I was reading bible one night in my usual prayer time, 27^th chapter of Exodus, when the verse 20 struck on me with a lightening revelation. The verse goes on like this, “You shall command the people of Israel that they bring to you pure beaten olive oil for the light,that a lamp may regularly set up to burn”.

I was particularly caught with this word “pure beaten olive oil”, in other translations of the bible, it is “clear oil of pressed olives”,”clear oil of beaten olives” etc. As much as I was thinking on what was beaten olives or pressed olives, I went on to study the process of extracting oil from olives.

The traditional method for extracting oil from olives was, first the olives are washed and removed of its dirt,twigs and stems. And then the olives were grind into paste in large millstones or presses. The purpose of crushing olives is to tear the flesh cells to facilitate the release of oil. After the olive pastes stays under the millstones for some hours, where the small oil droplets then combines to form bigger ones,it is then taken to be placed under the fiber disks which is then pressed again to separate the extract/pulp,water and the oil.

This separated oil is now kept in barrels or tanks where a final separation happens through gravity. The oil is then filtered to serve for the best use.

The quality of oil comes out in the way it is thoroughly beaten so as to make the light shine brighter.

In order for the lamp to be regularly set up to burn, the oil must be of good quality. If an olive needs to go through such a process to produce oil to make the lamp shine, It is the same with our lives. In order for our light to shine brighter before God and world, we need to be pressed and beaten with storms and lessons which clears us of our impurities, our old ways, our weaknesses, our wrong doings etc.

If the oil was not extracted properly, it certainly cannot make the lamp shine or the purpose of oil and lamp would be void. If we have impurities and old ways in us, we also will be hindered from God’s purpose working in us. The more impurities we have, the less we will shine. The more we are pressed from our old ways, the more we will shine in his purpose for us.

The olive had to bear such a pain to extract its unwanted pulp from its needed oil. God’s discipline comes in such a way that he presses and extracts us from dirt and sin which has surrounded us. If we complain of God’s discipline, then we cannot shine brighter.

So my dear brothers and sisters, lets not get weary of God’s discipline or the storms that encounter us, ultimately it is for our good, to make our light shine brighter and brighter every passing day and to shine in his purpose for us. Amen!!