Exodus 27:20: “And thou shalt command the children of Israel that they bring thee pure olive oil beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always.”

I once asked a rabbi why the children of Israel had to use olive oil that was beaten to be used to light the tabernacle as expressed in Exodus 27:20.  The rabbi knew of my experience as a camp director and as any good rabbi would do, he answered my question by asking a question..  He asked me what I would do if a log did not burn.  Just because I was a camp director I really knew nothing more about camping than the residents of the camp who were all inner city teenagers.  But I just happened to know the answer to that question because I faced it many times.  I replied that you chop the log up into splinters and start the splinters on fire.  The rabbi smiled and said: “Does not God do the same with us so He can start a fire in us.”

I am always amazed as I read the first five books of the Old Testament as to how God would ask the children of Israel to do some seeming impractical thing.  Our Western thinking causes us to first ask, “What practical value would beaten olive oil  have to be used for the light of the tabernacle.  Regular olive oil would do just fine and be more plentiful.  Beaten oil should be used for special occasions like anointing or medication rather than burned quickly away  for lighting purposes.  Is it because beaten oil would burn brighter, or longer?   Yet, if we think like a Hebrew, our first thought should be, “What is God trying to illustrate here?”

You get two types of oil from the olive.  The first which is the most pure, the finest and, of course, the most expensive is the beaten oil. Actually, the word beaten is not the best rendering.  The word in the Hebrew is katith which means to  break into pieces. The first oil to be extracted from the olive does not come from pressing the olives, but breaking, cutting or tearing them into pieces.

Olives spring from a tree and turn a dark green. When they are ripe they turn black and inside the olive are a couple drops of liquid gold as it is called.  This is the beaten oil, the purest and finest.  This is used for anointing, medicinal purposes and other specific uses.   After the liquid is drained from the olive by bruising it, so to speak, it is then crushed or pressed to extract the oil contained in the meat of the olive. This oil is not as pure and is used for cooking and put into lamps for light.  However, for the light in the tabernacle the people were instructed to use only the pure, beaten oil.  The  beaten oil is considered to be the first fruit of the olive and it is this oil that is used to  provide the light in the tabernacle.

I cannot help but see a picture of Jesus in this.  He is the first fruit who is the light of the world.  I believe the use of the beaten oil was to symbolize the coming of the Messiah Jesus who would be the light shining in the darkness, he would be pure as the oil was to be pure.

Still I will not discount the good rabbi’s illustration. I think of II Corinthians 4:7-8: “We have this treasure (that is the life of Christ) in earthen vessels (our bodies) so that the surpassing greatness may be of God not of ourselves (it is for this reason) we are afflicted in every way but not crushed…”    The words in paraphrases are mine.   I believe the Apostle Paul was thinking of that little olive when he wrote this passage in II Corinthians.  The olive is afflicted in every way to extract the pure oil, but it is not crushed because once it is crushed the oil mixes with the impurities and it is no longer  pure.

I believe there is another picture offered here.  Sometimes God has to break us up into little splinters in order for us to catch the fire of God, God will break us into splinters or in pieces to extract that which is pure.  Yet, He will not crush us such that the impurities mix with the pure resulting in a  lesser quality.

Exodus 27:20 really gives us a dual illustration  the first is to picture the Messiah.  The second is to picture ourselves.  God wants to extract that which is pure, the life of Jesus Christ, from us. However, sometimes we are like that old log that will not catch fire.  We just cannot catch the fire of Jesus.  So God has to put us through the type of difficulties that have the potential of crushing us, but He will not allow us to be crushed, instead what He will do is to strip us of all our trust in ourselves so that the world can see that our trust is in God and God alone.   The world will be able to see that which is pure, Jesus Christ, the first fruit that lives inside our earthen vessels.