10  For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

 

We, too, have a flame that must be kept burning in the tabernacle of our hearts. We can let it be quenched by not focusing on God and by loving things other than Him. We are still saved because it was He who did the saving and not we who saved ourselves. But, we can walk around blindly in darkness without the light of the Holy Spirit’s guidance. Of course, typology always breaks down at some point and while it is good to use types as a way of learning a principle in the Bible it is not good to ride that horse to death. We do not provide the fuel for the fire. God provides it. We choose by our actions to allow the flame to lead us or we by our actions choose to quench it. It is still there but we are of all people most miserable when it is not our guide.

Modernists hate the word candlestick and lampstand is used in most modern Bibles with ignorant preachers who “prefer” the KJV saying that lampstand is a better rendering of the Hebrew word here or the Greek word in Revelation. The word, lampstand, is not found in English lexicons and dictionaries before 1800, first showing up in the language in 1803 according to the Collins English Dictionary at https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/lampstand  and if you find it earlier let me know.  As the British use the word torch for what we call a flashlight hearkening back to earlier technology the King James Bible translators used candlestick for the apparatus on which a lamp was set.

Zechariah 4:2  And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof:

Referencing;

Exodus 25:31 ¶  And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same. 32  And six branches shall come out of the sides of it; three branches of the candlestick out of the one side, and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side: 33  Three bowls made like unto almonds, with a knop and a flower in one branch; and three bowls made like almonds in the other branch, with a knop and a flower: so in the six branches that come out of the candlestick. 34  And in the candlestick shall be four bowls made like unto almonds, with their knops and their flowers. 35  And there shall be a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, according to the six branches that proceed out of the candlestick. 36  Their knops and their branches shall be of the same: all it shall be one beaten work of pure gold. 37  And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof: and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light over against it. 38  And the tongs thereof, and the snuffdishes thereof, shall be of pure gold. 39  Of a talent of pure gold shall he make it, with all these vessels. 40  And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount.

Think of other places where the translators used words that the reader would understand rather than transliterating a Greek word. Think of furlong for the Greek stadion in Luke 24:13. Think of penny in place of denarion in Matthew 20:2.

The King James Version translators would not have used a word that didn’t exist in their time.

There are twelve loaves of bread for the twelve tribes of Israel. This is the shewbread.

 

2Chronicles 13:11  And they burn unto the LORD every morning and every evening burnt sacrifices and sweet incense: the shewbread also set they in order upon the pure table; and the candlestick of gold with the lamps thereof, to burn every evening: for we keep the charge of the LORD our God; but ye have forsaken him.

 

Frankincense is also on the table with the bread. See 2:1,2.

 

Leviticus 2:1 ¶  And when any will offer a meat offering unto the LORD, his offering shall be of fine flour; and he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense thereon: 2  And he shall bring it to Aaron’s sons the priests: and he shall take thereout his handful of the flour thereof, and of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof; and the priest shall burn the memorial of it upon the altar, to be an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD:

 

Frankincense is an aromatic resin used in incense and perfumes and traded after the Flood from Southern Arabia all the way to China. It was given as a gift to the child, Jesus, along with gold and myrrh. See Matthew 2:11. The 1500BC Egyptian Ebers Papyrus mentions it, as do Chinese writings and the Greek historian, Herodotus. Some commentators say it symbolizes righteousness while others say that it was often offered to deity so that the wise men who visited the child Jesus knew who He was. Frankincense was also burned in memory of the recent dead with a classic example being the Roman Emperor Nero who supposedly burned a year’s supply in memory of a mistress. The Egyptians used it in embalming.

For everlasting covenant and perpetual statute I refer you back to Leviticus 6:14-23 comments. The key verse in this passage to unlocking the meaning of those two phrases is verse 3 with for ever in your generations. At this time there are two races of people on earth by God’s ethnic standard; Jew and Gentile. Before Christ comes there will be unsaved Jews, unsaved Gentiles, and the Church, His body on earth. The Law, as a justifying principle, was fulfilled in Christ and as we are brought to Christ by the Law, we are no longer under the Law if we belong to Christ.

 

Galatians 3:24  Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25  But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

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