Message 158
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Scripture Reading: Exo. 30:22-33; Psa. 133:2; 1 John 2:20, 27
In this message we shall consider the details related to the holy anointing oil in 30:22-33.
The materials of the holy anointing oil are of two categories and are five in number. The first category includes the four spices: myrrh, cinnamon, calamus, and cassia. The second category consists of one item — olive oil.
Flowing myrrh, smelling sweet but tasting bitter, signifies the precious death of Christ. In the Bible myrrh is used mostly for burial. Hence, myrrh is related to death. According to John 19, when Nicodemus and others were preparing to bury the body of the Lord Jesus, they used myrrh.
Myrrh comes from an aromatic tree. This tree drops its juice either as a result of being cut or through some kind of natural opening or incision. In ancient times, this juice was used to reduce the suffering of death. When the Lord Jesus was being crucified, He was offered wine mixed with myrrh to reduce His pain. However, He refused to take it. No doubt, the myrrh in Exodus 30 is a symbol of the Lord’s death.
The aromatic liquid of myrrh not only reduces pain, but also can be used for healing the body when it gives off the wrong kind of secretion. Myrrh can correct this condition in the human body. In our human life there are many wrong secretions, but the Lord’s death on the cross corrects this problem.
Fragrant cinnamon signifies the sweetness and effectiveness of Christ’s death. Cinnamon not only has a distinctive flavor, but it can also be used to stimulate the heart. Cinnamon may be prescribed to stimulate a weak heart.
Myrrh signifies the precious death of Christ, and cinnamon signifies the effectiveness of His death. If we apply the Lord’s death to our situation, it will reduce our pain, correct the wrong secretions, and eventually stimulate us and make us happy and joyful. I can testify of this from my experience. There are times that negative things in my environment would cause me to be low. But when I apply the Lord’s death, I am corrected, adjusted, stimulated, and stirred up.
The calamus in Exodus 30 is a reed. The Hebrew root of the word myrrh means flowing, and the root for calamus means standing up. Calamus grows in a marsh or muddy place. But even though it grows in a marsh, it is able to shoot up into the air. According to the sequence of the spices, this calamus signifies the rising up of the Lord Jesus from the place of death. The Lord was put into a marsh, into a death situation, but in resurrection He rose up and stood up. Calamus, therefore, signifies the precious resurrection of Christ.
The fourth spice, cassia, signifies the power of Christ’s resurrection. Cassia and cinnamon belong to the same family. Cinnamon is from the inner part of the bark, and cassia, from the outer part of the bark. Both cinnamon and cassia are sweet and fragrant. Furthermore, the plants from which they are derived often live and grow in places where other plants cannot grow.
In ancient times cassia was used as a repellent to drive away insects and snakes. Cassia thus signifies the power, the effectiveness, of Christ’s resurrection. Christ’s resurrection can withstand any kind of environment, and His resurrection certainly is a repellent. It repels all evil “insects” and especially the old serpent, the Devil.
Myrrh, cinnamon, calamus, and cassia are all of one category of materials, the category of the spices. Now we come to the olive oil, the only item in the second category.
In the Bible olive oil signifies the Spirit of God. Olive oil is produced by the pressing of olives. The olive oil signifies the Spirit of God, through the pressure of Christ’s death, flowing out.
The olive oil is the base of the ointment; it is the basic element compounded with the spices. The four spices are compounded into the olive oil to make the ointment. This indicates that the Spirit of God, signified by the olive oil, is no longer merely oil, but now it is oil compounded with certain ingredients. Regarding this, John 7:39 says, “But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” This means that before the Lord’s glorification, the compound Spirit was not yet. It was after Christ’s resurrection that the compounding, or the blending, of such a Spirit was completed.
The four spices signify humanity in God’s creation. In the Bible the number four signifies God’s creation. We have the four living creatures and the four corners of the earth. Furthermore, the four spices themselves are elements of God’s creation. These spices signify the humanity of the Lord Jesus. In His incarnation the Lord Jesus was both God and man. The four spices signify the humanity of the Lord Jesus in God’s creation. Of course, some Christians do not like to hear the word creation used in the case of the Lord Jesus. This is due to the heretical teaching of Arius who taught that Christ was merely a created being, and that He was not the eternal God.
The oil signifies divinity in the Godhead. We have seen that the number four signifies the creatures. The number one signifies God, the unique Creator.
In this compound ointment we have the numbers four and one, with the number four blended with the number one. This signifies humanity blended, mingled, with divinity. Concerning the compound ointment, we cannot avoid using the word “mingled.” The words “compounded” and “blended” actually mean mingled. The four spices were mingled with the oil.
The mingling of the spices with the oil can be compared to the mingling of fine flour and oil in the meal offering (Lev. 2). For the meal offering, the dough is produced by blending, mingling, fine flour with oil. This also signifies that in the one Person of Christ we have both divinity and humanity.
