Tetzaveh (You shall command) Ex 27:20-30:10; Ezek 43:10-27; Heb13: 10-16
Moses was instructed to: “…command the Israelites to bring clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning.” (Ex 27:20)
Aaron’s four sons Nadab, Avihu, Eleazar and Ithamar were tasked with he responsibility for keeping the lights of the Menorah burning continually, “as a permanent regulation throughout all generations” (v21) using the specially prepared oil prepared by the levitical priesthood. So, surely this was an impossible command because we know that the Temple was destroyed in 70AD?
Yeshua, quite simply was the answer to the problem. Scripture makes it clear that every true believer is a priest of the Most High who serves Him day and night shining as lights in a dark world. We have become Temples of His Holy Spirit who minister to Him in spirit, truth and holiness.
This is a beautiful illustration for all who love Yeshua the ‘Light of the World,’ (John 8; Matt 5:14-15). He is the central stem of the Menorah (candlestick) the source which flows into each one of the other 6 stems. Those who love Yeshua have the stamp of His Menorah permanently lit up in our lives. (John 8; Matt 5:14-15) It is not like an electric light bulb which we can switch on or off at will – and we don’t need to worry about spiritual load shedding, for God who is our source will never fail us! The level of brightness depends on how willing we allow Him to take control of our lives.
It is relatively easy for those who live in the free world to share the Gospel through words, because it costs relatively little but unless we walk the walk our witness remains empty. Among the most sobering words in the Bible are in Matt 25:31-46 in the Parable of the Sheep and Goats. “41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
There are many good people in hell because they bought into the lie that living good lives or serving in ministry alone is sufficient for salvation.
The Temple Menorah was formed by beating one piece of gold weighing 100 pounds representing His body fashioned out of ‘one piece’ of pure gold.
Every true believer has the stamp of God’s Menorah (candlestick) upon their lives. (John 8; Matt 5:14-15) and we seek to let His Light shine brightly within us even during load shedding! And our level of brightness is commensurate to the extent to which we are willing to allow Him to take control of our lives. We constantly draw upon Him to keep our lights kindled that we may be equipped to serve Him well in these end times.
The Temple Menorah is such a beautiful illustration of the Body of Messiah, who God desires to fashion into ‘one piece’ of pure gold. In order for this to happen, we need to allow the Master Craftsman to fashion us in His image because the Menorah was fuelled by only the purest oil set apart by the priests.
Having the impurities of our imperfections removed from our lives involves pain and in a real sense, ‘death’ to self, but when we allow God to work in us without pre-conditions, the end product is pure gold. We are transformed into a vessel meet for His use – a small price to pay compared to the eternal weight of glory that awaits us!
The olives for the oil used in the Tabernacle/Temple were harvested using long sticks to beat them down from the trees which fell on blankets and then gathered. The bitter juices from the olives were then squeezed out in a large press graphically illustrating the cost of discipleship. Although it doesn’t come cheaply God uses the ‘bitter juices’ bring us into deeper fellowship with Himself.
The oil used for service in the Temple was the purest, most precious oil available. Our sages say that the oil was so pure that only the first drop of oil from each olive could be used that took 7 days to make a single batch. But before the oil could be released and the fragrance distributed throughout the Tabernacle and beyond, the vessel had to be broken. Our light can only truly shine when we allow the purest oil to burn within us. Anything less is a pale imitation. God’s light is always sufficient even when the oil appears to be just enough for one night!
Yeshua is the Light of the World and promised those who follow Him will never walk in darkness but have the light of life.” (John 8:12)
“…in Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not extinguish it.” (John 1:4-5)
The olive oil used for lighting the Menorah was also used for the anointing of the High Priest for service. The word ‘Mashiach’ comes from the word for anointing (‘meshichah’). It is here where we read for the first time in the Torah details of the robes worn by the priests as they ministered in the Holy place of the Temple described as: ‘lekavod ule-tiferet’, “for glory and beauty.”
Until now the Hebrew word, ’kavod’ meaning glory or honour was used and confined only to God. Now a new word is introduced which in the Hebrew is, ‘tiferet,’ meaning ‘glory and beauty’ as applied also to the priesthood. They carried His glory as they served Him in the beauty of holiness. But in the NT, Paul applies it to every believer who are described as priests of the Most High God:
“So all of us, with faces unveiled, see as in a mirror the glory of the Lord; and we are being changed into his very image, from one degree of glory to the next, by Adonai the Spirit.” (2 Cor.3:18)
God has called us to be a priesthood, serving Him where He is in the centre of our lives instead of around the edges. The Mishkan (Tabernacle) itself was set in the middle of the camp as a perpetual sign to understand the importance of placing God in the centre of everything.
