Leviticus 24:1-9: a reflection

1The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2“Command the children of Israel, that they bring to you pure olive oil beaten for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continually. 3Outside of the veil of the Testimony, in the Tent of Meeting, Aaron shall keep it in order from evening to morning before the LORD continually. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. 4He shall keep in order the lamps on the pure gold lamp stand before the LORD continually. 5“You shall take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes of it: two tenths of an ephah shall be in one cake. 6You shall set them in two rows, six on a row, on the pure gold table before the LORD. 7You shall put pure frankincense on each row, that it may be to the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire to the LORD. 8Every Sabbath day he shall set it in order before the LORD continually. It is an everlasting covenant on the behalf of the children of Israel. 9It shall be for Aaron and his sons. They shall eat it in a holy place; for it is most holy to him of the offerings of the LORD made by fire by a perpetual statute.”

In the tabernacle, two things were to be maintained continually before the LORD: the lamp on the golden lampstand, tended so that it burned from evening to morning without fail, and the bread of the Presence, twelve loaves set out on the golden table, renewed every Sabbath, kept perpetually before God. The repeated word is continually: the light and the bread were to be kept before the LORD without interruption, a continual, unbroken presence in his sanctuary.

Notice the emphasis on continuity, on what was kept before the LORD always. The lamp was not lit occasionally, but tended to burn continually; the bread was not set out now and then, but kept perpetually before God. This continual presence, the ever-burning light, the ever-present bread, pictured an unbroken relationship, a life lived always before the face of God, not merely visited on occasion.

That points to something for our own life with God. It is possible to treat our relationship with God as occasional, coming to him now and then, on Sundays or in crises, but otherwise living as though he were not present. The lamp and the bread, kept continually before the LORD, picture a better way: living continually in God's presence, an unbroken awareness that we are always before his face, a devotion that is ongoing rather than occasional. Practice the presence of God continually. Do not treat him as one you visit occasionally, but live continually before him, aware always of his presence, keeping the lamp of devotion always burning. Let your whole life be lived, like the lamp and the bread, continually before the LORD.

Lord, in the tabernacle the lamp was tended to burn continually, and the bread of the Presence was kept perpetually before you, picturing an unbroken presence, a life lived always before your face. Teach me to live continually before you. I am prone to treat my relationship with you as occasional, coming to you now and then, in crises or on set days, but otherwise living as though you were not present. Help me instead to live continually in your presence, aware always that I am before your face, keeping the lamp of devotion always burning. Let my whole life be lived, like the lamp and the bread, continually before you, in unbroken awareness of your presence. Draw me to walk with you always, not occasionally, but continually before the LORD.