"1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamps to burn continually. 3 Without the vail of the testimony, in the tabernacle of the congregation, shall Aaron order it from the evening unto the morning before the LORD continually: it shall be a statute for ever in your generations. 4 He shall order the lamps upon the pure candlestick before the LORD continually. 5 And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake. 6 And thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the LORD. 7 And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto the LORD. 8 Every sabbath he shall set it in order before the LORD continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. 9 And it shall be Aaron’s and his sons’; and they shall eat it in the holy place: for it is most holy unto him of the offerings of the LORD made by fire by a perpetual statute. 10 And the son of an Israelitish woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel: and this son of the Israelitish woman and a man of Israel strove together in the camp; 11 And the Israelitish woman’s son blasphemed the name of the LORD, and cursed. And they brought him unto Moses: (and his mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan:) 12 And they put him in ward, that the mind of the LORD might be shewed them. 13 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 14 Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him. 15 And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sin. 16 And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the LORD, shall be put to death." — Leviticus 24:1-16 KJV.
Two important elements of the tabernacle ritual remain to be described — the oil for light and the showbread. Then follows a bit of sad history, like the bit found in chapter 10 — a detail of a flagrant act of sin and its dreadful punishment. A brief recapitulation of the lex talionis closes the chapter.
THE ILLUMINATION OF THE TABERNACLE, 1-4.
2. Pure oil — The best oil is made from olive berries gathered in November and December, when they have begun to change colour, but before they have become black. The berry in the more advanced state yields more oil, but of an inferior quality. Beaten — The beating was done in a mortar. The other modes of preparing the olive berries for the press were by grinding in a mill, and by treading. The oil was kept in jars carefully cleansed, and for use was drawn out in horns or other small vessels. Olive oil was largely exported from Palestine. Continually — That is, every night from twilight till sunrise. Some say that “the evening lamp,” the central one of the seven, burned perpetually, the others being extinguished during the day. Bahr says that the lights were “never all extinguished together, and that they were the perpetual symbol of all derived gifts of wisdom and holiness in man, reaching their mystical perfection when they shine in God’s sanctuary to his glory.” But of this there is no proof. Aaron is said to have trimmed the lamps every morning and lighted them every evening. The oil required for each lamp was half a log, about two wine glasses, nearly three pints for the seven.
ORDINANCE OF THE SHOWBREAD, 5-9
This had already been offered at the dedication of the tabernacle, and placed by Moses upon the table. Exodus 39:36; 40:23. The quantity of the material and the number of the loaves are here specified, also their arrangement on the table and the period of their renewal.
5. Twelve cakes — The number of the tribes of Israel. Two tenth deals — See Leviticus 23:13. According to the lowest estimate, that of the rabbins, there would be ten and a half gallons required for the twelve loaves.
6. Pure table — It was overlaid with pure gold; the term “pure” may mean more than this, and bear something of the force which it has in Malachi 1:11. For its structure, see Exodus 37:10-16. Before the Lord — Not in the holy of holies, but in the first tabernacle. Exodus 40:24; Hebrews 9:2. This throws much light upon the significance of the showbread, or “bread of the face or faces.” The term “faces” denotes the presence not of the people, who were not admitted into the first tabernacle or court of the priests, but the presence of God. This view Bahr has elaborated with singular force and beauty. It is said in Exodus 23:21, that God’s name is in the angel of his presence, (face or faces.) The presence and the name may therefore be taken as equivalent. Both, in reference to their context, indicate the manifestation of God to his creatures. As the name stands for God himself, so the face, wherein a man’s individual personality is seen, stands for the person of God. To see the face is to see the person. The bread of the face is therefore that bread through which God is seen, that is, with the participation of which the seeing of God is bound up. Whence it follows that we have not to think of bread merely as such, as the means of nourishing bodily life, but as spiritual food, as a means of appropriating and retaining that life which consists in seeing the face of God. The bread of the face on the table in the tabernacle, the symbolic heaven, is an emblem of the heavenly bread. This points to none other than Jesus Christ. “For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.” After this synopsis of Bahr’s Symbolik we cannot forbear to add one beautiful and instructive emblem in reference to the position of the showbread, which was opposite the candlestick, (Exodus 40:24,) that its full light might fall upon it, prefiguring the precious truth that the Holy Spirit takes of the things of Christ and shows them to the believer.
7. Frankincense — See Leviticus 2:1, note. The frankincense used by the Jews in the temple service must not be confounded with the common frankincense of commerce, which is a product of the Abies excelsa. The true frankincense is a product of the Boswellia thurifera. It is the symbol of intercession, (Revelation 8:3,) and it doubtless was to be burnt on the appointed altar. A memorial — See Leviticus 2:2, note. Made by fire — The incense was properly a fire-made offering, but the show-bread was improperly so called, since it was only fire-baked.
