If you’ve ever been to a church service where they invited you forward to pray and then a pastor or a leader took out a little flask of oil and put a little dab of oil on your forehead – and if you thought that was a little bit weird and wondered where that came from in scripture – well that’s what we’re going to talk about in today’s video.
It actually comes from James chapter 5 verse 14 where James writes “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.” Now let me give you a little bit more context from scripture so it doesn’t freak you out next time this happens to you.
First of all, oil was used in the Old Testament to symbolize holiness – setting something or someone apart for God’s special purposes. One of the first times we see it in the Old Testament is in Leviticus chapter 8 where it says “Moses took some of the anointing oil and also of the blood that was on the altar and he sprinkled it on Aaron (Aaron was the high priest) and on his garments and also on Aaron’s sons and on his son’s garments. And so Moses consecrated Aaron and his garments and his sons and his son’s garments with him.” That word “consecrated” there is about setting something apart and identifying it as holy.
Now later in the story of David we see that anointing oil is closely connected to the presence of the Holy Spirit. 1 Samuel 16 “The Lord said to the prophet Samuel rise and anoint him (young David).” This is the one that God wanted to anoint as the next king so Samuel took the horn of oil and he anointed David in the presence of his brothers. And then notice it says “from that day on the spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David.”
Now when we turn to the New Testament we learn that in the early church anointing oil was sometimes used to pray for healing. One of the first times we see it is in Mark chapter 6 in verse 13 it says “the disciples of Jesus cast out many demons and they anointed with oil many who were sick and they healed them”. Now it’s probably from this passage in the gospels that we get the background for the teaching in James chapter 5 verse 14. So let’s read that again: “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord”.
Here’s the takeaway, especially for those of you who are a little bit weirded out by the practice of anointing with oil: I think that we should look to God and his word even more than to our culture. We should look to God and his word to determine how we should live our lives for one thing – but also to determine how we should do things at our churches. It’s pretty clear from scripture that though it’s not mandated I would say it’s very much biblical to use anointing oil when we’re praying for the sick. Now I think it’s probably important to explain it to somebody before you dab a little bit of oil on their forehead and then pray for them, but it doesn’t take much to point out from scripture where this important practice comes from.
So in your church: if anyone is sick, let them call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
