The incense altar was a beautiful type of Christ our Intercessor, John 17; Heb. 7:25; 9:24; Rom. 8:34; through whom our prayers ascend to God The Father. Prayer was a central part of the Tabernacle service, the ‘Incense Altar’ was to be placed right in front of the veil of the ‘Holy of Holies’ where the Ark of the Covenant was placed, Ex 30:6.  The ‘Mercy Seat’ which was over ‘The Testimony’ covered the law or the tablets and God met His people on the ‘Mercy Seat.’ God meets us on the basis of mercy too, never on the basis of the law, NEVER! Never pray for God’s justice, never, only His mercy, Heb. 4:16, “Let us therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Justice is getting what we deserve; Grace is getting what we don’t deserve; Mercy is not getting what we do deserve!

The incense of this Prayer wafted its way up before the nostrils of Almighty God, hovering over the ‘Mercy Seat’ above the Testimony, behind the veil. Today the same thing is happening in heaven before God as He sits on His throne and the angels bring the golden censers before Him and ignite them, Rev. 8:3-4, “And another came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer, and there was given unto him much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came from the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.” Question, how is your bowl today, full of prayer, ready to be ignited or empty? If the angels called for your bowl to fill the censer for God, what kind of an aroma would it emit, a sweet smell or a stench? Rev. 5:8, speaks of, “…golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of saints.” I can’t help but wonder just how full my bowl is, how is yours? Aaron and the priests were to offer the incense or prayer, morning and evening v.8; for a, “perpetual incense before the LORD throughout their generations.” Sounds like I Thess. 5:17, “Pray without ceasing.” Or cease without praying! What a beautiful picture of what we are to be doing today, right now! Continually praying for mercy, not justice, before the throne of God and if the Church dies and falls apart, whose fault is that going to be?

A special incense was to be made for meeting with God, made of stacte (natap) gum of the storax tree, a sweet spice; onycha (sehelet) the lid of a mollusc shell which gave forth a perfume when it was burned; galbanum (helbena) gum from the milky sap of the Syrian fennel, a fragrant spice; and frankincense not to be confused with incense, although it might be added to incense it could be used on its own. interesting we are never told in Scripture what frankincense was composed of. The word in Hebrew is (Iebona) and just means Frankincense. There is a city named Lebonah in Judges 21:19, I wonder if that is where it came from. We know it was very expensive and presented to our Lord at His birth by the Magoi. Incense is such a beautiful picture of prayer, its sweet gentle fragrance fills the room, it is quickly noticed by everyone, it has a lingering affect, it penetrates barriers, curtains and walls, it rises heavenward, it soothes, satisfies, and satiates, a child, an invalid, a dying man, or a warrior can ignite it, He waits for the aroma! Psalm 141:2 says, “Let my prayer be set before Thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.” Morning and Evening, 9:00 am and 3:00 pm every day, the time of the daily sacrifice and the trimming of the lamps. King David said, “Seven times a day do I praise Thee,” every two hours from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm. Man was never to make any incense like this for his own enjoyment or he would be cut-off (karath) the most feared punishment of the Jewish people. Eliminated not exterminated, banished to hell forever with no hope of an after life, just for offering strange incense or strange fire. What is condemned here is making worship the mere pleasure of the natural man, ‘will-worship’ or ‘religion’ like Cain or maybe Nadab and Abihu, after their own will. The Samaritan woman asked Jesus an interesting question and He answered her in John 4:23-24 and said, “The hour comes and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father seeks such to worship Him. God is Spirit and they that worship Him, must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”

Moses intercedes for God’s people in Ex. 32:11-14, after their sin with the ‘Golden Calf’ before he descends down the mountain. God is angry and is about to wipe them all out, v. 7-9 and make a new nation out of Moses. However, Moses reminds God of the previous promises He made. Have you ever done that, prayed God’s word back to Him or reminded Him of His promises? Many of the great saints of the past have in their prayers, “You said God!” Or, “You declared in Your word, LORD!” Hold Him to His word, He dares you to, but you will have to know it well enough to do that and be ready to uphold your end of the bargain too! He said He would supply all your needs, if you would go into all the world and preach the gospel. He said He would heal that disease, if you would go to His people and tell them about theirs. Moses is on his way down the mountain to let the people have it and stops first to intercede for them, good principle to keep in mind. Yes he is going to burn the calf, stomp it, grind it to powder, scatter it on the brook, and make them drink it, and kill 3,000 for refusing; Ex. 32:20-30; Deut. 9:21 “And I took your sin, the calf which you had made and burned it with fire, and stamped it, and ground it very small, even until it was as small as dust; and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount.” (show me one of those on Mt. Sinai or its remains!) Ex. 32:20, “And he took the calf which they had made and burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and scattered it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.” (A dried river bed on Mt. Sinai – good luck!)

In Ex. 32:30 Moses again intercedes for Israel the next day and goes back up the mountain to make atonement for the people and many believe he brought with him some of the “colloidal water” from the brook which was blood-red, (Google colloidal-gold) as a type of the blood of Christ to atone for the sin of Israel. It appeases God temporarily but it is just bloody water and He plagues the people because of the calf and said, “Whosoever has sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My book.” From this point on the LORD had to send His angel to go before them, He had to stay outside the camp otherwise He would consume them because they were a stiff-necked people, Ex. 33:3. When the people heard this they mourned and took off their ornaments but it was too late, they made their golden calf, and the tablets had been broken. Then Moses took the Tabernacle and pitched it outside the camp, afar off from the congregation and anybody who sought the LORD went outside the camp to do it. Does your church provide the right atmosphere and climate for you to get intimate with God, or is it to loud, to boisterous, to noisy; then maybe you too, need to go outside the congregation to find God!  When Moses went into that Tabernacle the cloudy pillar descended on it, “And the LORD spoke unto Moses face to face, as a man speaks unto his friend.” v.11. Isn’t it wonderful knowing that because of Calvary and all Jesus did for us, we can have that same intimacy and fellowship with the Father and the Son today? We can have, spiritual ‘YADA,’ intimate intercourse with the Tri-Unity of the God-Head any time, and anywhere, we want it? Why, because we have a personal relationship with the Son of God, not because of some ‘colloidal-water’ from a brook, but because of the blood and water which flowed from His side on Golgotha when He was pierced with a spear for our sin and paid the penalty once and for all and cried, “FINISHED!”   “…Between The Lines…”

“The Incense Altar – A Type of Christ”  9/20/12