Oil in our Lamps

 

Oil is a Bible symbol for the Holy Spirit. Whenever the text reads anoint, anointed or anointing, it refers to the oil of the Holy Spirit that is rubbed or poured on a person’s physical body. The actual or literal oil is always olive oil.

In the natural, olive oil is valuable for food, for fuel, for illumination, for softening and protecting our skin and for healing. Oil penetrates. It sinks in. A Middle-Eastern gentleman once told me that he was born prematurely, thought dead, and set aside on a pile of rags and laundry while the midwife tended to his mother’s needs. His grandmother saw him move and picked him up. For a length of time, he was too weak to nurse from a bottle and his mother was too ill to feed him. His grandmother fed him by rubbing copious amounts of pure olive oil into his skin several times a day. Nourished by the oil on his skin, he began to gain weight and grow until he was strong enough to nurse.

As a type of the Holy Spirit, this nurturing oil was used to anoint prophets, priests and kings. Anointing oil was applied as a sign of God’s call upon their lives. It was an indication that God had set them aside for himself. After being anointed, they were (at least symbolically) consecrated and empowered for God’s purposes. Moses anointed the priests:

 Moses took some of the anointing oil and some of the blood that was on the altar and sprinkled them on Aaron and his garments, and on his sons and their garments. So he consecrated Aaron and his garments, as well as Aaron’s sons and their garments. Leviticus 8:30 

 When Samuel anointed David with oil,

The Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. 1 Samuel 16:13b.

When Jesus walked into the waters of the Jordan River to humbly identify with us in baptism for repentance of sins, the Holy Spirit came upon him and anointed him as prophet, priest and king. Next, the Holy Spirit led him into the wilderness. There, the devil came to Jesus with three temptations. Each began with the words, “If you are the Son of God . . .” ^[1] Jesus’s anointing from the Holy Spirit, his relationship to his Father and his authority as prophet, priest and king were on the line. If he had fallen into the devil’s trap and replied in his divinity, his ministry would have been all over. His opportunity to show the world God’s love, his mission to reconcile us with our heavenly Father and give us the Holy Spirit would have failed.

With each temptation, Jesus chose to rely on the Holy Spirit and refused to defend or prove himself by supernatural powers. All three times Jesus rebuked the tempter by quoting the word of God, the same Old Testament scriptures that are available to us today. He knew that God’s kingdom can come and God’s will be done through us on earth only by the power of the Holy Spirit. After overcoming every temptation, he was released to quote from Isaiah 61:1,

The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed. Luke 4:18 

The word Christ means the anointed one. Anointed as God’s prophet, Jesus edifies, encourages, comforts and teaches us. He is God’s greatest prophet, the one the Lord was speaking of when he told Moses,

 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put My words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. And I will hold accountable anyone who does not listen to My words that the prophet speaks in My name. Deuteronomy 18:15-19

Anointed as priest, Jesus advocates and intercedes with God on our behalf. He is the greatest and final High Priest.

Therefore, since we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we profess. Hebrews 4:14

Anointed as king, Jesus rules with total governmental authority. He is the only ruler able to wield absolute authority over heaven and earth. He is the only king who rules an everlasting kingdom. He told Pilate,

“My kingdom is not of this world; if it were, My servants would fight to prevent My arrest by the Jews. But now My kingdom is not of this realm.”

“Then You are a king!” Pilate said. “You say that I am a king,”

 Jesus answered, “For this reason. I was born and have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to My voice.” John 18:36-:37 

Jesus, our anointed prophet, priest and king lived and died to give us the oil of the Holy Spirit that burned within him. Shortly before he was crucified, he told his disciples,

But I tell you that I am going to do what is best for you. This is why I am going away. The Holy Spirit cannot come to help you until I leave. But after I am gone, I will send the Spirit to you. John 16:7 CEV

 Jesus wants to fill each one of us to overflowing with the oil of the Holy Spirit. He wants us to silence the devil with God’s living word just as he did. He wants God’s Holy Spirit to come along side of us, just as the Holy Spirit remained with him. He rejoices when God’s mercy and compassion flow through us to others and he cheers us on when we ask for God’s holy love to sustain us through trials. He yearns for us to be one with him and our heavenly Father. He knows how much we need their wisdom and their love. Not a namby-pamby affection or feeling but the strong, unquenchable kind of love that he had for his Father, his friends and for you and me. He knows we need the quality of divine love that held him steady against opposition and through death.[2]

He knows all about human weakness and how fully and completely we need the Holy Spirit’s oil. How eagerly he must have watched from heaven when the Holy Spirit descended upon praying believers in the upper room. With a mighty rushing wind and tongues that looked like flame, the Holy Spirit settled upon Jesus’s followers to empower them, How seriously satisfied he must have felt to watch earth history unfold. The burning oil that been prophetically symbolized by a golden lampstand hidden in a small tent in the Sinai wilderness now rested upon the human flesh of Jesus’s friends.

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like a mighty rushing wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. 
Acts 2: 1-4

God’s tongues of fire continue to light his church today. Because the Holy Spirit won’t pour more oil into a dirty vessel, some of us will have more or less oil than others. Then too, we may have oil, but if our wicks need trimming, our flames will flicker and smoke from self-life and sin. As we yield to God’s Spirit and surrender to the transformative, cleansing power of God’s word, the Holy Spirit trims our wicks and fills us with more of his oil. He wants us to have more than enough! Just the other night, while reading the parable about the ten virgins who took their lamps out into the night to meet the bridegroom, I was struck by the words extra oil.

