Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Leviticus 24:1 - 24:9
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Of the Oil and the Showbread
v. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
v. 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. Cf Exo_27:20-21. This oil was exceptionally pure, because all leaves, parts of branches and twigs, and all other foreign matter was removed; and the olives from which this oil was gained were not stamped or pressed in presses, but merely cut and beaten, a process which caused the oil to drain off without any other juices of the fruit.
v. 3. Without the veil of the testimony, the curtain which hid the Ark of the Covenant with the tables of the testimony from the eyes of all the children of Israel, in the Tabernacle of the Congregation, in the Holy Place, shall Aaron order it from the evening unto the morning before the Lord continually, that is, he was to place the lamps filled with the pure oil on the seven-armed candlestick and light them in the evening, and put them in order in the morning by cleaning them and trimming their wicks. It shall be a statute forever in your generations.
v. 4. He shall order the lamps upon the pure candlestick before the Lord continually. This was a function which was expressly delegated to the priests while the Levitical precepts were in force.
v. 5. And thou shalt take fine flour, wheaten flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof; two-tenth deals (a little more than five quarts) shall be in one cake.
v. 6. And thou shalt set them in two rows, or heaps,six on a row, upon the pure table before the Lord, upon the table of showbread made of pure gold, on the north side of the altar of incense, in the Holy Place,
v. 7. And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row, the pure natural gum, as a gift from the people, the twelve tribes of Israel being represented by the twelve cakes of the showbread. The frankincense, according to Jewish tradition, was placed beside each heap of showbread in golden censers, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto the Lord, its sweet odor serving to bring the people into remembrance before the Lord.
v. 8. Every Sabbath he, the priest on duty, shall set it in order before the Lord continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. In this unbloody sacrifice the congregation brought the fruit of its activity, of its life, and of its sanctification before the face of the Lord, and thus presented itself to Him as a people diligent in good works.
v. 9. And it shall be Aaron's and his sons'; and they shall eat it in the holy place, it belonged to the food which they consumed somewhere in the Sanctuary or in its court; for it is most holy unto him of the offerings of the Lord made by fire by a perpetual statute. It was a symbol and guarantee of the eternal covenant which existed between Jehovah and His people. We Christians have a more perfect table, at which our communion with God and the covenant of His mercy are renewed as often as we come in true faith, namely, the table of His Supper.