To be honest, Bible reading these days is kind of a drag. That’s because I’m back in that part of the Old Testament where God gives chapter after chapter of rules, laying out in excruciating detail everything about Jewish life.
It’s worth slogging through, though, because God doesn’t change. Whatever he was trying to do in the lives of the early Israelites, he still wants to do in my life. What I need to do is think about what God reveals about himself and obedient living in each of these commands.
This is what hit me this morning: “In the tent of meeting, outside the curtain that shields the ark of the covenant law, Aaron and his sons are to keep the lamps burning before the Lord from evening till morning. This is to be a lasting ordinance among the Israelites for the generations to come.” (Exodus 27:21)
Where God is, there is light. Satan and his followers love the darkness. Keeping the lamps lit ensures that darkness never enters God’s holy place. Until the day described in Revelation, when there will be no more night because God will be with us, we light lamps against the darkness of the world.
Here’s the thing, though: I’m one of those lamps. I think God is saying here that anyplace that belongs to him must be a place of light. Later Jesus commanded me to be salt and light in the world. One of my tasks here is to drive away the darkness wherever God has put me to work.
If I am truly a Christian, then the darkness where sin lurks has no place in my home, or my office, or my hotel room when I’m traveling. In fact, my presence there should banish it.
Let there be light, always and only. Give me oil, Lord, keep me burning.
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