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An Oil Lamp

The other day I was doing some spring cleaning and came across an old oil lamp. It didn’t have a chimney on it – for some unfathomable reason separated from the lamp, or perhaps broken and discarded.

In my parents’ time, lamps like the one I’d found were the norm for lighting homes in rural Ontario. (Electrification of Southern Ontario was incomplete until the late 1950s.) I remember that, when I was a child, several lamps stood on a shelf in the woodshed for occasions when the power would go off. Such times always seemed an adventure to me. I liked to watch my mother trim the lamp wicks so the flame would burn evenly and brightly.

Of course, what I’ve been calling an oil lamp, was, more precisely, a kerosene lamp. Regardless of the specific fuel used, the technology of oil lamps didn’t change a great deal from prehistory to the mid-1800s. A few technological changes started about that time, but lamps have never been complex. Just a container of oil with a wick. Refinements came along the way as we learned to handle different materials, but the basic functioning remained the same.

It’s easy to forget that oil lamps of various designs, along with candles, were the only options for indoor lighting for thousands of years. Every culture that moved out of the stone age got around to making some kind of oil burning lamp, simple though it may have been.

Because of the limited options for lighting up the darkness, lamps have assumed a symbolic role in many cultures. Often shrines and icons are lit by lamps. These symbolize the presence of God to believers. For example, a lamp fuelled by pure olive oil was to burn continually in the Tabernacle - the center of Jewish faith during their homeless years. (See Exodus 27:20)

Because of the association of lamps with light, they are also associated with life. God Himself is described as a lamp on occasion. (See 2 Samuel 22:29) When God promised an ongoing dynasty to David, one of the ways He expressed it was by promising to “give a lamp to him and his sons forever.” (See 2 Kings 8:19) The ancient Hebrews had a number of proverbs relating to oil lamps. The threat of having one’s lamp put out spoke of death. Those whose lamp does not go out are blessed with life.

Among the many metaphors associated with the Bible, is the oil lamp. Psalm 119:105 records “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Just as a lamp burning on a dark night sheds light so we can see physically, so God’s word in the inner darkness of a soul dispels the darkness so we can see spiritually. If you're looking for spiritual insight, the Bible is the first place to look.

Ron Hughes
© April 2009