(Exodus 27:20-21) And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always. In the tabernacle of the congregation without the vail, which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning before the LORD: it shall be a statute for ever unto their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel.

Okay, so this verse is interesting because it signifies to us that the light on the golden candlestick does not emanate from what we would typically think a candlestick looks like. Yes. This demonstrates my utter lack of knowledge concerning the tabernacle. Well, that is why I’m studying it. Pure oil olive beaten is a liquid. And it fuels a lamp. I guess I saw candlestick so I thought candlestick. A candle, in today’s understanding, is a wax cylinder with a wick inside. An oil lamp is just something else. So if you ever see a picture of the tabernacle candlestick (or temple menorah) with wax candles, that’s bologna.

Also, there’s many pictures out there of the Chanukah menorah. That is also bologna. There’s eight lamps on a Chanukah menorah and is used during the Jewish holiday of Chanukah (Hanukkah). The Chanukah menorah is not a substitute or replacement for the temple candlestick. With it, they commemorate the dedication of the temple when the Maccabees reclaimed it in 164 BC (Not sure of the date). When they lit the menorah back then, there was only enough oil to run it for eight days. So that is where your eight lamps comes from. Never mind God said to make seven lamps. There is absolutely nothing in the Torah, History, Poetry, or Prophets of the Old Testament about Chanukah (or Hanukkah). The temple candlestick had seven lamps.

I’ll never understand contemporary Jews. Why are they so content not having a temple or a tabernacle? It was the praise and glory of all Israel in bible times. If I was not a Christian, but believed the Old Testament, as do the Jews, I’d be wanting to see some blood and fire. Instead, they’ve abandoned the temple menorah for this spin-off Chanukah menorah. I see no reason for joy or celebration in lighting a Chanukah menorah. The spirit of Chanukah should be that of Psalm 137

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the LORD’S song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.

(Romans 9:4) Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; I’d be ashamed to own and light a Chanukah menorah; especially if it was made of wax candles. For the Christian, the temple and the furniture of the temple is a shadow of our present glorious reality. For the Jew, the Chanuka menorah is a shadow of a long-gone past reality. Sad.

So this compelled me to go back to Exodus 25 and understand this candlestick a bit better. I remember going through it awhile back. I’ll admit, I did wonder about the bowls. I supposed that’s where the light was placed, but it never sunk in that it was liquid oil that went into those bowls. Ellicotts says they are hemispherical lamps. I’ve just always associated an oil lamp with… well… an oil lamp; and a candlestick with a candlestick. I never pictured an open bowl with oil in it and a flame coming from it. When I think of an oil lamp, I’ve always in my mind pictured a bona fide John Deere camping oil lamp; something hanging up there at Cracker Barrel. I’m very curious as to why the word candlestick was chosen back in 1600. Oh! That’s it! We need a new translation! Just kidding.

The problem is that nowadays when we hear the word candlestick, we picture in our heads a long white candle with a little wick and a flame. But a candlestick is not a candle though we use the words interchangeably. A candlestick is a stick that holds candles. So it’s not the King James translators that are mixed up. It’s us, and our dumbed-down English. People criticize the King James because of that word there. They say that lampstand would have been better. Never mind that every English translation before 1611 used the word candlestick. The truth is that back in the 1600s there really was no such thing as a lampstand. The word lampstand didn’t really take off in the English language until the early 1900s when electricity gained its prominence.

Anyhow, if you would go back and read Exodus 25:31 And thou shalt make a candlestick… (which I highly recommend) the main point I was making in there was that the candlestick was an internal light. The candlestick is not about (Matthew 5:16) Let your light so shine before men. It’s more about (Psalm 139:23,24) Search me, O God, and know my heart… and (1 John 1:7) But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light… It’s not a light for all the world to see, but a light to reveal the hidden things of God in our own soul.

Now, back to the pure oil olive beaten. The signification I see is that the purpose of the candlestick cannot be accomplished without the oil. It was perpetual flame. It was to never go out. There has got to be oil. And God has got the oil. The oil has always typified the Holy Ghost. Paul said (Ephesians 5:18) Be filled with the Spirit. But that is not to say that we have no responsibility in the matter. The text says And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always. One may easily say that a perpetual doing, an eternal flame, would be the work of God. But it’s not the priests that were commanded to provide it. They had to fill up the bowls, but it was the children of Israel who were to make oil. When I look at the typology of the wilderness, it has always been helpful for me to understand that all of Israel typifies the individual Christian. So to me, the commandment speaks to us of our responsibility in this matter of being filled with the Spirit. God will provide the olives, but somebody has got to beat them and then somebody has got to fill the bowls. (1 Peter 2:9) Ye are… a royal priesthood… that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. The priesthood of believers. There is work to do in and for the temple. Years ago, Brother Edmunson said, “You know what it means to be filled with the Holy Ghost? Work! It means work! Work! Work! Work!” He might’ve had something there, aye?

Anyhow, I hope some of this has got you thinking! It may be a good idea to study the process in which olive oil, I mean oil olive, was made.