Daily Bible Portion (Sunday)
Daily Bible Portion – 1 of 7
"YOU SHALL COMMAND"
(Weekly Reading>> Exodus 27:20-30:10, Ezekiel 43:10-27, Romans 12:1-13:14)
Review: The Israelites have just betrothed themselves to Yahweh (Exodus 24:1-11) and Moses set himself apart for a time to receive Yahweh’s plans for the tabernacle called a mishkan in Hebrew. This same word mishkan, is also a reference to the Bridal Chamber. In the last study we learned about the furnishings of the mishkan. This study we will look at the garments to be worn by Yahweh’s priesthood when ministering before Him in the mishkan.
Oil for the Menorah
(Exodus 27:20-21)
Olive oil is derived from olive trees. Wild olive trees, called oleaster, grow throughout most of the Mediterranean countries and bear little fruit. Domesticated olive trees belong to the family of olea europaea, flowering flora of which jasmine and lilac are also members. There are hundreds of varieties of olives, and like the grape, the climate and soil in which the trees are grown determine whether the olives they produce will be pressed for oil or used in eating.
The culturing of olive trees requires the patience of generations of agriculturists. The olive tree is green and non-deciduous, with a gray trunk that appears wrinkled and knotty. An olive tree takes twenty-five to fifty years to mature; however, it begins to give fruit six to eight years after planting. This evergreen tree stands anywhere from ten to fifty feet high. The average tree will yield about twenty-two pounds of olives during harvest, and the best yields are often from mature trees exceeding two hundred and fifty years of age.
The leaves of the olive tree live for about three years before dying to make way for new leaves. Olive leaves are paired opposite each other down the branches. They are single and undivided, rather like a willow leaf, lance-shaped, shiny, and leathery.
An olive tree blooms in late spring with clusters of white flowers. Depending on the variety, there can be anywhere from ten to over forty flowers in a cluster, but only one in every twenty flowers will become an olive. Olive trees are self-pollinating by means of the wind.
Olive trees prefer a hilly terrain and grow best at one to two thousand feet above sea level in lime soil. These trees are small, with deep roots, thirsty, with small olives and pits, and a high content of oil particles. In early autumn and spring the soil in the groves is plowed and weeded, and the trees pruned. Pruning is most important and is labor intensive. You must thin the growth on the crown of the tree so the fruit-bearing branches can be exposed to the sun and air.
There is not one part of this eternal tree that a person cannot utilize. Olive trees are resilient–they do not die of neglect, need little water, and produce for decades. During the winter, a tree handpicked by shaking or beating the branches can yield two to four pints of olive oil, thus the finished product is expensive. Olives yield about twenty percent of their weight to oil. Some olive trees live to be more than two thousand years old, however the average is two hundred years.
continues tomorrow...
"YOU SHALL COMMAND"
(Weekly Reading>> Exodus 27:20-30:10, Ezekiel 43:10-27, Romans 12:1-13:14)
Review: The Israelites have just betrothed themselves to Yahweh (Exodus 24:1-11) and Moses set himself apart for a time to receive Yahweh’s plans for the tabernacle called a mishkan in Hebrew. This same word mishkan, is also a reference to the Bridal Chamber. In the last study we learned about the furnishings of the mishkan. This study we will look at the garments to be worn by Yahweh’s priesthood when ministering before Him in the mishkan.
Oil for the Menorah
(Exodus 27:20-21)
Olive oil is derived from olive trees. Wild olive trees, called oleaster, grow throughout most of the Mediterranean countries and bear little fruit. Domesticated olive trees belong to the family of olea europaea, flowering flora of which jasmine and lilac are also members. There are hundreds of varieties of olives, and like the grape, the climate and soil in which the trees are grown determine whether the olives they produce will be pressed for oil or used in eating.
The culturing of olive trees requires the patience of generations of agriculturists. The olive tree is green and non-deciduous, with a gray trunk that appears wrinkled and knotty. An olive tree takes twenty-five to fifty years to mature; however, it begins to give fruit six to eight years after planting. This evergreen tree stands anywhere from ten to fifty feet high. The average tree will yield about twenty-two pounds of olives during harvest, and the best yields are often from mature trees exceeding two hundred and fifty years of age.
The leaves of the olive tree live for about three years before dying to make way for new leaves. Olive leaves are paired opposite each other down the branches. They are single and undivided, rather like a willow leaf, lance-shaped, shiny, and leathery.
An olive tree blooms in late spring with clusters of white flowers. Depending on the variety, there can be anywhere from ten to over forty flowers in a cluster, but only one in every twenty flowers will become an olive. Olive trees are self-pollinating by means of the wind.
Olive trees prefer a hilly terrain and grow best at one to two thousand feet above sea level in lime soil. These trees are small, with deep roots, thirsty, with small olives and pits, and a high content of oil particles. In early autumn and spring the soil in the groves is plowed and weeded, and the trees pruned. Pruning is most important and is labor intensive. You must thin the growth on the crown of the tree so the fruit-bearing branches can be exposed to the sun and air.
There is not one part of this eternal tree that a person cannot utilize. Olive trees are resilient–they do not die of neglect, need little water, and produce for decades. During the winter, a tree handpicked by shaking or beating the branches can yield two to four pints of olive oil, thus the finished product is expensive. Olives yield about twenty percent of their weight to oil. Some olive trees live to be more than two thousand years old, however the average is two hundred years.
Exodus 27:20-21 “And you shall command the children of Israel that they bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to cause the lamp to burn continually. In the tabernacle of meeting, outside the veil which is before the Testimony, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening until morning before Yahweh. It shall be a statute forever to their generations on behalf of the children of Israel.”(Leviticus 24:2)
continues tomorrow...