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The
Altar of Incense
Exodus 30:1-10
"There was given unto him much incense that he should offer
it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar" Revelation
8:3
 THE
remaining article of furniture in the Holy Place stood before
the Veil which separated it from the Most Holy Place. It was
an altar made of shittim wood, foursquare, measuring one cubit
x one cubit x two cubits high; i.e. approx. 1 foot 6 inches
x 1 foot 6 inches x 3 feet (45 cm x 45 cm x 90 cm). It was
overlaid with pure gold, had a horn in each of its four corners,
and was edged with a crown of wreathen gold. It was carried
by shittim wood, gold-covered staves (see Exod. 30:1-10; 37:25-28).
Incense
was burnt upon the altar each morning and evening, at the
same time that attention was given to the lamps upon the seven-branched
lampstand (Exod. 307-8). This was a regular part of the daily
service performed by priests in the Holy Place.
The
incense was compounded of four ingredients (Exod. 30:34-36),
according to strict Divine instructions (vv. 37-38). It comprised
three sweet spices, stacte3 onycha and galbanum, mixed in
prescribed proportions with pure frankincense.
Stacte
was also known as Balm of Gilead which was well known for
its healing properties. It was extracted from the bark of
the Storax tree which was a very showy tree when in bloom,
its flowering being orange in color.
Onycha
is believed to have come from a shell mollusk which, when
burnt, gave off a very distinct perfume. Perhaps the Israelites
had gathered the shells when they had returned to the Red
Sea on their way from Egypt to Mt. Sinai.
Galbanum
was a fragrant, resinous gum, yellowish-brown in color. Frankincense
was the fragrant white gum which was expelled from the frankincense
tree when the tree was cut. The frankincense was exuded in
the shape of a tear-drop. When burnt it gave a somewhat balsamic
odor.
Every
morning and evening (Exod. 30:7-8) Aaron, at the time of trimming
the lamps, took coals from the Altar of Burnt Sacrifice in
his golden censer, and a quantity of incense from the Holy
Place and approached the golden Incense Altar. Facing the
Veil he placed the censer upon the altar and poured some of
the incense upon the live coals. Thereupon the incense vaporized
and ascended as an invisible aromatic cloud that filled the
Holy Places with its sweetness (see Lev. 16:12-13).
Lessons
For Israel
The
Incense Altar was another miniature of the four-sided encampment
of Israel with its four standards. This one, however, was
located in the Holy Place and thus was closer to the presence
of Yahweh. Furthermore it was very much smaller, as if to
suggest that here it represented a smaller encampment.
By
it Israelites were daily reminded that the nearest they could
approach to Yahweh was at the Incense Altar, and then only
through their appointed priests. The Veil prevented closer
contact with Yahweh. The incense reminded them that any approach
to God must be acceptable to Him, a sweet fragrance, devoid
of strange fire or strange incense.
Even
this kind of approach was a temporary one, as denoted by the
removable carrying staves. Faith, however, looked for a permanent
means of approach to Yahweh.
The
High Priest represented the people at the Incense Altar, thus
reminding them that sin and disobedience, and unprepared and
unsanctified approaches, prohibit an individual personal presentation.
It must be through the priest.
Even
the High Priest's representative approach carried qualifications.
His procedure from the light to the bread to the incense was
stipulated; his covering was specified; the symbolic prayer
he offered on their behalf was Divinely ordered and chosen
by the significance of the ingredients. They represented the
necessary qualities of healing truth; of sacrificial tears;
of righteousness and acceptable fragrance.
The
High Priest's twice-daily approach on their behalf must be
understood in the same terms as Genesis 1: the "evening and
the morning were the... day". The approach to Yahweh in this
way required an all-day consciousness of His presence, and
of their own need to approach Him constantly.
Because
the Incense Altar was located outside the Veil, which was
penetrated only on the Day of Atonement, Israel were to understand
that, though they could approach Yahweh through the intercession
of their High Priest, there must still be a sacrifice for
sin that would enter into the very Presence in the Most Holy
(Lev. 16:11-14).
When,
on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest entered the Most
Holy, he took with him the sacrificial blood for sprinkling
upon the Mercy Seat, the golden censer with its coals, and
a supply of incense in his hand for the purpose of filling
the Most Holy with its fragrance. This act of symbolic prayer
was performed at the Incense Altar which was then accounted
as being inside the Most Holy (by the repositioning of the
veil. See Heb. 9:2-4). Accordingly, 1 Kings 6:22 (RV) describes
the Altar of Incense as "the altar that belongeth to the oracle".
The
high-priest's entrance into the Most Holy on the Day of Atonement
foreshadowed Christ's ascension into heaven (Heb. 9:12). On
that basis, Paul exhorted: "Having therefore liberty to enter
into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living
way which he has consecrated for us, through the veil, that
is to say his flesh... let us draw near with a true heart
in full assurance of faith" (Heb. 10:19-22).
That
being our privilege, let us daily use it.
Christ's
Offering
There
were many features connected with the Incense Altar that symbolised
the Lord Jesus Christ as the meeting place between Yahweh
and His people. He was, like the shittim wood, especially
chosen human nature prepared by Holy Spirit conception, and
birth of the virgin Mary. By the influence of the Word and
the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he developed before Yahweh,
manifesting a faith that was purified by trial (ep. Matt.
4:1-10; Luke 4:1-3; Heb. 5:8-9), and revealing a character
that reflected to the glory of his Father (John 17:4). He
manifested this moral perfection as he served in the antitypical
Holy Place: the Ecclesia. His obedience during his wilderness
existence on earth finally led him to the cross, and through
the sacrifice there made, to the glory he manifests in the
Most Holy in heaven.
