Anointing with Oil in the Wilderness

Anointing with Oil in the Wilderness.

“This sacred anointing oil shall belong to Me throughout all your generations, it will be sacred to Me and used in My service for all time to come.” (Ex. 30:31).

Three Oils in the Wilderness. There were three oils produced as dictated by the Lord in the wilderness travels of the Israelites: the special holy anointing oil; the pure olive oil to keep the lampstand in the Tabernacle burning all day and all night; and the oil-flour mixture made for the healing ceremonies for the lepers in their midst.

Olive oil is made by a couple of different methods. It could be produced by bruising and smashing the olives with mortar and pestle and then extracting the juicy oil. Or one can use a huge stone press, a large roller used to crush the olives to a pulp, and then after removing the impurities, one can collect the oil for use.

(1) Anointing Oil. No one could accuse the Lord God of being careless, unclear or blasé as He gave instructions for the Tabernacle in the wilderness. God was precise in His instructions, and He demanded Moses and the artists be meticulous as they prepared and built a portable Dwelling Place for Yahweh. His directions for the production of the anointing oil were no exception, as He gave a very particular recipe for His sacred oil (Ex. 30:22-25). The holy oil’s ingredients and the amount of each ingredient were made abundantly clear, and in this case the letter of the Law had better be obeyed:

1. 12 1/2 pounds of pure liquid myrrh (the gummy resin made from the sap of certain trees; from the root word for ‘suffering,’ and is a symbol for suffering love; the rabbis referred to myrrh as ‘tears from a tree’);
2. 6 1/2 pounds of sweet-smelling cinnamon.
3. 6 1/2 of fragrant sweet-cane (a fragrant plant with aromatic oils in its leaves and roots).
4. 12 1/2 pounds of fragrant cassia (an aromatic spice made from the flowers and the inner bark scrapings of the cinnamon tree).
5. 1 gallon of pure olive oil.

The ingredients were precise, the amounts of each ingredient were also precise, and so was the preparation and application. The ingredients were kept to the highest standards, to be blended and “compounded” with the expertise of a gifted perfumer. The Lord wanted the blending of these ingredients to become an art form. The ingredients must be pure, fresh, and carefully blended together to make the finished product, which was a completely unique anointing oil for the most sacred place on earth… The holy Tabernacle.

Why the Aromatic Spices?  The Lord purposely included some strong, sweet-smelling spices in his recipe for the holy oil. It’s obvious that He wanted the oil to be deliciously fragrant. Why did He do that? Perhaps the Lord simply wanted the anointing to be a pleasant experience, the oil spreading a delicious aroma onto the person being anointed and into the immediate area for others to enjoy. Far from a killjoy, the Lord wanted to use an oil that would bring joy. After all, God created a world that we could enjoy, and He called it “good,’ which was a Hebrew word that means ”Excellent,” “Beautiful,” “Just what I was hoping for!” Aromatic plants were invented by the Creator God to be used and enjoyed. They were His idea in the first place! It looks like the Lord wanted to make a profound spiritual experience an enjoyable one. A meaningful and life-changing experience doesn’t have to make us miserable, a serious experience doesn’t have to be bland. And we shouldn’t forget that our sense of smell is our most powerful sense, the sense that most effectively triggers a memory, quickly and vividly bringing experiences to mind. God wanted the anointing to be unforgettable, a lingering experience that would be lodged into our memories and our spirits, and easily remembered. Perhaps the fragranced oil was intended to be a symbol as well, helping us to consider the idea that God wants us to be a sweet-smelling fragrance to those around us, just as the anointing oil was to those around it. Perhaps the fragrant holy oil was God’s subversive way of anticipating the aroma of the Anointed One… “Walk in love, as the Anointed One also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” (Ephesians 5:2). How can our lives be a pleasing fragrance to God? By walking in love, following the example of Jesus. He offered Himself up and sacrificed Himself for our sakes. And that sacrifice was like a delicious perfume inhaled by God. We can offer up a sweet fragrance as well by loving others in the same spirit, the spirit of self-sacrifice. Make love a lifestyle, a slow and steady walk that defines our life and sets our direction every day. “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in the Anointed One and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him. For we are to God the aroma of the Anointed One…” (2 Cor. 2:14-16).

The Oil Belongs to the Lord. It’s not surprising that the Lord was also particular in His instructions as to how this holy oil was to be used… It was to be applied to the Tent of the Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, the Table of Shewbread and all its utensils, the golden Lampstand and all its utensils, the bronze Basin, the Altar of Incense, and the bronze Altar of Burnt Offering. The holy oil was then to be applied to Aaron and his sons in the priesthood to set them apart for their service to the Lord. The special oil was not under any circumstances to be produced for personal use or to anyone who is not a priest. If these rules were broken, the guilty parties would be expelled from the community in the middle of nowhere. This sacred oil was only to be applied to priests and prophets, and some time later was also poured over the head of each king at his coronation. The Lord was very careful to the extreme about His plans for the anointing oil, how it was made and how it was applied, because it appears He considered the anointing oil to be His and His alone. God claimed ownership of this holy oil right from the start, so He wanted it to be perfect. “This sacred anointing oil shall belong to Me throughout all your generations, it will be sacred to Me and used in My service for all time to come.” (Ex. 30:31).

