Exodus
30
THE
ALTAR OF INCENSE (vs. 1-10)
This
chapter has the appearance of being one in which accidental omissions are
supplied.
The natural
place for a description of the altar of incense — part of the furniture of the
holy place (v. 6) — would seem to have been ch. 25:10-40, where we have the
descriptions of the ark, the mercy-seat, the table of shew-bread, and the candlestick;
the natural place for “the
ransom of souls,” the earlier part of the same chapter (v. 3),
where the silver is required which was to be
collected in this way; the natural place for
an account of the bronze laver, ch.
27., where the bronze altar, near which it stood, is
described; the natural place for the composition of the
holy oil, ch. 29., where its use is
commanded (vs. 7, 21); and the natural place for a
description of the perfume the same
as for the altar on which it was to be offered. Whether Moses
made the omissions in
writing his record, and afterwards supplied them in the
present chapter, or whether
Divine wisdom
saw fit to give the directions in the order in which
we now have them,
cannot be determined. Hitherto certainly no sufficient
reason has been shown for the
existing order, which hence appears accidental. The
altar of incense was to be in many
respects similar to the altar of burnt-offering, but of
smaller size and richer material.
Both were
to be “four-square,” and both of shittim wood cased with metal; but the
former was to be taller, the latter shorter, than it
was broad; and while the latter was to
be cased with bronze, the former was to have a covering of
gold. The place for the
altar of incense was the main chamber of the
tabernacle, a little in front of the veil;
and its purpose was, as the name implied, the offering of
incense to Almighty
God.
This was to
be done by the officiating priest, twice a day, morning and evening, and
in practice was performed before the morning, and after the
evening sacrifice. (On
a random note, I recommend Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and
Evening Devotions –
this web site - # 3 – CY – 2010)
vs. 1-10 – “And thou shalt
make an altar to burn incense upon” – there can be
little doubt that, in the main, incense
symbolized prayer – (See Psalm 141:2; Luke
1:10) “of shittim wood shalt
thou make it. A cubit shall be the length
thereof,
and a cubit the breadth thereof; foursquare
shall it be: and two cubits shall be
the height thereof: the horns thereof shall be
of the same. And thou shalt overlay
it with pure gold, the top thereof, and the sides
thereof round about, and the
horns thereof; and thou shalt
make unto it a crown of gold round about.
And two
golden rings shalt thou
make to it under the crown of it, by the two corners
thereof, upon the two sides of it shalt thou make it; and they shall be for places
for the staves to bear it withal. And thou shalt make
the staves of shittim wood,
and overlay them with gold. And thou shalt put
it before the vail that is by the
ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat
that is over the testimony, where
I will meet with thee. And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense (literally
“incense of perfumes”) every
morning: when he dresseth the
lamps, he shall
burn incense upon it. And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn
incense upon it” - The
offering of incense by the high priest twice a day, at the time of
the morning and evening sacrifice, indicated
that prayer was needed as constantly as
expiation, and that neither might for a single day be
intermitted – “a perpetual
incense before the LORD throughout your generations. Ye shall
offer no
strange incense thereon, - By “strange incense” is
meant any which was not
prepared according to the directions given in vs.
