Keep your Lamps Burning to Ignite Hope in an Infected World
Keep your Lamps Burning to Ignite Hope in an Infected World….Leviticus 24:1-4
🕯️The Israelites didn’t have the convenience of the Written Word like we do. Everything from baking bread to setting up the oil for the lamps spoke of Jesus. Their whole being and daily life was to be a constant reminder of Jesus. God gave them so much activities to remind them that they were a holy nation set apart for God to do His will and to through whom the Messiah will come. God’s people were being prepared for the Coming Christ by teaching them to observe the Tabernacle Worship, Feasts and Festivals.
🕯️There were not to be distracted by their surrounding but grow and be elevated in their soul daily about the knowledge of God and to achieve intimacy with Him. In everything we do, we too should identify with Jesus in our daily routines. Jesus will speak to us even through the mundane things. In this Lockdown we are given so much of opportunity, to be in the word to know God through the pages of the Bible to study the Old Testament to understand the New Testament and apply it to our lives daily.
🕯️In the setting up of the lamps in the sanctuary the priest must use olive oil. There is something awesome about the process of the olive oil that will help us as we feel the pressure of the lockdown and all the uncertainty surrounding the Covid 19 pandemic.
🕯️The oil for the lamps were from the olives. It had to be pressed, crushed and squeezed to get the oil out. It had to be clear oil, Leviticus 24:1-2. Oil is symbolic of the Holy Spirit. Jesus had to press through in the Garden of Gethasmane so that He can face the Cross, Matthew 26:36. It was a crushing experience. He was empowered by the Spirit of God, when He said the Flesh is Weak but the Spirit is Strong, Matthew 26:41.
🕯️Gethasmane was an Olive Grove.
Gethasmane means Oil Press, the Place of Crushing. Crushing of the Olives produced the oil for the lamps and the oil for anointing.
🕯️Child of God, Remember this, the olives have to be crushed for oil. Are you going through a Crushing experience right now in this Lockdown Season? God needs you as His burning lamp. We may feel the world is crushing around us and knocking us down. Jesus was crushed and bruised for our iniquities, Isaiah 52:5.
🕯️Your anointing oil will flow through you to minister to others once your crushing and pressing season is over. You are God’s Lamp in this World. Your anointing oil will also light you up to be the light in this infected world for those who are in darkness not having any hope, to ignite their hope.
🕯️The lamps in the Tabernacle had to burn day and night, Leviticus 24:4. Likewise you have to trim your lamps and have the extra oil to minister 24/7 till the Lord returns or we return to Him, just like the wise virgins in Matthew 25:1-7.
🕯️In Psalm 128:3, Children are referred to as Olive Shoots, with all the potential of growing up to bear fruit for the Lord. Unless the Children are nurtured and raised up for the Lord’s work, the tender shoots can wither away. They can never grow up to be like a matured olive tree to produce oil for the lamps in the temple of God, to light up His House day and night. In this lockdown, nurture our little olive shoots to become fruitful olive trees, as we groom them for the Lord, to be lamps, whose lights will never go out, because they will always carry the extra oil for their lamps….Amen🙏
anniekoshy@God’s Thirstydeer🦌 Breaking the Chain with You….⛓️