By
these means he became the one in whom, and through whom, God's
people can approach Yahweh in prayer. Israel had no direct
communication with Yahweh. He had rejected them as a nation
following their rejection of Him. But as many of them as were
willing, were able to turn to Him through His son, by identifying
themselves with him as the Altar. This required self-sacrifice,
however, and few were prepared to offer an acceptable offering
of that kind.
The
service, and the character of the Lord, were beautifully typified
in the Altar of Incense. His submissive obedience to the will
of His Father was as fragrant incense to Him (Eph. 5:2): a
pleasant and acceptable savour that has permeated the true
Ecclesia throughout its wilderness wanderings to this day.
As a result of his acceptable sacrifice in the antitypical
Holy Place, the Father saw fit to raise His son from the dead
and clothe him with His own eternal, immortal nature (Phil.
2:9).
The
Gospel records provide ample evidence of Christ's use of prayer,
of which incense is the symbol (Rev. 5:8). His prayers included
the essential ingredients of acceptable supplication. There
was the sacrifice of tears (H eb. 5:7), such as is graphically
portrayed by Luke (Ch. 22:42-44). There was the fire of zeal
manifested as the energy of dedication with which his prayers
were offered. There was the element of healing as he pleaded
for others in their sickness or death (John 11:41-44).
Yahweh's
acceptance of His son's fragrant life and service was marked
by his passing through the "veil" on the Great Day of Atonement,
and, as our Great High Priest, moving into the Most Holy of
His Father's presence (Heb. 9:11-12). He is there as the anti-typical
Incense Altar through whom the prayers of all the saints are
caused to ascend to his Father (Heb. 9:3,4,24).
Our
Offering "We are unto God a sweet savour of Christ"
2 Cor. 2:15.
The
pattern thus established by the Lord was followed by his disciples:
the first century Ecclesia. In recording their practice, Luke
in Acts sets it in the concept of the four-sided encampment
of the Wilderness Ecclesia (Acts 2:42). He refers to the Lampstand
("apostles" doctrine"); the Table of Shewbread ("breaking
of bread"); the Incense Altar ("prayers") and the Holy Place
with these priestly duties ("fellowship"). All are appropriate
illustrations of what our Ecclesias should now be, for that
was the pattern then.
When
it is remembered that the Holy Place corresponds to our present
Ecclesial associations; that the service we offer consists
of fellowship and of manifesting the light of the knowledge
of God's Word, we should readily see the important part played
by Prayer in our acceptable offering to our Heavenly Father.
That service, as it ascends to Him, must be a reminder to
Him of the service, life and character, of His own son (Eph.
5:2; 2 Cor. 2:14-16-in which the word "savour" is better rendered
fragrance). Notice, also, that there must be a "fragrance
of knowledge" (v.14) the Lampstand; a "fragrance of Christ
to God" (v.15) the Altar; "a fragrance of eternal life" (v.16)
the Shewbread.
We
are called (Acts 15:14; 1 Pet. 2:9) into the Ecclesia to present
our spiritual offerings (I Pet. 2:5). Among these is the incense
of prayer (Psa. 141:2). And those prayers are acceptable only
if they are offered through the Christ-Altar. That is the
nearest we can come in our approach to Yahweh. But it must
be exercised in the spirit of the High Priest's routine which
he carried out twice daily in association with the Lampstand
and the Table of Shewbread.
The
movements of the High Priest in the performance of his daily
routine, reveal the pattern we need to follow: -
- Having
washed hands and feet in the Water of the Laver -
- He
caused the Light to shine more strongly -
- Then
with his censer containing live coals from off the altar
of burnt offering
- And
with finely-ground incense -
- He
approached the four-sided (but yet one) golden table at
the veil-
- And
placed the golden censer upon the top of it, thus making
it a true altar.
- So
the Ecclesia was now the altar,
- And
the Priest thus merged himself, as it were, with the Altar.
- He
then poured the incense upon the glowing coals -
- And
its contact therewith resulted in a sweet-smelling or fragrant
vapor -
- Which
filled the whole Holy Place-Ecclesia and
- Ascended
acceptably before the Throne of Grace as one Ecclesial voice
that was pleasant to Yahweh.
The
privilege of prayer is to be associated with the reading and
study of the Word, our Lampstand. But prayer is acceptable
only when it is offered in faith and through the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Then
the ascending incense-prayer rises as one "voice" from the
Ecclesial Altar and its horns (that is, of Christ and his
member saints). This may be further illustrated by reference
to Rev. 8:3,4; 9:13 where the angel, the Altar and the censer
are all symbols of the saints.
A
Prophecy Of the Golden Incense Altar
The
references in Revelation show that altar to be the symbol
of the saints of all ages whose faith has been tried and refined
as pure gold.
The
four horns and the four sides of the altar represent such
faithful ones united in the hope of Israel (i.e. the four-sided
encampment); they are the one chosen family of Yahweh.
The
incense symbolizes the prayers that all the saints have offered,
ascending as one voice before the Father in heaven as a "sweet
smelling savour" of Jesus Christ, from the "altar" that is
located "before HIS Throne".
In
acceptance of, and response to, such prayers, Yahweh will
avenge His own of their enemies (Luke 18:1-8); avenging His
own elect of all ages (Rev. 6:10).
The
prayers of the saints preceded the events of Rev. 8:3,4; 9:13
and give assurance that our Heavenly Father not only hears,
but will also answer our prayers (see Eureka Vol. 2, pp. 354-360).
Isaiah
presents an interesting prophecy in which Gentiles are pictured
in the future bringing an offering of incense (prayer) to
shew forth Yahweh's praises. He will accept them and thus
glorify His Kingdom as His future dwelling place, the "house
of His glory" (see Isa. 60:3,6,7). |
