OIL AS A FIGURE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Alistair M Brown
1 Kings 17: 10-16
Psalm 92: 10
Leviticus 2: 4 (footnote ‘k’ to “fine flour mingled with oil”, which refers back to Psalm 92)
I have been thinking about these two scriptures since the weekend, dear brethren, since in Scripture oil frequently refers to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was brought before us as living water springing up, and as streams and rivers of water. Oil is a different type of the Holy Spirit, but it gives a view of the same blessed Person. One of the exercises that I have found raised in my heart by what we considered is whether I value the Holy Spirit enough. This scripture in 1 Kings 17 is about a woman who speaks of “a little oil”: “I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse”. We are thinking of oil as representing the Spirit: I wonder if I am like the woman, thinking of the resource of the Holy Spirit as something rather small, something I might even overlook. This woman perhaps thought in that way. She had oil - if we apply that to believers, she had the Holy Spirit; but she saw it as “little”, and she saw it as running out. But Elijah brings in God’s view. He assures her that if she makes that cake for him first - we might think of that as the woman providing for the Lord, putting the Lord first, getting her priorities right - then the supply of the Spirit would continue for the whole year and would preserve life for the whole cycle of seasons. I think that is a lesson for the believer; as we have faith to rely upon the Spirit and to draw upon Him, we find that there is a supply there.
One feature of the Holy Spirit, who, as we know and as we were reminded at the weekend, is a blessed divine Person in glory and power, is that His activities are not in general marked by assertiveness. He can be grieved; He can be quenched. If we regard Him as unimportant or secondary, He can be grieved and, if grieved, He retreats. I do not think that normally the Spirit asserts and imposes Himself on the believer. The Spirit operates in such a way that we have to make room for Him. The scripture speaks about sowing to Him (Gal 6: 8), which includes making room for Him. We also have to draw upon Him and so use Him. If we are not exercised to use Him, the Spirit will not step forward and insist on being used, just to be simple about it, but if we use Him, we find that He is there. If we use Him one day and feel the benefit of that, we will find that He is there the next day too. I challenge myself as I say this whether I go to the Holy Spirit within me for help or for enlightenment or whatever the need might be. One feature of the Spirit’s service is its versatility; we can speak to the Spirit about whatever we need. It may be that we are then prompted to make a request of the Lord Jesus or to make a request of the Father, but we can go to the Spirit because He is the divine Person who indwells the believer and He is therefore available.
How available this oil was to the woman: it was in a cruse. She had provided the cruse; the cruse, in a sense, refers to herself. In any case, it was available to her in the house. She also had a handful of meal, “a handful of meal in a barrel”. That would speak of some appreciation in a believer’s soul of the Lord Jesus. It was a small appreciation, but when combined with what the oil speaks of, it formed the nourishment that was able to sustain this woman and her son and Elijah, the whole household, for a year.
I would encourage myself and all of us to depend upon and to draw upon the Holy Spirit day by day. The apostle Paul speaks to the Philippians about “the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ”, chap 1: 19. It is not that you get a year’s supply of the Spirit’s help in one go, and you live on that, but it is fresh every day: that is the sense. And as this woman poured oil out of that cruse every day, she might wonder if there was going to be enough for the day, and there always was. It is like “the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ”.
Psalm 92 draws attention to the freshness of the oil and its invigorating character. The oil poured out of the cruse every day was fresh oil. The oil was not stale; it was new every day. “The supply of the Spirit” is new every day. It is the same blessed Person and it is fresh, and one of the results of the freshness of the Holy Spirit’s service to us as believers, as we appeal to Him and use Him, draw upon Him and call upon Him, is that it invigorates us. The Spirit is invigorating and spiritually strengthening. The psalmist here says, "I shall be anointed with fresh oil”. The translator’s footnote k to Leviticus 2: 4, which opens out this verse in Psalm 92, says ‘his whole system is invigorated and strengthened by it: it formed his strength’. Well, that is a challenge. I suggest that this is the normal service of the Holy Spirit - to spiritually invigorate believers in whom He dwells, those who love the Lord Jesus and who have Him as the Object of their affections and their minds. He is the One that we put first in our lives. The Holy Spirit loves to strengthen and invigorate such persons. You see that in dear elderly saints who are physically weak, and even approaching the end of their lives. The Spirit within them invigorates them spiritually, gives them spiritual impressions which they are able to impart to others. That would be evidence of a person spiritually invigorated, drawing daily on “the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ”, and we know brethren like that; they are amongst us. They are an example to us, even in their old age, “full of sap and green”, Ps 92: 14. That is evidence of the invigorating power of the Holy Spirit.
And then there is strength, which goes with vigour, strength to resist what is not right, but also strength to carry forward what is according to Christ, to receive and to impart living impressions of that One. Vigour and strength are associated with life. Just as that woman and her household were maintained alive through the supply of the oil for a whole year, so we, as believers, are to be kept in life, vigour and strength through depending upon and drawing upon the Holy Spirit.
What a resource He is! How easy it is to undervalue the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, but what a wonderful resource He is, a divine Person within the believer. He could not be nearer to us because He indwells, thus forming a link with the spirit of the believer. The Holy Spirit’s connection with us is through our spirits, and He invigorates, strengthens and quickens our spirits thus causing us to live spiritually. What a blessed matter it is! What a resource we have, beloved brethren! How readily available He is for us to make use of, to appreciate, to be thankful to, and to rejoice in.
May these few thoughts be for our encouragement!
Word in meeting for ministry in Grangemouth
4th September 2018