You shall make an altar on which to burn incense
Sun, 19 March, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.
1 “You shall make an altar on which to burn incense; you shall make it of acacia wood. 2 A cubit shall be its length, and a cubit its breadth. It shall be square, and two cubits shall be its height. Its horns shall be of one piece with it. 3 You shall overlay it with pure gold, its top and around its sides and its horns. And you shall make a molding of gold around it. 4 And you shall make two golden rings for it. Under its molding on two opposite sides of it you shall make them, and they shall be holders for poles with which to carry it. 5 You shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. 6 And you shall put it in front of the veil that is above the ark of the testimony, in front of the mercy seat that is above the testimony, where I will meet with you. 7 And Aaron shall burn fragrant incense on it. Every morning when he dresses the lamps he shall burn it, 8 and when Aaron sets up the lamps at twilight, he shall burn it, a regular incense offering before the LORD throughout your generations. 9 You shall not offer unauthorized incense on it, or a burnt offering, or a grain offering, and you shall not pour a drink offering on it. 10 Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once a year. With the blood of the sin offering of atonement he shall make atonement for it once in the year throughout your generations. It is most holy to the LORD.”
In the Holy Place, outside the curtain that shields the Most Holy Place containing the ark of the covenant, Moses is told to put the altar of incense. Every morning and evening, Aaron, the high priest, is commanded to burn incense on this altar.
What do we learn from this?
In the tabernacle, God had the priests offer incense morning and evening, as part of their daily worship of Him. As part of the other rituals of sacrifice and song, the High Priest would burn this fragrant, sweet smelling incense.
We see in the highly symbolic book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, that incense represents the prayers of God’s people:
And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
The prayers of the saints are “sweet smelling” to God. He is pleased by them. Prayer is like incense to Him.
We no longer offer incense as part of our worship, as that has been fulfilled by Jesus Christ and His once for all sacrifice. He has fulfilled all the ceremonial law, and that has passed away. But as incense is a picture of the prayers of God’s people, we still are to regularly come to Him in prayer. We are to offer our prayers to Him as worship that is pleasing to Him. And as Aaron was to burn the incense every morning and evening, it is not a bad model for us to emulate by bringing our prayers to God every morning and evening.
Where is Christ in this passage?
Jesus Christ takes the prayers of His people and makes them acceptable to the Father. He presents them on our behalf, as our intercessor: He ever lives to make intercession for us. Jesus Christ prays for us as we are presenting our prayers through Him to the Father. And so the reason our prayers are “sweet smelling” (like incense) to the God the Father is because of the work of God the Son on our behalf to make them pleasing to the Father.