34-38. Nor was the altar to
be use for the following: “nor
burnt sacrifice, nor meat offering;
neither shall
ye pour drink offering thereon.” For burnt-offering it was manifestly unfit;
but the
prohibition of the others seems to show a
determination to keep its use markedly
distinct from that of the brazen altar in the
court, which was to receive all that was
offered either for expiation, or for
self-dedication, or in gratitude. On the sole
exception made to this general law, see the comment
on the next verse. “And Aaron
shall make an atonement upon the horns of it
once in a year with the blood
of
the sin offering of atonements: once in the year shall he make atonement upon
it throughout your generations: it is
most holy unto the LORD.” Once in the
year, on the great day of atonement — the tenth day
of the seventh month — the high
priest, after burning incense within the veil, and
sprinkling the blood of a bullock and a
ram towards the mercy seat, was to take of the blood, and put
it on the horns of the altar
of incense “to make an
atonement for it — to cleanse it and hallow it from the
uncleanness of the children of
an altar of expiation, but merely expiating it. There was, however, another use for the
altar, where it seems to have served for an altar of expiation. When the high
priest had
sinned in his official character, and offered a sin-offering for his cleansing (Leviticus 4:3-12),
or when the whole
congregation had committed an offence through inadvertence, and
did the same (ib, 13-21), the
high priest was to put of the blood of the
sacrifice on the
horns of the altar of incense, “for the expiation of his own sin and the sin of the
people” (Keil). In these two
cases, the altar of incense served
the purpose of the altar
of burnt-offering, on which was put the blood of private sin-offerings (ib, 22-35). “It
is most holy” - There
seems to be sufficient reason for
considering the altar of incense
as, next to the ark and
mercy seat, the most sacred object in the furniture of the tabernacle.
This precedence indicates the extreme value which God sets upon
prayer.
The
Symbolism of the Altar of Incense
We have
seen that the ascent of incense signifies the mounting up to heaven of the
grateful
odor of man’s earnest and heart-felt prayers. The
altar, therefore, symbolizes
the heart which offers such prayers:
symbol of
soundness and strength, the other of purity. Prayer, to be
acceptable,
must proceed out of a true heart — a sound, honest, sincere,
strong
heart — not one that is weak and unstable, one thing to-day and
another
to-morrow; but one that is consistent, steady, firm, brave,
resolute.
And it must also proceed out of a
pure heart. The gold of the altar was to
be “pure gold,” refined till every atom of
the native dross was purged
away. And
the heart of the worshipper should be refined similarly. There is
much native
dross in the hearts of all men. The discipline of life, the
furnace of
affliction, under God’s blessing, does much to purge the dross.
But something of it always
remains. One only was absolutely pure. We
must
approach God through the intercession of Christ, and then our
incense
will mount up from a golden altar heavenwards.
directly in
front of the mercy seat — very close to the Divine presence,
therefore -
Prayer
brings us into the presence of God. The heart that is
drawn
upward, and fixed in worship and adoration in its Creator and
Redeemer,
feels itself near to Him. Near, very near; yet still separated by a
veil. The
eyes of the body cannot pierce that impenetrable curtain, which
shrouds the
invisible world from our eager, curious gaze. The heart itself
cannot so
lift itself up as to rise out of the present conditions of its mortal,
finite
nature, and really enter the empyrean [celestial]. There is still a veil
between man
and the spiritual world. Through death only can he pass
beyond it.
the might
of prayer. By means of it the heart has power with God, can
wrestle
with him, as Jacob did; and as it were, force Him to bless it
(Genesis 32:26). The parable of the
importunate widow (Luke 18:1-8)
illustrates
this power. Let us follow her example; let us persist, let us
besiege God with our
prayers, for ourselves, for others, and we shall
prevail
with Him; at length He will hear us. It has been questioned in
these “last days” whether prayer
is ever answered; and tests have been
proposed,
by which men have hoped to demonstrate its inefficiency. But
God will not be tested. “Thou
shalt not tempt” (i.e. “try” or
“test”) “the
Lord
thy God.” (Matthew 4:7) - He does not undertake to answer faithless,
or even
doubting, wavering prayers. The promise is — “Whoever shall say
to this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the
sea; and
shall not doubt in his heart, but shall
believe that
those things which he
saith shall come to pass, he shall
have whatsoever he saith” (Mark
11:23).
