Anoint

Olive oil was a signature product of the Promised Land (Deut. 8:8), and it was used in many different dimensions of daily living.[1] Among them was application to the skin after being mixed with aromatics. This was designed to mitigate the harmful effects of a sunny, dry climate and also served to mask one’s personal body odor in a place where bathing occurred infrequently due to the lack of fresh water (Ruth 3:3; 2 Sam. 12:20; Dan. 10:3). The biblical authors also knew of a unique application of oil to the body that was given a special designation: anointing. This was not done with ordinary oil but with oil specifically produced for this ritual. The recipe is given in Exodus 30:22–25, and it is also called “the oil of joy” (Ps. 45:7) or “holy oil” (Ps. 89:20 NASB). A stern set of guidelines accompanied with penalties to match ensured that this special oil was used only for ritual anointing (Exod. 30:37–38). At God’s direction, the special oil was poured on the head of a person to mark him or her for special service whether as a member of Israel’s clergy, as a political leader, or as a prophet.

An olive crushing press broke the tough olive skins so that the precious oil could be extracted.

Those anointed in this way had their lives change in three important ways. First, the one “anointed by the Lord” stood out from the general population as a leader. The process of pouring oil on someone’s head had no power on its own and could even be misused to designate a leader God had not intended to lead (2 Sam. 19:10). However, when it was done appropriately, anointing consecrated the life of an individual for special service in the kingdom of God (Lev. 8:30). Once marked with this act, special responsibilities and restrictions ensured that this leader would fulfill the intended role in executing God’s plan on earth (Lev. 10:7; 21:11–15). Second, the anointed one was not autonomous but was always subject to the will and desires of a superior.[2] The “Lord’s anointed” was a middle manager answering to a divine CEO. Third, anointing meant special protection was extended to these special leaders—protection that was unmitigated by circumstances. For example, David considered it unthinkable to harm Saul, the Lord’s anointed, even though Saul’s failings had compromised his leadership and even though Saul was the one who stood between David and the throne of Israel (1 Sam. 24:6; 26:9; 2 Sam. 1:14). This protection was enshrined in the poetry of God’s people: “Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm” (Ps. 105:15).

As the biblical authors share divine truth with us, we find the idea of anointing mentioned frequently in two locations. Fully one-third of the total number of instances in which anointing is mentioned are found in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. As the Lord was establishing a new worship system for his Old Testament people, he put his stamp of ownership on the physical objects associated with worship and on the clergy who would lead that worship via the process of anointing (Exod. 30:26–28, 30). The repeated references to this kind of anointing join to create a refrain that reminds the reader that there was only one form of worship that God sanctioned in that period of history, and he marked the people and tools of that worship with special anointing oil.

Although David had the opportunity to take Saul’s life in a cave at En Gedi, he honored the divine protection that the Lord’s anointed enjoyed.

Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles account for the next one-third of the instances where anointing is formally mentioned in the Bible, but in these cases it was not clergy but kings who were anointed. The idea of anointing a political leader was not unique to the Israelites; it appears to have been practiced by both Hittites and Egyptians as a way of protecting those leaders from harm imposed by hostile deities.[3] Special and repeated mention of the anointing of Saul, David, and Solomon helped to confirm the new institution of the monarchy among God’s people and prevent contested successions. It is striking that after repeated mention of anointing in connection with these three, there is a relative absence of mention in the pages that follow (limited to 2 Kings 9:3; 11:12; 23:30). We cannot know for sure whether subsequent kings were anointed, but as formal mention of anointing disappeared from the later pages of the Bible, the absence of this divine sanction highlights the absence of godly leadership among the kings who took the thrones of Israel and Judah. In that light, it is also striking that Elijah was directed to anoint Elisha as a prophet (1 Kings 19:16). We may be more accustomed to hearing of kings and clergy anointed as leaders, but when both these classes failed in leadership, we find this sacred designation performed on the prophet Elisha.

Divinely anointed leaders did not always live up to their high calling. Consequently, we encounter a growing expectation regarding one who will be anointed and serve as the ultimate leader of God’s people. Though this special “Anointed One” will face grave opposition from the kings of the earth (Dan. 9:25–26; see also Ps. 2:2), his victorious kingdom will endure. The anticipation of such a leader becomes real when Jesus is called the Christ, the Anointed One. We may have expected him to be anointed with sacred oil, but instead he was anointed by the Holy Spirit on the day of his baptism (Isa. 61:1; Luke 4:18). Subsequently, he accepted the title of Christ (Matt. 16:16–17; John 4:25–26 NASB) and lived the life and died the death that allow us to be anointed by the Holy Spirit (1 John 2:20, 27).