Reading: Exodus 30:22-33.
We have been led at this time to give attention to the matter of
the Holy Spirit, particularly as the Spirit of anointing. Now we
are going to look at one particular aspect of the anointing of the
Holy Spirit, that is, the holy anointing oil, the symbols of which
we have in Exodus 33.
The book of Exodus, as you know, is divided into two main
sections, first of which, according to its title, has to do with
the exodus itself, the bringing of the people out from Egypt. And
that section ends with their arrival at Sinai. The second section
begins at Sinai, and has to do with the constituting of the people
as God's holy nation, constituted firstly by the law, and secondly
by the tabernacle. The tabernacle overshadowed everything, and
when the tabernacle came into view, the anointing was brought in.
This anointing, or this Holy Spirit coming in as the Spirit of the
anointing, had three aspects: firstly, the sacredness of
everything; secondly, the unity of everything; and thirdly, the
vocation and function of everything. How much of that we shall be
able to consider now we must wait to see, but we want to look at
this holy, or sacred oil.
The Oil
The oil is the chief and primary factor; indeed, it is the
all-inclusive and fundamental factor of everything in this large
section of the book. From what we have read alone, we are surely
impressed with the fact that the oil is something very sacred, and
it makes everything that it touches very sacred. It makes
everything holy unto God. It speaks of God's very presence where
it is, and it speaks of God's rights in everything, and by
everything that it touches. The anointing is something which
always moves God to jealousy. You will call to mind familiar words
in Psalm 105: "He rebuked kings for their sake, saying, 'Touch not
Mine anointed'." It is interesting to notice that in the Psalm, in
the first place at least, it is related to Abraham, and the story
there is very impressive. Abimelech nearly lost his life by
unwittingly touching the anointing, and was rebuked of God: "Touch
not Mine anointed." It is interesting in that connection to see
that Abraham, although we have no record of his ever officially
being anointed, is called "the anointed" by God. But, the point is
that it is the anointing that stirs God to jealousy. Wherever it
is, there is that which moves God to His depths.
The Sanctuary
The sanctuary is here with all its vessels, and from the time
they were anointed with this sacred oil, the penalty of unlawfully
touching every one of them, was death. It was what we call
"sacrilege". For an unanointed person to touch anointed things, it
meant they would come immediately into touch with the jealousy of
God. And that, for the person, was a terrible thing. The Lord held
these things in such high esteem because of the anointing. This is
not new light, but there is something here that you and I need to
be able to discern. And so we do lay very great emphasis upon the
sacredness of the anointing; the sacredness of anything and
everything that comes under the anointing.
Now, of course, we do not live in Old Testament times when the
literal oil was used. But we know as one of the elementary lessons
of our Christian knowledge, that that all pointed to the
dispensation in which we live. It was all a type and figure, a
symbol of the Holy Spirit in the day when He would come. Now that
He has come, every one who is really born of the Spirit of God,
and is joined to the Lord Jesus, one Spirit, comes into the
anointing. In the New Testament, it is God's thought and God's
act, that when people believe, the Spirit comes upon them. There
is the Day of Pentecost; there is the house of Cornelius - "as
Peter spoke unto them, the Holy Spirit came upon them." We have
many instances of this spontaneous action of God in response to
faith in the Lord Jesus. And the great declaration on the Day of
Pentecost was: "Believe... repent... and you shall receive the
gift of the Holy Spirit." So, if we are really true believers, in
the sense that through faith we have been joined to the Lord one
Spirit, we constitute the sanctuary: "Know ye not that ye are the
temple of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit dwelleth in you?" Or
again, "groweth into a holy temple in the Lord". We are that - the
sanctuary; we take the place of the tabernacle of old, the
greatest reality of which is: "God is there!" And God was there in
this: that the anointing oil was upon everything. It was the
anointing in type; God the Holy Spirit had associated Himself with
that whole system and its personnel so that every part of it, by
the anointing, was sacred to God.
