“Incense For Intercession – Num. 7:1-88” (Part #1) 3/31/14

In Numbers chapter seven you have the gifts of the 12 tribes of Israel for the dedication of the Tabernacle, the altar and the vessels in the Holy place. Six covered wagons and 12 oxen were given for the service of the sanctuary. Then each prince brought a silver platter which weighed 130 shekels and a silver bowl which weighed 70 shekels, full of fine flour mixed with oil for the meal offering and “One spoon of ten shekels of gold full of incense.” v.14 There were 300 shekels in a pound, so each spoon weighed about half an ounce and they were very small, like baby spoons, full of incense. Can you imagine being the one assigned to carry that spoon with that delicate, white, finely beaten powder in it? Pray there is no wind, no breeze, and don’t cough, sneeze, trip or drop it! The value of the contents in that spoon, not of the spoon itself, but in it was unimaginable! Picture the man marching to the Tabernacle holding it, responsible for the intercession for his tribe by the high priest.

Now this order is repeated exactly the same, twelve times for 88 verses. Most people just get bored after five or six princes and skip to chapter eight. However, they miss v.89 where the LORD, YeHoVaH speaks with Moses from off the ‘Mercy Seat’ on the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies, we’ll deal with that another time. However, God does not waste ink, paper, parchment or His time so every jot and tittle is important to Him. Therefore, if He said something twelve times in a row, He must want us to read it! Amen? vv. 14, 20, 26, 32, 38, 44, 50, 56, 62, 68, 74, 80.

Now the “Incense Altar” was right in front of the veil before the ‘Holy of Holies’ and it was one cubit square and two cubits high, with horns on the four corners and a rim around it and it was overlaid with pure gold. Even the staves to carry it were overlaid with pure gold. Ex. 30:1-10. The ‘Incense Altar’ was a type of Christ our Intercessor, Heb. 7:25; John 17. Through Whom our prayers and praise ascend to God our Father, Heb. 13:15. The ‘Altar of Incense’ also resembled the ‘Altar of Sacrifice’ but it was overlaid with bronze/brass. In fact everything in the courtyard was overlaid with bronze/brass and everything in the Holy place and the Holy of Holies was overlaid with pure gold.

God gave them instructions that they were not to offer any strange incense only what He had instructed them to make; and no strange fire, only fire from the altar which He started Lev. 6:13; 9:23-24. God starts the fire and we stoke the fire. The Israelites kept the fire burning for over 540 years, even during the Babylonian Captivity, but someone let it go out! In the book of II Maccabees chapter one when they returned to rebuild the Temple and went to the cave and saw the fire had gone out, they found a thick liquid instead called, “Naptha.” So, they took some with them and poured it on the wood of the altar and it “blazed into a great fire.” I wonder what that black, combustible, liquid was from Iran? Too bad your great-grandfather didn’t read and believe II Maccabbes in the 1800’s, or you would be an oil tycoon.

The instructions for making this special “Incense for Intercession” is given in Exodus 30:34-38; they were to use four ‘sweet spices;’ Stacte (Heb. nataph – a drop; an aromatic gum from the Storax tree?) possibly Myrrh extract, says Pliny a Roman historian; Onycha – the scale, shell or lid of the mollusk mussel; (But since that is unclean and un-kosher I will go with the “Rock Rose – Cistus landaniferus which produces, Labdanum a resin”; Galbanum – the rich, fatty milky gum from a tree in Syria (the very touch of it mixed with spondylium or hogweed is sufficient to kill a serpent, it’s used in “Chanel No. 19” and many high end perfumes; Frankincense – Heb. Laban, white, a fragrant gum spice; Herodotus wrote of the venomous snakes that lived in these trees in south Arabia where they harvested the Frankincense, they had to burn Styrax gum to drive them away. These four spices are to be combined in equal measures and tempered or beaten together into a fine powder like dust, they are to be pure and holy, consecrated unto YeHoVaH and no one else! All of these spices were also used later in the medical field to cure people of certain diseases and ailments and are used today by homeopathic healers.

In Num. 13, Moses sends out the twelve spies into the ‘Promised Land’ and they come back with their report and ten say “NO” and two say “GO!” God judges them for their unbelief, 40 years of wandering for 40 days of searching and everyone over 20 dies! So, they rebel and go to war with the Canaanites and lose. In Numbers 16 the sons of Korah rebel against Moses and he tells them to fill a censer with incense and stand before God in the morning and God will show them who the leader is and God kills them all with their families. The next day the nation rebels and God judges them and Aaron takes a censer full of incense and runs v.46, in the midst of them and stands between them and God and makes atonement for them to stop the plague, but not before 14,700 of them die. Incense was a method of making intercession before God for mankind, for standing in the gap, repairing the breach, and restoring the path. David said, “Let my prayer be set before Thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.” Psalm 141:2. David had a plan for intercession, do you have a plan for your intercessory prayer time? I like the acrostic, “ACTS,” (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication). It’s simple but it works for me. If you have a better one use it!

Starting off with praise and adoration for YeHoVaH is the only way to start. Prayer stops Satan in his tracks but it doesn’t make him go anywhere, he just stands there and listens to your prayers. He was on the Mt. of Temptation when Jesus was praying listening and in the Garden of Gethsemane when He sweat great drops of blood and cried great tears for us, listening, Heb. 5:7. However, “PRAISE” makes him flee! He can’t stand to be in the presence of praise, as some writers have said, “When Christians begin to praise God the demons fall on one another and bite and devour each other.” In fact Isa. 61:3 says that we are to put on, “The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness,” that’s an evil spirit. So we need to chase Satan and his demons out of our prayer closet and do what the LORD told us to do in Matt. 6:6, “Shut the door!” That’s what Adam forgot to do in the ‘Garden of Eden,’ in the “Gan” the enclosed garden. He left the gate open and Satan snuck in and God had to post Cherubim to guard the ‘way’ (derek – the path, road, pass, or entry). The word incense in Hebrew is (katoreh – sweet fumigation, or perfume, which fills a room and drives out the inhabitants or occupants). I can’t help but wonder, if demons were present in the Holy place and the incense drove them out, wouldn’t our praise do the same thing? So, in a real sense our praise, and our intercessory prayers are like the incense in the “Holy of Holies” of old, wafting its way before the nostrils of God as He sits upon His throne in heaven!

Now you may not have the right incense to offer up to God, but you do have the right praise. Just pick up a hymnal, and sing or read some hymns, if you can’t make a joyful noise, or just worship Him. Adoration means to honor a deity as divine, to regard Him with loving admiration and devotion. Let me give you some words to help you; glorify, bless, exalt, magnify, honor, esteem, extol, eulogize, kneel, love, devotion, worship, etc. Just praise Him for His attributes, His eternal qualities, His gifts, His names, His benefits to you daily, His grace and mercy which are new every morning, His love, etc. The “Incense of Intercession.” Oh, how sweet it is, and oh how much we neglect its privilege. Till next time, we will see you, “…Between The Lines…”  

“Incense For Intercession – Num. 7:1-88” (Part #1) 3/31/14