I have read some books which say that the Gospel of John was written in an attempt to reconcile the different parties who were debating concerning the Person of Christ. Some said that Christ was God, and others that He was merely a man. Others said that Christ was not God, but was the Word, the Logos, created by God. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This makes it clear that the Word, which is Christ, is God. Furthermore, John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh.” The very Word who is God became flesh. Actually, I do not like to use the words “conciliate” or “reconcile” with respect to John’s writings. The writings of the apostle John actually are not conciliatory; rather, they are all-inclusive. Christ is the all-inclusive One. If He were only God and not man, or were merely man and not God, He would not be all-inclusive. Praise the Lord that Christ is God as well as man, man as well as God! Because Christ is all-inclusive, the writings of John are also all-inclusive.
The compound ointment likewise is all-inclusive. Can you see the all-inclusiveness of this compound? In this all-inclusive compound we have olive oil, myrrh, cinnamon, calamus, and cassia. This indicates that in the compound Spirit typified by the ointment we can see divinity, humanity, the all-inclusive death of Christ, and the effectiveness of Christ’s death. Furthermore, we can see the precious resurrection of Christ and the power of His resurrection. All these elements are included in the Spirit of Christ.
As used in the New Testament, the Spirit of Christ is an all-inclusive expression. Philippians 1:19 speaks of the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. However, there is no reference to the bountiful supply of the Spirit of God. In Genesis 1 we read about the Spirit of God. But in the Epistles of Paul we have the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of Jesus Christ as well.
May we all be deeply impressed that today the all-inclusive Spirit, as the compound ointment, is nothing less than the Triune God processed to become the all-inclusive Spirit to reach us. Some Christians consider this understanding of the Spirit heretical. However, the judgment made today is not final. According to the Bible, this is the day of man, and man’s day is not final. Let us wait until the day of the Lord, and let Him judge. I have the assurance that the Lord will say that this understanding of the all-inclusive Spirit is right.
In the Old Testament we have the olive oil signifying the Spirit of God. Eventually, after the tabernacle was built up and the priests were made ready, there was not only the olive oil, but the compound ointment. This indicates that we have not only the Spirit of God, but also the Spirit of Christ. No doubt, Mr. C. A. Coates has seen something here. In his writing on the ointment in Exodus 30 he speaks of the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of another Man.
As believers, we have been anointed with the compound ointment, with the all-inclusive Spirit. Psalm 133:2 describes how the anointing oil flowed down from Aaron’s head to his beard and then to the skirts of his garments. This signifies that the whole Body is anointed with the Spirit.
Then in 1 John 2:20 and 27 we are told that we have received an anointing and that this anointing teaches us all things. First John 2:20 says, “And you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.” Verse 27 says, “The anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you; but as His anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and even as it has taught you, abide in Him.”
To receive the anointing is to receive the divine painting. Painters know that it is good to apply more than one coat of paint. In painting certain things it is good to have layer upon layer of paint. In our experience of the Spirit, we need to be “painted” again and again. Eventually, we may receive hundreds of layers. Praise the Lord that He is daily painting us by His anointing!
As the anointing is being applied to us, it teaches us. Today God mainly teaches us silently by the anointing. For example, you may ask the Lord about something, and He will teach you concerning it by anointing you. If we would say, “Lord, please tell me what color You want,” the Lord may not say anything. Instead, He may pick up His “brush” and paint you a particular color, perhaps green. Instead of speaking to you about the color green, He tells you that He wants green by painting you green. This is the Lord’s way to teach us.
According to 1 John 2, the anointing within us teaches us in everything. Many times we know that we are wrong. No one needs to tell us this. But the moving of the anointing within us teaches us that we are wrong. I believe that we all have had some amount of experience of this teaching of the anointing.
The five hundred shekels of myrrh signify one unit of full responsibility. The number five in the Bible symbolizes responsibility. We may use the human hand as an illustration. On our hand we have four fingers and a thumb. Because of this, the hand can do many things and bear responsibility.
Five is composed of four plus one. Once again, the number four signifies the creature, and the number one signifies God. Therefore, the number five signifies God added to man to give us the ability to bear responsibility.
In the Bible there are clear illustrations of the fact that five is the number of responsibility. The Ten Commandments were written on two tablets, five on each tablet. Also, the ten virgins in Matthew 25 are divided into two groups, five in each. In the cases both of the commandments and of the virgins, the number five signifies responsibility. The five hundred shekels of myrrh is composed of one hundred times five, signifying one unit of full responsibility.
According to 30:23, the measurement of the cinnamon was “half as much, two hundred and fifty, and of fragrant calamus two hundred and fifty.” Two hundred fifty shekels signify a half unit of full responsibility. The two hundred fifty shekels of cinnamon and the two hundred fifty shekels of calamus together form one unit and signify that the Second of the divine Trinity was split through death. It is no accident that with the spices there are three complete units and that the middle unit is divided in half. This was written by God with the view of signifying how the Son of God would be cut on the cross.
Verse 24 says, “And of cassia five hundred, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and of olive oil a hin.” The five hundred shekels of cassia also signify one unit of full responsibility.
