How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony! For harmony is as precious as the anointing oil that was poured over Aaron’s head, that ran down his beard and onto the border of his robe. (Psalm 133:1,2)
The first aspect of the garment that we’re studying isn’t actually an article of clothing. It’s not an easy process to put on and take off oil. After studying the necessity of this particular piece, I can appreciate why the ten days began with this.
The oil symbolizes the Holy Spirit. A more common practice for anointing today has been to dab a touch of oil on a person’s forehead. The way described in the Bible suggests that a good amount of oil is actually poured over the high priest’s head. Enough that it was dripping down his entire face, into his beard, and onto his clothing.
I appreciate the word picture here because it shows that we need much of the Holy Spirit. We don’t have to settle for only being dabbed with a bit of God’s Spirit. We need to be fully covered with His Spirit.
“There must be an interchange of taking in and giving out, receiving and imparting. This links us up as laborers together with God. This is the lifework of the Christian. He that will lose his life shall find it.”
We need to be immersed in God’s Spirit in order to be effective in God’s work. In addition to sharing the gospel message of hope and salvation with others, we need to be united in the work. God wants us to work together.
Yes, we each have differences. God creates us to be unique individuals. The enemy distracts us from God’s work by highlighting and magnifying our differences. However, it’s those very same differences that enable us to approach gospel-sharing from unique perspectives to reach more people.
The Holy Spirit reminds us to stay focused on the bigger picture—the Kingdom of God. He’ll help us to work with our differences and fit them together like a mosaic masterpiece to glorify God.
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This article is part of the Ten Days of Prayer 2018 series. Visit that page to find all the other articles in this series.
