HEBREW WORD STUDY – THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE – HA’OR HAQATAN SHALI האור הקטן שׁלי
Leviticus 24:2-3: “Command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamps to burn continually. (3) Without the veil of the testimony, in the tabernacle of the congregation, shall Aaron order it from the evening unto the morning before the LORD continually: [it shall be] a statute forever in your generations.”
“This little light of mine
I’m gonna let it shine
Let it shine, let is shine, let it shine.” – Harry Dixon Loes
Back in the 50’s and 60’s this little song became an anthem for the Civil Rights Movement. It was sung with the intention of the light was the little things of good that you do. Many have attributed this song as a spiritual sung by plantation slaves. However, that is not true. The song was written by a music professor from Moody Bible Institute who wrote it as a children’s song in the 1920’s. Now being a graduate of Moody Bible Institute myself, although never having met the writer Harry Dixon Loes, I am confident a graduate and professor of Moody Bible Institute did not intent for light to mean the good things that we do in our little corner of the world. A good Moody man would say that the light means the light of God. Although I cannot prove it, I strongly feel that Leviticus 24:2-3 could have been his inspiration for this song, maybe not but it could have been.
This passage is difficult to translate into English “…to cause the lamps to burn continually. Without the veil of the testimony, in the tabernacle of the congregation,” The intention of the passage in Hebrew is to express the idea that the testimony is to be found outside the veil in the tabernacle. Rashi the Jewish commentator renders this as: “Outside the dividing curtain of the testimony of the Tent of Meetings, Aaron shall set it (the lamps, menorah) up before the Lord…”
The sages teach that this testimony or ha’edeth alludes to the western lamp or menorah situated before the Ark of the Covenant. It is called a ha’edeth from the root word ‘edeth which means a witness, an affirmation or a testimony. It was to be a witness to all the creatures on earth that the Shechinah or the glory of God rested upon Israel. It was from this lamp that the High Priest would take from the flame and begin the lighting of all the other lamps in the tabernacle. This was to show that Israel was to be the witness or testimony to the world, teaching the world about Jehovah God.
In Romans 11:11-23 the Apostle Paul says that we are grafted into the Jewish mission by Jesus Christ as the Messiah. There is a term going around today The One New Man. My publisher publishes the One New Man Bible which I highly recommend and it can be purchased through our website. The concept is that God intends for Christians and Jews to come together and worship together and share God’s message. The temple no longer exists for the light of the western menorah to shine as a testimony to the world but that light now shines upon each of as a little light that is meant to be shared with other little lights to grow into a huge flame, a testimony to the world. It is not our good deeds that people are to notice but the love of God that we are to share. Any good we do, any organizations or ministries we form, churches we build are built in the name of God. It is very hard for a pastor or the founder of a ministry to point to a building or a thriving work and not say; “Yep, I built this from the ground up.” It is hard not have your name or picture plastered everywhere for people to see and say; “Oy, what a mighty man of God is he, come come we must sit under his teaching.”
The enemy tries very hard to convince us to hide that little light of ours under a bushel so we can let ourselves shine as that western menorah with all the other lights stemming from us. It is a trap, a land mine, that all of us are in danger of stepping on.
Recent Comments