The last item to be considered in this
long and important section has to do with the composition of the holy anointing
oil or ointment, and of the incense to which allusion has already been made in
the description of the altar of incense.
The
holy anointing oil was composed of specified quantities of myrrh, cinnamon,
calamus and cassis, compounded together with sufficient olive oil to give it
proper consistency. The incense, as we
have already seen, is also specified. A
prohibition attaches to both of these — the holy anointing oil and the
incense:--
“This shall be an holy anointing oil unto
Me throughout your generations. Upon
man’s flesh shall it not be poured, neither shall ye make any other like it,
after the composition of it: it is holy,
and it shall be holy unto you. Whosoever
compoundeth any like it, or whosoever putteth any of it upon a stranger, shall
even be cut off from his people” (Exod.xxx.31-33).
Light on sanctification.
The prohibitions concerning this anointing
oil will throw some light upon the scriptural conception of holiness. It is “holy”;
therefore the first prohibition is:--
“Upon man’s flesh shall it not be
poured.” — We read that the holy anointing oil was poured upon the
head. The Psalmist said, “It ran down
the beard, even Aaron’s beard”, and even to the skirts of his garment; but it was not to be poured upon man’s
“flesh”. There was an anointing which was
a part of the everyday toilet, and an anointing that was used as a mark of
respect and favour to a guest. This was
not limited to the head and beard, but extended to the “face” (Psa. civ. 15),
“feet” (John xii. 3), and “body” (Mark xiv. 8), and was used at “birth” (Ezek. xvi. 9), and “death” (Mark xvi. 1).
We have here a very necessary distinction
which we do well to ponder. There is an
anointing that belongs to man as such.
Sweetness of temper, a kindness of manner, a natural gentleness of
disposition may be very fine; they have
a fragrance and a smoothness that is all to the good. But we must never make natural qualities in
any measure parallel with spiritual graces.
The Holy Spirit does not anoint man’s “flesh”:--
“That which hath been born of the
flesh is flesh” (John.iii.6).
“The flesh profiteth nothing” (John
vi. 63).
“The mind of the flesh is enmity against
God” (Rom.viii.7).
“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,
neither have entered the heart of man . . . . . but God hath revealed
them unto us by His Spirit” (I Cor. ii. 9, 10).
“The natural (soul-ical) man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God” (I.Corinthian.ii.14).
“The works of the flesh” are sharply
distinguished from “the fruits of the Spirit”, and never, until grapes grow on
thorns or figs on thistles will the flesh produce anything other than its own
works. Consequently we must remember
that none can be holy or sanctified outside of Christ, and it is the new man
and not the old upon whom the grace of the Spirit descends.
“Neither shall ye make any other like
it, after the composition of it. It is
holy, and it shall be holy unto you.” — This emphasizes from another point
of view the necessity to distinguish between the flesh and the Spirit, bringing
into prominence this time the danger of counterfeit. If the anointing be not of the Lord, if it be
not the fragrance of Christ, if it be not the work of the Spirit, then however
near to the true counterpart it may appear, it must be repudiated. It is a holy thing, and it must be kept
so. The thought of holiness here, as in
all the teaching on the subject in both Old and New Testaments, is very largely
that of something specially set apart for God.
Whosoever putteth any of it upon a
stranger, shall be cut off. — Some things belong to the Lord’s people alone. No stranger could partake of the Passover
(Exod. xii. 43). It was a memorial of
redemption and national birth. No
stranger was allowed to contribute anything towards the offerings of the
Lord. This prohibition still holds good
regarding Christian service, and condemns all such means of making money as
dances, whist drives, and the like, that are everywhere spreading their
“corruption” and making all such service “unacceptable” by reason of the
“blemishes” (Lev. xii. 25).
No stranger, not of the seed of Aaron, was
allowed to draw near to God to offer incense (Numb.xvi.40). No stranger could be king of Israel (Deut.
xvii. 15). No stranger upon pain of
death was allowed near the tabernacle when it was taken down (Numb. i. 51), and
no stranger could ever be appointed to the priest’s office (Numb. iii.
10). Strange fire, strange incense,
strange wives, strange gods, a strange vine, strange apparel; these things help us to realize something of
the limits set by God regarding that which belongs to His holiness, and speaks
of Christ.
The
Lord’s Anointed.
There are three outstanding offices that
are associated with anointing in the Scriptures — those of Priest (Exod.
xxviii. 41), King (Psa. xviii. 50) and Prophet (I Kings xix. 16) — and these
three offices are filled, and in their fullest measure, by Christ.
His title, “The Christ”, is but the Greek
form of the Hebrew “Messiah”, “the Anointed One”.
“God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the
Holy Ghost, and with power” (Acts.x.38).
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel” (Luke iv. 18).
“For God giveth not the Spirit by measure
unto Him” (John.iii.34).
“Thy Throne . . . . . Thy Sceptre . . . .
. Thy God hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows” (Heb.
i. 8, 9).
He is God’s Anointed, His Prophet, Priest,
and King. We confess that He is the
Christ, and we acknowledge this threefold fulness. All true sanctification flows from Him.
There is a phase of the anointing that
belongs to the period of miraculous gifts (II Cor. i. 21, 22) which is omitted
in the dispensation of the mystery (Eph.i.13), but the true anointing
remains. It is seen in “the unity of the
Spirit”, which brings us into such vital union with Christ that His anointing
becomes ours. We are partakers of His
holiness. He is made unto us
sanctification as well as redemption (I Cor. i. 30).
While the mystery was never a subject of
Old Testament revelation, a very beautiful figure of sanctified unity is given
in Psalm cxxxiii. that it would benefit us to ponder:--
“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
for brethren to dwell together in unity.
It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the
beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went
down to the skirts of his garments: As
the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountain of Zion.”
Here we have a double figure of
unity. The ointment that was poured upon
the head of Aaron extended to the very skirts of his garments. The A.V. of the second figure needs a
correction. There is no real “dew” in
Palestine, but a “summer sea night mist” rolls in and drenches the parched
earth. The mist makes no
distinctions. It unites in one Mt. Hermon
away in the North and Mount Zion in the South. So are all in Christ.
The apostle says, “We are unto God a sweet
savour of Christ” (II Cor. ii. 16). Just
as we found that “consecration” was “filling the hand” with Christ in service
and offering, so true sanctification, true unction, true anointing is a life
that is so much of Christ, that every act, every word, every thought is just
the manifestation of the Anointed One.
Words easy to write, words that condemn us as we think of ourselves, words
that compel us to flee to Him, to be buried in His death that we may rise to
walk in newness of life and serve in newness of spirit.
This holy anointing of ours in Christ
comes not “on the flesh”; it resolutely
sets aside all counterfeit; it is found
where “Christ is all” or not at all, and it is not enjoyed by the alien, the
stranger, the foreigner from grace. As
we can more fully say, “For me to live is Christ”, as we more fully “preach
Christ”, as the life of Christ is more really the life we now live in the
flesh, as the fruit of the Spirit is more evidently manifest, so shall we
approximate more to the fulfillment of this sacred type of the holy anointing
oil.
John, writing to believers of another
calling, expressed the same truth, saying:--
“The anointing which ye received of Him abideth
in you ... it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him” (I John ii.
27).
So we come to the conclusion of this type
of Christ and His work as set forth in the tabernacle. At every step it has spoken of the Son of
God. Starting with the ark and mercy
seat, pausing at the altar of brass, and finishing with the holy anointing oil
and sweet incense, we can truly say that “Christ
is all, and in all”.
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