THE
RANSOM OF SOULS (vs. 11-16)
The various
commands given with respect to the tabernacle and its furniture would
necessarily involve a very considerable outlay; and it was
important that Moses
should receive directions as to the source, or
sources, whence this expenditure was
to come. In ch. 25:2-7, one source
had been indicated, viz., the voluntary contributions
of the people. To this is now added a second source. On
occasion of the numbering of
the people — an event which is spoken of as impending (v.12) —
Moses was told to
exact from each of them, as atonement money, the sum
of half a shekel of silver. The
produce of this tax was to be applied to the work of
the sanctuary (v. 16), and it is found to
have formed an important element in the provision
for the cost, since the total amount was
above a hundred talents, or, more exactly, 301,775
shekels (ch. 38:25). The requirement
of atonement money seems to have been based on the idea, that
formal enrolment in the
number of God’s faithful people necessarily brought
home to every
man his unworthiness to belong to that holy
company, and so made him feel the
need of making atonement in some way or other. The
payment of the half-shekel
was appointed as the legal mode under those circumstances. It was an
acknowledgment of sin, equally binding upon
all, and so made equal for all; and it
saved from God’s vengeance those who, if they had been
too proud to make it, would
have been punished by some “plague” or other
(v.12).
vs. 11-16 – “And the LORD spake
unto Moses, saying, When thou takest the
sum of the children of
ransom” - Rather “an expiation,” “an atonement”
—
(as in ch. 29:33, 36) —
something to show that he was conscious of sin, and of his not deserving
to be
numbered among God’s people – “for
his soul unto
the LORD, when thou
numberest them; that there be no plague among them” - “That they be not
punished for undue pride and
presumption.” There is no thought
of such a plague as
was
provoked
by David’s numbering (II Samuel 24:1-25) – “when thou numberest
them. This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are
numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the
sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty
gerahs:) an half shekel shall be the offering of
the LORD.” – The burden
imposed by the tax was evidently a light one – “Every one that passeth
among
them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an
offering unto the LORD. The
rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not
give less than half a shekel” - This is very
emphatic testimony to the equal value of
souls in God’s sight. The payment was “the ransom
of a soul” (v.12) — an
acknowledgment of God’s mercy in sparing those
whose life was justly forfeit.
As each soul
that he has created is equally precious in His sight, and as He designs
equally the salvation of all — it was fitting that the
same exact sum should be paid in
every case – “when they give an offering unto the LORD, to make an atonement
for your souls. And thou shalt take
the atonement money of the children of
that it may be a memorial unto the children of
an atonement for your souls.” The application of the “atonement money” is stated
more distinctly in ch.
38:27-28. It was employed for the silver sockets that supported
the boards of the tabernacle, and for the hooks, capitals, and
connecting rods of the
pillars which surrounded the court. Thus employed, it
was a continual “memorial”
in the eyes of the people, reminding each man of his
privileges and duties.
The
Atonement Money
Notice:
sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans
3:23). “If we say
that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is
not in us” -
(I John
1:8). There was to be no exemption. Moses and
Aaron were to bring
their half-shekel no less than the others; the
priests had to make the offering,
just the
same as the laity; the rulers, as much as the common people. The
lesson
taught was, that every soul was guilty
before God — all unclean in
His sight, who “is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity” (Habakkuk
1:13) –
all in need of pardon and cleansing. So far
there was certainly “no difference”
(Romans
3:22). “Every mouth was stopped” (ib, 19).
Boasting was excluded -
the right
attitude of the soul towards God shown to be one of humility,
deprecation, penitence.
It is true to say, that all men equally are guilty in God’s sight; but it
would
not be true
to say that all are equally guilty. Yet the same atonement was
required of
all. “The rich
shall not give more, and the poor shall not give
less.” This marks
that one and the same atonement is required, whatever be
the degree
of a man’s guilt, whether he be (so far as is possible) “a just
man needing
no repentance,” or “the chief of sinners.” On the man’s part is
required in
every case “repentance and faith;” these, however, cannot
atone. The true “atonement money,” the true “redemption,” the real
“ransom of souls,” is the DEATH OF JESUS CHRIST! — one and the
same for
all — necessary for all — not too much for the least, not too little
for the
most guilty; but “a full, perfect, and
sufficient sacrifice for the sins
of the whole world.” It saves all that trust in
it — saves them from wrath and
death
— saves them from
sin — atones for them — puts them “AT ONE”
with the FATHER!