(2) The Lampstand Oil. The Lord told Moses that only the finest, purest olive oil can be used for lighting the lampstands. Only the ripest and unblemished olives were to be crushed to produce this oil. The lighting oil must be of the highest quality, perfectly pure, carefully cleaned of any impurities, and colorless. Only this type of olive oil will produce a bright, pure light with little smoke. And there was going to have to be an ongoing supply of oil for the lampstand, because the Lord specifically declared that the light is to be continuously burning day and night in the Tabernacle, with never one moment of darkness in His Dwelling Place. (Ex. 27:20-21).

Zechariah’s Vision of the Holy Oil and the Golden Lampstand. In this spiritual vision of Zechariah 4:1-3 and 11-12, he was given a symbolic prophecy of a golden lampstand, otherwise called a candlestick or a menorah, the official source of light in the Tabernacle and then in the Temple. This lampstand always symbolizes the nation of Israel and God’s watchfulness over His people. This lampstand in the vision is miraculously fueled by the two olive trees on each side of it that continuously pour out its olive oil into the reservoir bowl that stores the oil, on top of the lampstand. This ongoing source of oil assures that the lampstand will have a continuous supply of oil so that it will be lit constantly. The light of the lampstand will never go out because of its supply of olive oil. Israel will once again be restored and will achieve its high calling of being a light to the world, illumination for all the nations, as it is empowered by the oil of the Holy Spirit. God Himself is the eternal source of this miraculous oil of His Spirit, the secret to blessing and spiritual success. The Lord made this abundantly clear by including in this vision these memorable words, “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.” (Zech. 4:6). This vision in Zechariah brings to mind the powerful vision of John in Revelation 1, where we see Jesus “tending the lampstands,” which means He was providing the fuel, He was making sure the lampstands were lit. In other words, Jesus was the olive tree providing the Holy Spirit so those seven churches could thrive as lights in their world!

(3) The Healing Oil for Lepers. Another type of oil that the Lord dictated to Moses was an interesting mixture of flour and olive oil. God did not want leprosy to sweep through the Israelite community, so He made special plans to heal anyone who had leprosy (Lev. 14:1-32). It was a rather complicated religious healing ceremony, but the gist of it is this… As soon as it was clear that someone had contracted leprosy in the camp, the leper was brought outside the camp to meet with the priest and confirm the disease. A living clean bird was then sacrificed and its blood sprinkled on the leper seven times. The leprous person was then thoroughly cleansed and his head completely shaved, and then brought back into the camp. He was told to remain outside his tent for seven days, after which he was once again thoroughly scrubbed again and shaven. On the eighth day the leper was brought by the priest to the entrance to the Tabernacle and a lamb was sacrificed, with its blood then dripped onto the cleansed leper’s right ear lobe, the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. Finally, the special healing oil was applied to the same parts of the man’s body, only this time the oil was also poured onto the man’s head to complete the ceremony.

Why did the healing priest start with the ear? “The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.” (Isaiah 50:4). The ear is another organ to offer up as an “instrument of righteousness.” (Rom. 6:13). The Isaiah verse above states that Adonai-Yahweh “wakes up” our ears each morning, if we are willing to have them awaken. The Hebrew here is “He arouses for me an ear.” Are we open to having the Lord arouse our ears to listen to Him? Remember the little children’s Sunday School chorus… “Be careful little ears what you hear.”? It is possible to close our ears to the unhealthy and open our ears to the life-giving. Open ears mean we are receptive, attentive, obedient to what we hear from God. Sometimes, as David says in Ps. 40, God needs to “dig out” our ears, to remove obstacles to hearing the truth. “My ears Thou hast dug [opened].” (Ps. 40:6). The ear was an important symbol of total receptivity in the Hebrew Bible: In Deuteronomy 15:17, when a servant wanted to swear life allegiance to the master, he would pierce his right ear and commit to being a love-slave. In Exodus 29:20, when a priest wanted to consecrate a sacrifice, he would place a drop of the sacrificial blood on his right ear. In Leviticus 14:17, the priest would apply the special healing oil on the leper’s right ear lobe to start the process, followed by the thumb on his right hand (to represent doing the work of the Lord) the big toe of his right foot (to symbolize the importance of walking with the Lord), and finally poured on the leper’s head (to underline the importance of righteous thinking). The ear is holy, for how else can one hear and receive the word of the Lord in order to do what He is asking? “My child, listen to what I say, and treasure my commands. Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding.” (Proverbs 2:1-2). “The mind of the prudent acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.” (Prov. 18:15).