Leviticus 24 is a parenthesis between chapter twenty-three on the feasts and chapter twenty-five on the jubilee, the feast of feasts that was to take place every fifty years. Actually, chapter twenty-five is the continuation of chapter twenty-three, but chapter twenty-four is inserted between them. This chapter mainly covers four things: the tending of the lamp in the tabernacle, the arranging of the showbread in the tabernacle, the blaspheming of the name of God, and the taking care of human life and animal life.
In order to serve God as priests, we need to take care of two things properly and adequately. These two things are light and food. We are, of course, referring not to the natural and human light and food but to the divine light and the divine food. As priests serving God, we need to live, act, behave, and serve under the divine light. If there had been no light in the tabernacle, it would have been difficult for anyone to enter it and to act, move, and serve God there. Thus, the first thing we need is light. In a sense, light is more important than food.
Along with light, we need food. We need the divine food as our supply so that we may be able to act properly, move, behave, and serve God with sufficient supply and strength. (See messages ninety through ninety-four of the Life-study of Exodus, where the showbread table and the lampstand are covered in a fuller way.)
We need to take care of the two matters of light and food. This means that we need to be enlightened under the divine light, the light which is the light of life (John 1:4). This life requires the food supply. Therefore, we need to have the proper supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ in our spirit (Phil. 1:19) so that we may have the adequate daily life supply. With such a supply we shall be strengthened. Then we shall be able to walk properly, move, and serve God with sufficient strength under His divine light.
Leviticus 24:1-9 covers the arrangement of the lampstand and the showbread table. Here the word arrangement means to take care of, to tend.
Verses 2 through 4 show us the arrangement of the lampstand.
“Command the sons of Israel to bring you pure beaten olive oil for the light” (v. 2a). The pure beaten olive oil for the light signifies the pure Holy Spirit, typified by the water issuing from the side of Christ (John 19:34), coming out of the crucified Christ, typified by the pressed olives, for the shining of Christ as the lampstand in God’s dwelling place.
Olives, which are a type of Christ, had to be pressed that the oil could come out. This signifies that Christ was “pressed” by being crucified that the Holy Spirit could flow out of Him as the living water and also as the oil for the shining of Christ as the lampstand.
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