8. Every sabbath — The show-bread never waxed old; it was always fresh. Through eternity Jesus will be a theme ever new, and inspiring fresh interest — “a lamb as it had been slain.”
THE BLASPHEMER STONED, 10-23.
In the midst of the Sinaitic legislation we find an account of the arrest and punishment of a blasphemer. This unnatural and unexpected mingling of statutes and snatches of history, so different from the studied artifices of the forger, is a striking evidence of the authenticity of the book as a whole. See Numbers, Introduction, (1.)
10. Son of an Israelitish woman — The repetition of the statement that the blasphemer was the son of an Egyptian father and a Hebrew mother shows clearly the design of the author to direct attention to the dangers incident to such mixed marriages, and to raise a warning voice against them. This view is confirmed by the fact that the Bible only mentions three intermarriages with Egyptians, all of which result in evil. The second is the intermarriage of Solomon, and his consequent implication in idolatry. 1 Kings 3:1-4; 11:4. The third is to be found in 1 Chronicles 2:34, 35, from which tradition traces the descent of Ishmael, the murderer of Gedaliah. Jeremiah 41:1, 2.
11. Blasphemed — The Seventy and Rashi erroneously render the original accurately pronounced, this being looked upon before God as a reviling of him. From this passage the rabbins, by an untenable exposition, derived their prohibition even to utter the name of Jehovah, called “the sacred tetragrammaton.” The provocation to this vilification of Jehovah is not given. It is probable that the adversary of the half Israelite had taunted him on account of his Egyptian descent as a disgrace, and adding that he had no part in the God of Israel and in his covenant, and that in the heat of passion the half-breed spoke contemptuously of Jehovah, and possibly contrasted him with the gods of his father. The name — We admit, with the rationalistic critics, that the designation of Jehovah by “the name,” is a practice of a later age. But this practice must have had a beginning, and that beginning may have been in the age of the Pentateuch. This is confirmed by the fact that in ver. 16 we have the full expression, “the name of Jehovah,” as evidently explanatory of the recently invented designation, “the name.” Hence no satisfactory proof that this piece of history is the interpolation of a later age can be derived from this phrase. From this passage we see that the Jews of this early period may have pronounced “the name” by substituting the consonants of Adonai for those of Jehovah, so that this practice cannot be regarded as a superstition originating with Jews after the destruction of Jerusalem. “This dread,” says Oehler, “sprang from the efforts of later Judaism to thrust back divinity to an unapproachable distance, and everywhere to put something between divinity and man.” The translation of Jehovah, by κύριος, Lord, 250 years before Christ, confirms this statement. It is a strong incidental proof of the supreme godhead of Christ that he is called “the Name.” See R.V., Acts 5:41; 3 John 1:7. Shelomith — A sad misnomer, for it signifies peacefulness. It is quite a common name in the Old Testament. Nothing more is known of this woman, who stands pilloried in history as the mother of a blasphemer.
12. In ward — In prison, or under guard. The mind of the Lord — Literally, as the R.V., “To declare distinctly unto them according to the mouth of the Lord.” It would seem that this was the first violation of the third commandment.
14. Lay their hands upon his head — For the significance of this ceremony, in the case of a victim for the altar, see chap. 1:4, note. In this particular case, the witnesses who heard the blasphemy were required to cast off the guilt which they had involuntarily contracted by transferring it to the head of the sinner. By laying their hands upon his head they gave back the infection which they had received. In later ages it was a Jewish practice, when a person heard blasphemy, to lay his hand on the offender’s head to symbolize his sole responsibility for the guilt, and to rise up and tear his robe, which might never again be mended. See Matthew 26:65, note. Let all the congregation stone him — Says Baumgarten: “According to the sentence of Jehovah, the whole congregation was to be regarded as participating in the crime of the individual, because every one was a living member of the whole. For this reason the punishment was committed to the whole congregation, who gave back to the criminal its share of the guilt by leading him out of the camp and putting him to death. Thus they wiped off sin from Israel.” By this requirement of “all the congregation,” we are taught that for the efficient execution of laws against immoralities there must be strong public sentiment in favour of such law behind the officers of justice. The divine method, which puts a stone into every man’s hand to cast at the criminal, also effectually protects the witnesses. When any community has a righteous abhorrence of drunkenness, licentiousness, profanity, and other vices, sufficient to move a large majority of the citizens personally to assist in their suppression, these foul blots will be almost entirely wiped away from that community. The practice of stoning for blasphemy was continued till the martyrdom of Stephen.
15. Shall bear his sin — See Leviticus 10:17; Numbers 9:13, notes.
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