«　WEEK 9　DAY 3　»

　　Exo. 27:20-21 And you shall command the children of Israel to bring to you pure oil of beaten olives for the light, to make the lamps burn continually. In the Tent of Meeting, outside the veil which is before the Testimony, Aaron and his sons shall maintain it in order from evening to morning before Jehovah; it shall be a perpetual statute to be observed throughout their generations by the children of Israel.

　　The olive tree signifies Christ (cf. Rom. 11:17), and the oil of beaten olives signifies the Spirit of Christ produced through Christ's process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection (1 Cor. 15:45; Rom. 8:9...). (Exo. 27:20, footnote 1)

　　[To make the lamps burn continually means literally to] cause the light of a lamp to ascend. The lampstand, signifying Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God, was made of pure gold (Exo. 25:31), but the wicks that burned to give off the light were of the plant life. In order to burn so that light would shine, the wicks had to be saturated with oil. The wicks signify the uplifted humanity of Christ, which burns with the divine oil to shine out the divine light. (Exo. 27:20, footnote 2)

　　The light in the Holy Place was a particular light,...not a natural light, that is, a light that comes from the sun during the day or from the moon and the stars at night. Neither was the light in the Holy Place a man-made light....It was a light that came from the golden lampstand....The light comes out of the gold. This indicates that the light in the Holy Place comes purely out of the divine nature of Christ.

　　The lampstand is the embodiment of the Triune God. With the gold we have the nature of the Father, the divine nature; with the form, the shape, of the lampstand, we have the Son; and with the lamps of the lampstand, we have the expression of the Spirit. Therefore,...the light in the Holy Place issues from the Triune God. With this golden lampstand, there is no mixture. With the exception of the wick, everything is golden.

　　The light of the lampstand comes from the burning of the wick....The wick signifies Christ's humanity. Yes, Christ is divine, golden. But it is His humanity, signified by the wick, that burns with oil. If the wick had not been saturated with oil, it would give off smoke instead of light. This is the reason Exodus 27:20 speaks of bringing "pure oil of beaten olives for the light, to make the lamps burn continually."

　　In the center of the lamps there were the wicks. These wicks were not of gold; on the contrary, they were of the plant life. Because gold does not burn, it cannot give light. It is the wicks that burn to give light. However, in themselves it is very difficult for the wicks to give off light. Instead of giving off light, they give off smoke. This is the reason it is necessary to saturate the wicks with oil in order to have light.

　　In typology oil signifies the Spirit of God. Oil comes from olive trees, and the olive tree signifies Christ. In the sight of God, Christ is the real olive tree.

　　Within the lamps are the wicks, and...the wicks signify Christ's humanity. The wicks burn with oil, and the oil signifies the Spirit of God. What we have today is not only the Spirit of God, but the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of God has become the Spirit of Christ. Just as olives pass through a process to produce olive oil, so the Spirit of Christ has passed through a process. For us today, the oil with which the wicks burn signifies the Spirit of Christ.

　　Putting all these matters together, we have the gold to make the lampstand signifying Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God; we have the wick, Christ's humanity burning with oil; and we have the oil signifying the Spirit of Christ. As the olive tree, Christ grew on earth and then passed through a process that included incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. When all these matters are put together, we have the coming forth of the light. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 1309-1311)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Exodus, msg. 114