PERPETUAL
MEMORIAL. There are those who are content to
acknowledge
that Christ has died for them, and has saved them, who yet
object to
giving the fact, what they call, undue prominency.
They would
acknowledge
it once for all, and then have done with it. But this is not the
general
teaching of the Bible, nor is it that of the present passage. The
“atonement money” was to be
so employed as to be “a memorial unto the
children
of
shapes of
silver, into which it had been cast, ever before their eyes. And
assuredly there is
nothing in the whole range of spiritual facts which
deserves
such continual remembrance, such constant dwelling upon in
thought, as the atonement made for us by Christ. Herein
alone have we
hope,
trust, confidence. Hereby alone are we saved. The cross of Christ
should be ever before the Christian’s eye, mind, heart. He should
not for a
moment
forget it, much less be ashamed of it.
THE
BRAZEN LAVER (vs. 17-21)
That the
tabernacle was to have an ample supply of water had been implied in the
directions given for the washing of Aaron and his sons at
its outer door (ch. 29:4).
That it
would contain some provision of the kind is further indicated by the
command to “wash the inwards” of victims (ibid. 17). We
have now, in this
place, the special directions given to Moses on the
subject. He was to provide a
brazen, or rather a bronze laver, which was to stand
on a separate “foot,” or base,
of bronze, in the court of the tabernacle, between the
entrance to the tabernacle
and the “brazen altar.” This
was to be kept constantly supplied with water, and
was to furnish whatever might be needed for the various
ceremonies. Among its
other uses, it was to supply liquid for the constant
ablution of the priests, who were
to wash both their hands and their feet on every occasion of
their entering the sacred
tent, and even on every occasion of their
ministering at the brazen altar (v. 20).
This law
was to be “a statute for ever” (v.
21), and its violation was to be
punished by death.
vs. 17-21 – “And the LORD spake
unto Moses, saying, Thou shalt also make
a laver of brass, and his foot also of
brass, to wash withal: and thou shalt put
it between the tabernacle of the congregation
and the altar, and thou shalt put
water therein.
For Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet
thereat” - Ablution by clear fresh water
is so plain and simple a type of purity as to
have been used in almost all religions. The hands
and the feet would designate
symbolically all a man’s active doings, and even his whole
walk in life — his “goings
out” and his “comings in,” in the
phraseology of the Hebrews. There would also be
a special practical need for such ablutions in the case of
persons who were employed
about bloody sacrifices, who slew the victims,
sprinkled, the blood, and even dashed
it against the base of the altar. On some rare occasions the
priests were required to
bathe their whole persons, and not their hands and
feet only ( ch. 29:4; Leviticus 16:4).
“When they go into the tabernacle of the
congregation, they shall wash with
water, that they die not” - Compare ch. 28:35, 43. Contempt
of the simple and
easy regulation to wash at the laver would imply
contempt of purity itself; and so an entire
hypocrisy of life and character, than which nothing could
be a greater offence
to God - “or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn offering made
by fire unto the LORD: So they shall wash their hands and their
feet, that they
die not: and it shall be a statute for ever to
them, even to him and to his seed
throughout their generations.”
Ultimately,
both the laver and the font, both the priestly ablutions and the
Christian
sacrament of baptism, are types of the true washing, which is
WASHING IN THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. This
washing is:
of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin” (I John
1:7). “If Christ wash
us not, we have no part in him” (John
13:8). The saved in heaven are
those who have “washed
their robes and made them white in the blood of
the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14). Baptism is “generally
necessary” since
Christ came
and instituted it; yet no one doubts that many unbaptized
persons have entered heaven. But not one has entered, or will ever enter,
whom the blood of
Christ has not cleansed. “Wash me,
Saviour, or I die,”
is the constantly repeated cry of every Christian heart.