 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take along any EXTRA OIL. But the wise ones took oil in flasks along with their lamps. Matthew 25: 2-3 [emphasis mine]

 I’m not sure how to get extra oil, but I want it, so I’ve begun praying for it, trusting that if I’m to spend more time resting in the Lord or in prayer, worship or God’s word, the Holy Spirit will show me. In the final years of my life, in this pressured decade of God’s story with man, I don’t want to fall into doubt or fear. I don’t want to run out of oil or let my light go out and end my life reflecting on a darkening world or the light of past experiences. I want my eyes fixed on God’s redemptive plan for the human race and the light of Jesus’s love.

Moses said of Jesus, “You must listen to him.”

John the Baptist said, “Look on him. Behold him. The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

Jesus said, “Follow me!”

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12 BSB

Jesus received the full measure of the Holy Spirit’s anointing.^[3] His lamp was full to overflowing with oil. His light was bright enough and hot enough to accurately and continually reveal our Father in heaven. Think about it: full measure—extra oil. Jesus’s love for his Father-God was a constant flame. That’s what he wants for us.

He preached God’s truth to those who had been bound and misused by the lies of religious legalism, he offered hope to the poor and needy, healed the sick, opened blind eyes to see and deaf ears to hear. He repeatedly delivered the demonized and mentally ill from torment. He comforted the grief-stricken and brokenhearted and lifted up those in depression and despair by giving them hope and the Holy Spirit’s joy.

He proclaimed God’s favor and prophesied God’s ultimate justice and judgment against injustice and evil. Throughout his life and death, Jesus revealed God’s merciful loving kindness. He came to earth to show us what God is truly like and reconcile us to our Creator. And he did it all by the power of the Holy Spirit. Knowingly. After being filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus himself declared his life’s work by standing up in his hometown synagogue at Nazareth and reading the following verses from Isaiah.

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor. Isaiah 61:1-2 ^[4]

When finished reading, he said,

“Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4:21

The very same Holy Spirit who lived in Jesus lives in his church today. As he cleanses us of self, sin and all that impedes his activity, he can connect us more and more intimately with Jesus. The Holy Spirt, our Father in heaven and the Lord are working together to give us wisdom, power, compassion and very same steadying love and strength that moved through Jesus. As we accept their influence and direction, the Holy Spirit will use us to reveal the merciful loving kindness of our heavenly father and to bring Jesus’s healing, strengthening love to others.

As we step out in faith, the Holy Spirit will open our eyes to see God’s historical plan and how clearly Jesus, the Lamb of God was foreshadowed by the tabernacle sacrifices. He will tune our ears to hear Jesus’s voice and give us all the grace we need to follow in the courage of Jesus’s pure and holy love. God needs all of us to give his hope of ever-lasting life, speak his encouraging words and release his acts of mercy to a broken, sick and troubled world.

Father, give us Jesus’s humility. We’re not worthy, but—but—Jesus is! You are. Give us more of your Holy Spirit. Anoint us with your oil. Help us follow Jesus.

As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But just as His true and genuine anointing teaches you about all things, so remain in him as you have been taught. 1 John 2:27 

 Often, when I consider God’s oil, I recall a Sunday morning in the spring of 1951 at a Swedish Covenant Church on Foster Avenue in Chicago. A young, slender dark-haired student from North Park College visited that day and taught the congregation to sing a short chorus that he and a friend had just written. ^[5] I’m still singing it; it has become my prayer.

Give me oil in my lamp, keep it burning,
Give me oil in my lamp, I pray,
Give me oil in my lamp, keep it burning,
Keep it burning till the judgment day.
Sing Hosana, Sing Hosana, Sing Hosana to the King of Kings
Sing Hosana, Sing Hosana, Sing Hosana to the King.

Give us oil in our lamps!  May the lampstands of our churches be aglow like the gold of heaven’s lampstands. May your pure oil burn steady, bright and clear in us. Please remember and fulfill Jesus’s words to his followers when he said,

You are the light of the world. Matthew 5:14

Help us now, in this day and age, to be the light of the world.

 

Footnotes:

^[1] Matthew 4:1-11

^[2] Jesus clearly viewed his churches as lampstands. In the book of Revelation, John said, “I saw seven golden lampstands.” and he heard Jesus say, “The seven lampstands are the seven churches.” Revelation 1: 12, 20

^[3] See John 3:34 For the One whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.

^[4]  Isaiah’s scripture continues, and the day of our God’s vengeance, to comfort all who mourn, to console the mourners in Zion—to give them a crown of beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and a garment of praise for a spirit of despair. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified. Isaiah 61:1-3 

^[5] Faber and Faber Piano Adventures attributes the text of “Give Me Oil in My Lamp” to A. Sevison. I don’t know if I learned the song from Sevison or from the friend who wrote the music. In the last seventy years, musicians have added verses and changed words. The records of attribution seem to be lost and the song is considered traditional. I’ve no reason to doubt my memory or the young man’s story. The author’s original second verse as he taught the congregation that Sunday was: “Make me a fisher of men, keep me fishing; Make me a fisher of men, I pray; Make me a fisher of men, keep me fishing; Keep me fishing till the judgment day.”