The three units of five hundred shekels each, in four spices, signify the Triune God in resurrection mingled with humanity to bear the full responsibility. I can testify that in the ministry of the Word the Triune God in resurrection mingles Himself with the speaker to bear the responsibility to minister the Word to His people.
The function of the holy anointing oil as a compound ointment is to sanctify the things of God and men of God, separating them from anything common and making them most holy for God’s service. According to 30:26-28, the anointing oil was used to anoint the tent of meeting, the ark of the testimony, the table and all its utensils, the lampstand and its utensils, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the laver and its base. Verse 30 says, “And you shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and you shall sanctify them to serve as priests to Me.” Whoever or whatever was anointed was sanctified, set apart. The ointment became a mark separating them from anything common.
Verse 29 says, “And you shall sanctify them, and they shall be most holy; whatever touches them shall be holy.” As soon as the anointing oil was applied to something, that thing became most holy. Furthermore, whoever touched it became holy.
Let us suppose that we paint a chair green with a paint that never dries. Anyone who touches this chair will get paint on him. We may say that we have been painted with a paint, a divine paint, that never dries. Anyone who touches us, therefore, should be affected by us. All Christians should be influential in this way; there should be something contagious about them. If you touch us, you should get painted. Sometimes others have said of me, “Don’t go to contact that man! If you have contact with him, you will be influenced by him.” It is my job as a minister of Christ to influence others. If I am not influential in this way, I am useless as a minister of the Word. A useful minister of the Word always has something contagious about him.
Exodus 30:31 says, “And you shall speak to the sons of Israel, saying, This shall be a holy anointing oil to Me throughout your generations.” This indicates that God’s principle or policy in His divine economy does not change. The ordinance concerning the anointing will remain forever. Even in eternity God will continually be anointing us.
Verse 32 says that the holy anointing oil was “not to be poured upon the flesh of man.” In the Bible the flesh of man denotes fallen man in the old creation. As believers in Christ, we have all been regenerated, and in regeneration we have become a new creation. On the one hand, we have a regenerated spirit; on the other hand, we still have the old, fallen flesh. The command not to pour the anointing oil upon the flesh of man indicates that the anointing is not to be applied to men of the old creation. Whenever we live and walk according to the flesh, we are through with the Spirit of Christ. If we would partake of this Spirit and enjoy the all-inclusive Spirit, we must remain in our spirit.
The Spirit of Christ cannot be poured upon our old nature, our old man. Our flesh does not have the position to participate in this compound ointment. Whenever you lose your temper, you are in the flesh and cannot enjoy the Spirit of Christ. But whenever you turn to your spirit, immediately in your spirit you sense the anointing. You realize that you are being painted with the Spirit of Christ, for you are in the new creation, not in your old nature.
Exodus 30:33 indicates that the ointment was not to be put upon a stranger. The word “stranger” implies a comparison between those who are priests and those who are not. The priests serving in the presence of God do not act according to the old nature. Instead, they live according to their new nature and thereby enjoy the anointing. However, in the sight of God all other people are strangers. We may say that the flesh, the old man, is a stranger. We Christians today are not strangers; we are priests. But unbelievers are strangers. When we act and behave according to our flesh, we are in the old creation and are regarded as strangers in the sight of God. When we are such strangers, we cannot enjoy the Spirit of Christ. We must remain in our spirit, and we must live, act, speak, and contact others in the spirit. Then we shall be in the new creation as priests serving God and participating in the Spirit of Christ.
If we would enjoy the Spirit of Christ, we must be priests in the new creation. Do not be in the flesh, lest you be a stranger in the sight of God. If we are a stranger, then we shall not have any share in the all-inclusive Spirit.
The middle part of verse 32 says, “Neither shall you make any like it in its proportions.” Furthermore, verse 33 goes on to say, “Whoever compounds any like it, or who puts any of it upon a stranger, he shall be cut off from his people.” The command not to make anything like the anointing oil in its proportions means that we should not imitate it. However, among Christians today there is a great deal of imitation. Therefore, we need to discern what is truly of the Spirit and what is an imitation. For example, a person’s humility may not be of the Spirit. In China I saw some disciples of Confucius who were much more humble than many Christian teachers. But that humility had nothing to do with the Spirit of Christ. Because of the influence of certain teachings, many Christians try to act humble. This humility, however, is not of the Spirit of Christ. Rather, it is an imitation.
Do not imitate any spiritual virtue by your own effort. To do this is to make something like the ointment. In the sight of God this is an abomination.
Because Christianity has been in existence for centuries, a great many people, including unbelievers, have been influenced by Bible teachings. Under the influence of these teachings, many try to be honest, loving, and faithful. All this is an imitation of the Spirit. To try to behave in this way is to make an imitation of the genuine ointment. Our honesty must come out of the Spirit of Christ. Likewise, our love, humility, patience, and kindness — indeed, every virtue — must be a product of the indwelling Spirit. Otherwise, we are imitating the ointment; we are making something false in the same way. Therefore, we should not act in our old nature and we should not imitate anything that is of the Spirit of Christ.