“washed,” we are at once both “justified and sanctified” (I
Corinthians
6:11); both pardoned and made pure.
Thus washed, we have access to the
Father; we are made fit to enter His
courts; our robes are made white, and
not only
our robes, but our souls. God will never reject one who comes to
Him in the wedding
garment of a robe that Christ has cleansed. Only we
must be
sure to keep our robes clean — we must not “defile our garments”
(Revelation 3:4) — we must wash them again and again in the
purifying
blood; we must
look nowhere else for salvation, but only to the
Cross, and we must look to that perpetually.
THE
HOLY OIL (vs. 22-33)
The
composition of the oil required for anointing the priests (ch.
29:7), the altar
(ibid. v. 36), the tabernacle itself (v. 26), and its
furniture (vs. 27-28), was a
necessary matter for Moses to know, and is now declared
with much minuteness; the
exact weight of each spice, and the exact quantity of the olive
oil being given
(vs. 23-24) - Directions
are added for its use (vs. 26-30): and finally, a warning is
given against its application to any persons except the
priests, or its composition for
any other purpose besides the use of the sanctuary. (vs. 31-33)
vs. 22-33 –“Moreover the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Take thou also unto
thee principal spices, of pure myrrh five hundred
shekels, and of sweet cinnamon
half so much, even two hundred and fifty
shekels, and of sweet calamus two
hundred and fifty shekels, And of cassia five hundred shekels, after the
shekel
of the sanctuary, and of oil olive an hin: And thou shalt make it an oil of holy
ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the
apothecary” - Not a simple
mixture of the ingredients mentioned, but the product
of trained skill and knowledge
applied to the materials. Jewish tradition says that
the essence of each spice was
extracted from it, and only these essences mingled with
the olive oil. We are told
later (ch. 37:29) that the
task of preparing the holy oil was committed to Bezaleel
–
“it shall be an holy anointing oil.” - The
first application of the holy oil was to
be to the inanimate objects constituting the
paraphernalia of worship:
and the
altar of incense; and
After applying the oil to these,
Moses was to proceed to the anointing of
the priests.
(Compare Leviticus 8:10-12.) “And
thou shalt anoint the tabernacle
of the congregation therewith, and the ark of the
testimony, And
the table
and all his vessels, and the candlestick and his vessels, and the altar of
incense, And
the altar of burnt offering with all his vessels, and the laver
and his foot. And thou shalt
sanctify them, that they may be most holy:
whatsoever toucheth them
shall be holy. And
thou shalt anoint Aaron
and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister
unto me in
the priest’s office.”
Not till all his surroundings had received sanctification
was Aaron
to be consecrated. The tent, the ark, the table, the candlestick, the
altar of
incense, the brazen altar, the laver, and its base, each and all
were to be
touched with the holy oil, and thereby formally dedicated to God’s
service (Leviticus
8:10-11), and then at last was Moses to “pour of the
anointing oil upon Aaron’s head,
and anoint him, to sanctify him” (ibid. 12).
So God constantly prepares men’s
spheres for them before He inducts them into
their
spheres. Even in the next world our Blessed Lord “prepares places for us.”
(John
14:1-3) “And thou shalt
speak unto the children of
This
shall be an holy anointing oil unto me throughout your generations.
Upon man’s flesh shall it not be poured” - “it shall
not be used by any privately
as a mere
unguent, but shall be reserved wholly for sacred
purposes.” “neither
shall ye make any other like it, after the composition of it”
- Rather, “after its
proportion.’’
The Israelites were not forbidden the use of the different
materials in
their
unguents, or even the combination of the same materials, provided they varied
the
proportions. The object is simply that the holy oil should
remain a thing separate and
apart,
never applied to any but a holy use. “it is holy, and
it shall be holy
unto you.