In the time of the Temple it was filled with music. There were choirs of Levites worshipping God continually with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and making music to the Lord in their hearts as referred to by Paul in Eph. 3:19. Since the destruction of the Temple, the Jewish people have retained the Torah but lost the sweet melody of true worship that can only be discovered through Yeshua.
Should any believer relegate Yeshua to any place other than the centre we will also lose sight of Him and our ‘song’ will be no more than a sounding gong and an empty shell.
All that remains of the great structure of the 2nd Temple is the Temple Mount and the Western wall in Jerusalem. On one of their visits there the Apostles were staggered by the architectural grandeur of the building and as Yeshua was leaving the Temple, one of his disciples commented, ‘“Rabbi! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!’ and he replied “Do you see all these great buildings? Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” (Mk. 13:1-2)
This is exactly what happened 40 years later when the Romans destroyed the Temple to help finance and build the Colosseum in Rome where the early believers were torn apart by lions as a spectacle for the entertainment of the Roman people. The physical destruction of the Temple now in a sense reflected the destruction of these martyrs because every believer is a receptacle or Temple of the Holy Spirit. Though countless people down through the ages have given their lives for their faith in Yeshua, tortured and destroyed in the most unimaginably evil ways down through the centuries, no-one can ever be robbed of their eternal inheritance stored up for them.
In the early days of His ministry, Yeshua publicly declared to the religious hierarchy, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” (Jn. 2:19) In other words, our true Temple is not made by human hands but through His victory over death. None of Yeshua’s hearers understood this or its implications as regards His gift of Divine grace for every person who yields their life to Him.
In the discussion between Yeshua and the Samaritan woman, Yeshua made it clear that the Temple worship in Jerusalem was far superior to their worship on Mt Gerazim in Samaria. Just to briefly clarify things here. The Samaritans embraced a syncretistic religion that was a mixture of Judaism and idolatry (2Kings17:26-28). During their period of exile, the Israelite inhabitants of Samaria had intermarried with the foreigners and adopted many of their pagan customs and consequently were overwhelmingly hated by the Jews.
However, true worship is not about Temples built by man or sacred mountains but our response to who Yeshua is. And so Yeshua responded to the Samaritan woman, “The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.” Jn. 4:23)
Yeshua clearly understood that it was necessary for His own earthly body to be destroyed, as a sacrifice for our sins making it possible for our bodies to be transformed into Temples of His Holy Spirit. We have seen down through history how temples have been destroyed by Kingdoms seeking to retain or expand their power, always justifying it as being in service of the true faith or for the welfare of the people. Even now many churches are distracted by arguments over buildings and conditions of worship during COVID, being blind to the real issue. It is what happens at the altar of our hearts that determines whether true worship occurs or not. Here, in the heart, there is a great struggle to protect what is holy. And we can see the effects of this in deep conflicts and rifts between and even within church congregations.
What is the root problem here? If we dare to look, we see that what many people really mourn is not loss of access to temples made by human hands, but the failure to offer true worship at the altar of their hearts. What they avoid mourning is the recognition of their own lukewarm, Laodicean faith sponsored by the familiar rhythms of life. The “new norm” is a clarion cry and wake-up call for us to engage as labourers in the vineyard before it’s too late. One person wrote:
“Ideologies, myths, political and social constructions, and even church life to which we have grown emotionally attached, all too easily serve to eclipse recognition of our place together in the Temple of Yeshua’s Body that is not made with human hands. The altar of the heart is under siege by all sorts of “powers and principalities” that tempt us to betray God in order to serve lesser worldly interests without Him. They tempt us to look for how to find happiness and preserve our life in this world… This entails gaining freedom from substitutes such as worldly satisfaction and religiosity in place of faith. It entails the loss of everything on this earth which we treasure including life itself, when it is received without being offered to God in thanksgiving in a living relationship.” Fr. Stephen Muse – “Send That Annoying Foreigner Away!” https://orthodoxcolumbus.org/send-that-annoying-foreigner-away/
We are the Temple of God through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that can only be removed by our own choice. So let’s tread gently with our eyes fixed on Yeshua careful not to grieve the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30) and keep the command ”to bring clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that our lamps may be kept burning.” (Ex 27:20)
