When I was young, I heard many messages from the book of Exodus. I often heard about the Passover lamb and the manna, and I heard a few messages about the living water. However, I did not hear anything concerning the compound spirit.
The children of Israel stayed at Mount Sinai to receive the law and the ordinances and then to receive the revelation of the tabernacle. Some teachers pointed out that the law was given as God’s test of His people. God did not intend that the children of Israel would keep the law. But because of their ignorance, it was necessary for Him to give it to them. Therefore, God tested the children of Israel by giving them the law. Immediately after the decree of the law, God gave Moses the revelation of the tabernacle. These teachers pointed out that this revelation is a matter of grace. John 1:17 says, “For the law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.” Jesus Christ is the reality of the tabernacle. When this tabernacle came, grace came. Some teachers had light concerning this; however, their experience was limited. Because they were short of experience, they could not properly understand the compound ointment in Exodus 30.
Experience is not necessary simply to teach the tabernacle doctrinally as a type of Christ. As long as we have objective light, we can teach this type in a doctrinal way. But to touch the real significance of the compound ointment in our teaching requires spiritual experience. Because the teachers were lacking in experience, they did not know the compound ointment.
Bible teachers have pointed out that the oil in Exodus 30, as elsewhere in the Old Testament, typifies the Spirit of God. Some have even taught that the oil poured by Jacob on the stone in Genesis 28 signifies the Spirit poured upon God’s chosen people. But although these teachers of the Bible have seen the significance of the oil, they have not seen the significance of the ointment.
The ointment in Exodus 30 is a compound. However, in itself, oil is not a compound, but rather a single element without any other ingredients. The ointment was a compound formed by blending four spices with olive oil. This compound ointment can be compared to paint. Paint is a compound containing more than one element. The same is true of the holy anointing oil in Exodus 30.
C. A. Coates has much to say concerning the Spirit in his writing on Exodus 30. He devotes nearly three pages to the ointment and the incense. In this section of his writing he uses the terms the Spirit of Christ or the Spirit twenty-one times. He does not speak of the Spirit as the Holy Spirit or as the Spirit of God. Once he speaks of the Spirit of the Man of God’s pleasure. He indicates that the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of the Man of God’s pleasure. Coates also speaks of the Spirit of another Man, even the Man sitting on the right hand of God.
C. A. Coates says that the four spices “represent all those features of grace which were so perfectly blended and harmonized in the Spirit of Christ.” This indicates that Coates realized something concerning the blending of the spices with the olive oil. However, he does not say what are the features of grace that are blended in the Spirit of Christ. Regarding this, he did not have light. He did not see that myrrh signifies the all-inclusive death of Christ and that cinnamon signifies the effectiveness of Christ’s death. Furthermore, he did not see that calamus, rising up out of a muddy situation and shooting into the air, is a symbol of Christ’s resurrection, and that cassia, a substance that repels insects and snakes, typifies the power of Christ’s resurrection.
The sequence of the four spices is significant: myrrh, cinnamon, calamus, and cassia. Furthermore, here we can see three complete units of five hundred shekels. There were five hundred shekels of myrrh and five hundred shekels of cassia. Here we have two complete units. But there were two hundred fifty shekels each of cinnamon and calamus. Together these half units make another complete unit. It is significant that it is the second unit that is split into two parts. This is at least an indication that the Second of the Trinity was split into two parts on the cross. Therefore, with the ingredients of the holy anointing oil and the measurements, we have symbols of the death and resurrection of Christ. Moreover, in the spices we also see the effectiveness of Christ’s death and the power of His resurrection.