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The holy task of lighting the lamps was a service of holy persons, the priests, not of the common people:
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According to the entire Bible, a priest is one who is possessed by God, filled with God, saturated with God, and living absolutely for God; furthermore, a priest had to be clothed with priestly garments (Exo. 28:2), which signify Christ lived out of the priesthood.
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The lighting of the lamps in the Holy Place requires the service of this kind of person (cf. 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6).
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The light in the Holy Place was not a natural light or a man-made light; it was a light that came from the golden lampstand, that is, from the divine nature of Christ.
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To experience the genuine lighting of the lamps in the church meetings, we must have Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God, as the lampstand, the divine nature as the gold, the uplifted humanity of Christ as the wick, and the Spirit of Christ as the oil with all the steps of Christ's process, and we must be holy people as the priests, clothed with the expression of Christ as the priestly garments.
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The priests were to maintain the lamps from evening to morning before Jehovah:
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Nothing is said in Exodus 27:21 about the day; the present age is the night, not the day.
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Hence, we need the light to shine during this age of night until the day dawns (cf. Rom. 13:12; 2 Pet. 1:19).
Morning Nourishment
Exo. 28:2 And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty.Rev. 1:6 And made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to Him be the glory and the might forever and ever. Amen.
As those who are part of the priesthood, we need to know what these priestly garments are and to have the reality of these garments in our experience. Exodus 28:4 says, "And these are the garments which they shall make: a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a tunic of checkered work, a turban and a girding sash. So they shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother and for his sons that he may serve Me as a priest."...The significance of the priestly garments is the expression of Christ in the priesthood. This means that the garments signify Christ lived out of the priesthood. We have not only Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God, the divine nature of Christ, the uplifted humanity of Christ, and the Spirit of Christ with all the steps of Christ's process, but we have also the expression of Christ.
If in our daily living we do not have the expression of Christ, then whatever we do in the church meetings will be hypocrisy....If we do not have the priestly garments, we are not qualified or equipped to light the lamps. The qualification for a priest to light the lamps in the Holy Place is the expression of Christ.
Furthermore, we may not have the oil of the Spirit of Christ. Instead, we may try to light the lamps with something other than olive oil. Sometimes in the pray-reading of certain saints and in their calling on the name of the Lord Jesus, there is no olive oil. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 1314-1315, 1319)
Today's Reading
In our gatherings we should cause the divine light to shine so that the darkness may vanish and that we may be brought into the light with the expectation of stepping into the Holy of Holies, where the Testimony of God is. Perhaps we are still in the Holy Place. Nevertheless, we are very close to the Testimony, and we have the expectation of coming into the Holy of Holies.As we consider the scene of the lampstand in the Holy Place, we see the embodiment of God, the divine nature, the humanity of Christ, and the Spirit of God who is now the Spirit of Christ with incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. Furthermore, the one who lights the lamps is a holy person, a priest, a person possessed by God, saturated with God, and living absolutely for God. Whatever such a person does in the Holy Place is the lighting of the lamps. He gives light in all he says and does. All his actions are the lighting of the lamps.
Whenever a group of believers comes together for a meeting without any who are holy priests, that meeting will be in darkness. Some may utter something according to the human concept, and others may speak according to natural thoughts. As a result, in that meeting there will be natural light or man-made light, but no divine light, no holy light.
Certain elements must be involved whenever we experience the genuine lighting of the lamps in the meetings. These elements are the embodiment of the Triune God, the divine nature, the uplifted humanity of Christ, and the Spirit of Christ with Christ's process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. If we have these elements, then whatever we say and do in the meetings will give forth light. This is the lighting of the lamps in the Holy Place.
According to Exodus 27:21, the priests were to set the lamps in order "from evening to morning." Nothing is said here about the day. During the Christian life, we are in the night, not in the day. Because we are in the night, we need the light to shine until the day dawns. By the light shining in the meetings during this age of night, we are enlightened to see more of Christ and to see more clearly the way into the Holy of Holies. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 1321, 1312-1313, 1322)
Further Reading: Life-study of Exodus, msg. 115