Whosoever compoundeth any like it, or
whosoever putteth any of it upon a
stranger, shall even be cut off from his people.”
The
Sweetness of the Holy Oil
The holy
oil had infused into it the essence of four “principal spices” — myrrh, that
scents
the garments of the great king (Psalm 45:8; Song of Solomon
3:6); cinnamon,
the choicest of the spices of distant
when bruised; cassia, which, together with sweet calamus, formed one of
the glories of the market of
the odor of these blended perfumes — each delicious alone — all
enhanced by the
combination, which had taxed the best skill of the “apothecary” (v. 25)!
But the
sweetness of our anointing oil is greater. “We have an unction from the
Holy One.” Our “anointing oil” is the
Blessed Spirit of God. (I John
2:20,27)
What is
there in all the experiences of this world so sweet to
the weary soul as
He? How
sweet and dear is He:
unperceivedly, without sight, or sound, or stir, the
gentle influence comes
— steals into the
heart — only by degrees makes its presence known to us.
A crisis — a manifest change — “tongues of fire,” or the rush of a “mighty
wind” (Acts 2:1-4) would cause the weak believer to
tremble with fear, and
perhaps draw
back to his undoing. Our “anointing oil” descends
upon us soft
as “the dew of Hermon, which fell upon the hill of Sion.” (Psalm 133:3)
“He comes, sweet influence to impart,
A
gracious willing guest,
While
he can find one humble heart
Wherein
to rest.”
shocks, or
sudden terrible alarms; but by the mild coercion of little checks
and
scarcely-felt restraints — by whispers softly breathed into the ear of
the soul —
by the suggestion of good thoughts — by the presentation of
holy memories
— does He effect His ends. Wise as any serpent, harmless as
His own emblem, the dove, He feeds us
as we are able to receive of Him. He
has “milk” for such
as stand in need of milk. He has “strong meat” for such
as can bear
it. (Hebrews 5:12) - Manifold and diverse are His gifts, but given
to every
man “to profit withal” (I
Corinthians 12:7).
“His is that gentle voice we hear,
Soft
as the breath of even,
That
checks each fault, that calms each fear.
And speaks of Heaven.
“And
every virtue we possess,
And
every conquest won,
And
every thought of holiness,
Are His alone.”
once
declared, “My spirit shall not always
strive with man” (Genesis
6:3); and Scripture warns us that
the Holy Ghost may be “resisted”
(Acts 7:51) and even “quenched” (1 Thessalonians 5:19). But how
wonderful
is His patience and forbearance towards those who thwart and
oppose Him!
How unwilling is He to give them up! How loath to quit their
souls, and
leave them to their own guidance! Assuredly He is “provoked
every day” by each one of us. But He is
not even angry — He simply
“grieves” (Ephesians
4:30) — is “vexed” (Isaiah
63:10) — made
sorrowful.
No sooner do we show any signs of relenting than He forgives
— encourages us,
cheers, comforts, consoles. “There is a friend that
sticketh closer than a brother.” (Proverbs
18:24) Such a friend to man is
“THE COMFORTER”. (John
14:16)
is the
Christian’s privilege to speak with God “as a man to his friend”
(ch. 33:11). With the indwelling Spirit we may ever
have this
“mystic
sweet communion.” Would we speak to Him at any moment, His
ear is attent to hear. Unworthy as we are, unclean as we are,
rebellious as
we are, and
self-willed, and self-seeking, He will commune with us, if we
will
commune with Him — He will tell us of the things of heaven, “guide us
into all truth” (John 16:13), “receive of Christ’s and show
it unto us”
(ibid. 14).
