Exodus 27:20 & 21

"And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil beaten for the the light, to cause the lamp to burn always...Aaron and His sons shall order (tend) it from evening to morning before the Lord." Exodus 27:20 & 21

Two incidents, happening in a short span of time one Saturday evening, brought this verse to mind. Seemingly unrelated, God used these incidents to speak to my heart.

Incident#1
It was October, during Pastor Appreciation month. I had decided to make zucchini bread to place in the food basket I was doing for the associate pastor of the church we attend. As I mixed the ingredients, I was also trying to appease a little girl who hadn't had enough sleep the night before, and straighten up the kitchen. My habit of doing more than one thing at a time often gets me into trouble and this was one of those times, unbeknownst to me.
I got the batter made and placed into bread pans. In the oven it went and then on to bathtime for the girls. After bathtime, while reading to the the girls the bread began to smell done. I got up to check on it and then left it in for a bit longer. The bread soon was cooling on the racks, while I got the kids to bed.
When I picked up the loaf of bread something seemed different. To all appearances it seemed fine, but it wasn't moist and pliable in my hand. There seemed to be no softness about it. As I went about cleaning up the house I puzzled over why this bread hadn't turned out. I had just made it a couple days ago and it had turned out great. As I reread the list of ingredients I realized I had left out the oil. Thre bread wasn't fit to give as a gift and in exasperation I scrambled about in my thoughts trying to think of something to replace the bread in the food basket.

Incident #2
Earlier that day my husband had changed the oil in the truck and brought the empty oil can in the house and sat it beside the trash can. I pitched the can into the trash can and then went about my business. It was shortly after I had realized my bread was missing the oil that the trash bag was taken out of the trash can and sat on the floor waiting to be taken to the dumpster. As I looked down, there was a dark smear of oil "gracing" my kitchen floor. After cleaning up the mess and sending my husband out the door with the trash bag I realized there was oil in the bottom of the trash can. Another mess waiting to be cleaned. To my surprise, though, the oil acted as a lubricant on the dirt and debris stuck to the bottom of the trash can. As I wiped it up, I realized the dirt I hadn't had the patience to scrub out a couple weeks ago came up with little effort.

The Lord, then focused my thoughts on oil, the missing ingredient in my brick-like loaf of bread and the oil needed to keep a vehicle running smoothly, which also acted as the cleaner of the stubborn dirt in the bottom of my trash can. Oil, I remembered had also played an important part in the tabernacle. These thoughts led me to search the Scriptures till I found this verse, as well as others.
The Israelites were commanded to bring oil for the lamp, to burn continually. The priests were then to "order it" which means to tend it and care for it.
In Scripture, oil typifies the Holy Spirit. If we fail to meet with Him daily, our lives will become hard and not fit for service for our King. We are to be a lamp continually burning for God. A living sacrifice, holy and acceptable. It is our duty, to bring the oil into our lamps by seeking the Holy Spirit's daily cleansing. He can give us a softness in our lives and a pliability in His hands as we daily meet with Him. Without the oil of the Holy Spirit we cannot keep our Spiritual engines running smoothly.
In the New Testament we are likened unto priests of God. Just like Aaron was to daily tend the lamp, we too, must tend to the business of receiving the oil of the Holy Spirit to fill our lamps. With this oil in our lives He will continually work to cleanse the buildup from the daily dirt of life. The Holy Spirit will be able to keep up us clean from bitterness, unforgiveness and wrong attitudes as we let Him lubricate our lives.

Thank you, Lord, for reminding me of the importance of daily meeting and communing with You.