Oil -- typically olive oil -- symbolizes the good that comes from celestial love. Celestial love is love of the Lord, the highest and purest love we can have. The good of celestial love is the desire to be good springing from celestial love: Wanting to do the Lord's will because you love Him. That's not a state many reach, even in heaven, but it's a beautiful goal. This representation makes sense based on the idea that the sun -- the source of all natural light and heat, and thus all natural life -- represents the Lord, the source of all spiritual light, heat and life. Burning oil was the most pure fire available in Biblical times, thus the closest representation of the sun people could create.

9545. 'And you shall put on the table the bread of faces' means the Lord there in respect of celestial good. This is clear from the meaning of 'the table' as the receptacle of celestial blessings; from the meaning of 'bread' in the highest sense as the Lord, and in a related sense as the good of love that springs from Him, so that the Lord in respect of celestial good is meant, dealt with in 2165, 2177, 3464, 3735, 3813, 4211, 4217, 4735, 4976, 5915, 'bread' in general meaning all heavenly food or the food that nourishes a person's spiritual life, 3478, 6118, 8410, 9323; and from the meaning of 'faces', when the word refers to the Lord, as everything that springs from Divine Love, such as innocence, peace, and joy, thus heaven itself present with people on earth and with angels, 222, 223, 5585, 9306.