The sweetness of such commune is inexpressible — it may well
“ravish our heart” and make us “sick of love” (Song of Solomon 4:9, 5:8)
THE
HOLY INCENSE (vs. 34-38)
It
remained to give directions concerning the composition of the incense, which,
according to v. 7, was to be burnt upon the altar of
gold. That it was to be of one
and one only peculiar kind had been already implied in the
prohibition to burn
“strange incense” (v.
9). Moses is now told exactly how it was to be
composed. As the oil was to contain four spices, so
was the incense to be
made of a like number — stacte,
onycha, galbanum, and frankincense — of
each the same quantity (v. 34). The art of the
apothecary was to be called
in for making it up (v. 35). A portion of it
was to be “beaten
very small,”
and placed in front of the ark of the
covenant, probably on the golden altar
outside the vail (v.
36). A prohibition is added, similar to that given with
respect to the holy oil: no one is to make any like it for private use,
under
pain of being “cut
off from his people” (vs. 37-38).
vs. 34-38 – “And the LORD said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices,
stacte, and onycha, and
galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense:
of each shall there be a like weight: And thou shalt make
it a perfume, a
confection after the art of the apothecary, tempered
together, pure and holy:
And
thou shalt beat some of it very small, and put of it
before the testimony” –
opposite the ark, but outside the veil. This near vicinity to the Divine Presence
rendered it most holy - “in the tabernacle of the congregation, where I will
meet with thee: it shall be unto you most holy. And as for the perfume which
thou shalt make, ye
shall not make to yourselves according to the composition
thereof” - None shall be made by any
man for private use according to the same
recipe, since the compound, as described, is “holy unto the Lord.” If any
man
does so, he
shall be “cut off from among his people” — i.e., “put to
death by
the civil authority.” (See ch. 31:14.) “it shall be unto thee
holy for the LORD.
Whosoever shall make like unto that, to smell
thereto, shall even be cut off
from his people.”
The
Holy Incense
Let us note
here:
care was
taken in the law that the incense should be properly composed, of
the right
materials, in the right proportion. Equal care is to be taken by
Christians with
their incense. Prayer is not to be adventured on rashly,
carelessly,
unpreparedly. The matter, even the very words, of
prayer should
be
carefully weighed beforehand. To approach God with unworthy
thoughts,
to beseech Him for those temporal advantages which we ought to
regard as
of no moment at all, is to “pray amiss” — to approach Him with
“strange incense.” Equally unbecoming is it to use homely or
over-familiar
expressions
in prayer. What we have to aim at is to reflect “the mind of
Christ.” Christ has
given us three pattern prayers:
ü The Lord’s
prayer; (Matthew 6-13)
ü The
intercessory prayer after the last supper (John 17.), and
ü The prayer
in the
these
be our frankincense, and stacte, and onycha. For a fourth
material,
we may use the Psalms of David — especially the
penitential
Psalms. We need not then to fear lest our incense should
be
“strange.”
A portion of the incense was to be “beaten very small, and. put before
the testimony” i.e., before the ark and the
presence of God, where it was
to remain
continually. It was not to be lighted, but to be in constant
readiness for
lighting. So there is in the Christian heart a prayerful temper,
ever present
before God, which God accepts and values, in the intervals
between
actual prayer. Our incense cannot always be mounting in cloud
after cloud
to the courts of heaven. But the temper may be in us, ready to
kindle, at
all times. (I Thessalonians 5:17)
that were “most holy” (v. 36). God set
special store by it. He would have
it near Him
— in front of the tabernacle — only just outside the veil — and
He would have it there constantly.
So it pleases Him to value the prayers of
His saints.
Angels
offer them (Revelation 8:3). They ascend before His
throne (ibid.
v. 4). They are acceptable to Him. They have power with Him.
“The
effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth
much” –
(James 5:16). One
humble prayer, breathed by the publican, gained him
forgiveness
— “justified” him. One earnest prayer,
uttered by the penitent
thief,
obtained him
prayer,
whereby we draw upon the Bank of Omnipotence!
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