Now, I repeat, that we have something to recover in this matter.
Even today in religion, in the systems of religion, it is like
that. They have their symbolic representations: some, a crucifix;
some, a Madonna; and many other symbols like that in their system
and in their places. And if anybody were to go in and smash, or
even scratch or injure one of those representations, however
small, it would raise an outcry - "a sacrilege!" There is that in
the world, there is that in the systems, a strong reaction to
anything like that; even the State takes action to guard against
such things. All that is in another realm. In our age and
dispensation, it is not less than it was in the Old
Testament. The spiritual reality is not a lesser thing than the
symbolic representation. We can injure, scratch, hurt and damage
the "vessels of the anointing", the children of God, one another,
without being aware that we are committing sacrilege in the House
of God. In a word, God is jealous about the least part of the Body
of Christ that is under the anointing. God will, sooner or later,
if He waits in patience, show His jealousy in some form of
judgment. If people in this world, in their religious sense, are
sensitive about these symbolic representations, and are stirred to
anger and heat at what they call 'sacrilege', ought there not to
be among us something that corresponds to that? I am not making up
something; this is the true exposition of Scripture. You and I, if
we are the Lord's, have the Holy Spirit in us, and the presence of
the Holy Spirit makes us sacred to God, and we ought to recognise
that. And we should not damage a child of God just as we would not
go into some religious building and smash its representations. No,
we should shrink from it!
And I do truly believe that if you and I walk in the Spirit, in
true correspondence to the anointing, the Holy Spirit will touch
us when we touch that which is anointed. This is a tremendous
thing for God! It may be that the absence of the power, operation
and manifestation of the Holy Spirit is because He is injured in
this way. The Holy Spirit has to look upon Christianity today, and
see in it all the rivalries, jealousies and factions - one section
against another, and one man against another. Christianity is like
that, and the Holy Spirit has to stand back. Christianity is
suffering today because the Holy Spirit is not committing Himself.
It is all very well to pray and appeal for "revival" while the
Holy Spirit says: "Put your relationships right, and I will come
in". What is true in general may be true in particular, that the
Spirit is limited and arrested; indeed, is offended and has to
stand back because there is not this recognition of the sacredness
of one another to the Lord if we have the Spirit, and sacredness
of everything that is of the Lord. The anointing may be grieved
because the things and the people of God are too cheap. And if the
anointing says one thing, it means "preciousness" wherever it is -
the "preciousness of this ointment"; it is precious ointment.
It makes everything precious to God, and we are inclined not to
recognise the preciousness of everything and everyone that is of
God. Rather, as I have said, to regard the "vessels of the
sanctuary" too cheaply. That is you, that is me, the Lord's
people, very precious to Him.
It matters to the Holy Spirit how we regard all that that
comprises His dwelling-place. It matters to Him what sacredness we
put upon the things of the Lord, and the people of the Lord. It so
matters to Him, that He will, or will not, commit Himself on that
matter alone. Many a life is tied up, and is only released into
Life when it gets right with another child of God with whom it has
been out of fellowship. Pray and struggle as you will, the remedy
lies just there with that person, in that matter of fellowship.
What is true of that is true of many things. We have got to
recover or have a new sense of the sacredness of the "vessels of
the sanctuary".
Specific Ministries
There are specific ministries particularly anointed for special
purposes, to whom the Lord may point and say, "Mine anointed", in
some particular way, as He did with Abraham and Moses. It was
because of the anointing that the Lord so fiercely came out
against Aaron and Miriam on one occasion, just because of the
anointing. It was a bad day for those two, and Miriam in
particular, when they touched the "anointed of the Lord". On
another occasion a great number met the fire of God, and were
swallowed up when the earth opened its mouth, just for touching
the anointing. All this is in the Bible, not to say that this will
happen to you, that you will literally become a leper like Miriam,
or the earth will open its mouth and swallow you up. But it is all
there to say: the anointing in God's eyes is a very, very holy
thing. You must be very careful when you are in the presence of
the anointing. We do need a new sense of the awe and sacredness of
what has come under the touch of the Spirit of God. There are many
things we could mention, such as the Word of God, the table of the
Lord and the assembly of God.
The Word of God. We shall know the committing of Himself
through the Holy Spirit in power and in life just insofar as we
recognise the sacredness of the Word of God. You cannot play with
the Word of God and you cannot be superior to the Word of God. The
Word of God is a holy thing with God. May it not be that the Word
of God, the Scriptures, have become too cheap in Christianity. Men
just play with the Bible with their own minds and very often
discredit it. It sometimes seems that they will give to it as
little honour as they can. Well, that is not true of us,
nevertheless, let us remember that the Word of God is
Spirit-inbreathed, therefore it is sacred; it is anointed.
The table of the Lord. How sacred this is, because the
Spirit is in it.
The assembly of God. How sacred is this matter of the
assembly of God - our comings and goings in fellowship. You cannot
come in without reverence, without godly fear; we must learn how
men ought to behave themselves in the house of God for the Spirit
is there! Oh, that we were alive to this, that when we come
together, the chief reality about our coming together is that the
Holy Spirit is there. There is something very sacred about the
assembly of God, about fellowship.
And it is true about any ministry that may be under the
anointing. It is not something for us to criticize, tear to
pieces, and regard lightly. If the Holy Spirit is in that
ministry, it is something very sacred, and sooner or later God
will bring us to account for that ministry. Suffer the solemnity
of it, but you see we do need this sense that we are in something
that is not formal or theoretical, but is something very real,
when we come to the anointing.
I want to close with a word about another aspect. There is so
much more here, of course, but notice the aroma of the sacred oil
- "sweet savour", or "sweet smell". Where the anointing is, there
is the "aroma" of Christ. The presence of the Holy Spirit would
make things beautiful. Being masculine, I am always a little
hesitant to use that word "sweet" or "sweetness" about people. I
don't mean by that: sentimental, sloppy, or that sort of thing.
But, suffer the word; where the Holy Spirit is, something of the
"sweetness" of Christ should be present; a "sweet savour", a
"sweet smell" - something that is of the beauty of the Lord. When
this anointing oil was put upon everything, and upon the persons
concerned, the atmosphere was delightful; you did not want to
leave. That atmosphere was refreshing. But how much of our
Christian life is unlike that; it is cold, almost repulsive. There
is a lot about Christianity and the way Christians go on that is
repugnant, unattractive. The anointing is not like that - there is
the aroma of the "ivory palaces". "Thy garments smell of myrrh,
cassia and aloes". The presence of the Holy Spirit in you and in
me and in the church ought to make it a lovely place; it ought to
make us refreshing, people coming in ought to feel refreshed,
there ought to be something that they can delight in. As we say of
natural things, of flowers, and perfumes - what a beautiful scent!
In a spiritual sense that should be true of the people of God, if
the Spirit is present.
There are other aspects I can only hint at as I close: myrrh, as
well as cassia and calamus. The presence of the Holy Spirit always
brings in the spirit of selfless sacrifice: unselfishness,
selflessness. Myrrh speaks of the sufferings of Christ; but what
were they for? The sufferings of this world were taken on by Him.
Yes, He took on our sufferings as well as our sins. And where the
Holy Spirit is, there is always a true sympathy with suffering, a
real heart sensitiveness to sorrow. It should be like that, that
we carry upon our hearts the afflictions and the trials of the
Lord's people everywhere, and enter into them. Myrrh is a part of
the anointing. "It is given", said the apostle, "in the behalf of
Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His
sake" (Phil. 1:29). And so large a part of our suffering for His
sake is our entering into the suffering of others. Sacred oil! May
we be anointed ones!