“You shall make an altar to burn incense on. You shall make it of acacia wood. Its length shall be a cubit, and its width a cubit. It shall be square, and its height shall be two cubits. Its horns shall be of one piece with it. You shall overlay it with pure gold, its top, its sides around it, and its horns; and you shall make a gold molding around it. You shall make two golden rings for it under its molding; on its two ribs, on its two sides you shall make them; and they shall be for places for poles with which to bear it. You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. You shall put it before the veil that is by the ark of the covenant, before the mercy seat that is over the covenant, where I will meet with you. Aaron shall burn incense of sweet spices on it every morning. When he tends the lamps, he shall burn it. When Aaron lights the lamps at evening, he shall burn it, a perpetual incense before Yahweh throughout your generations. You shall offer no strange incense on it, nor burnt offering, nor meal offering; and you shall pour no drink offering on it. Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once in the year; with the blood of the sin offering of atonement once in the year he shall make atonement for it throughout your generations. It is most holy to Yahweh.”
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “When you take a census of the children of Israel, according to those who are counted among them, then each man shall give a ransom for his soul to Yahweh, when you count them; that there be no plague among them when you count them. They shall give this, everyone who passes over to those who are counted, half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs); half a shekel for an offering to Yahweh. Everyone who passes over to those who are counted, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the offering to Yahweh. The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when they give the offering of Yahweh, to make atonement for your souls. You shall take the atonement money from the children of Israel, and shall appoint it for the service of the Tent of Meeting; that it may be a memorial for the children of Israel before Yahweh, to make atonement for your souls.”
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “You shall also make a basin of bronze, and its base of bronze, in which to wash. You shall put it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it. Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet in it. When they go into the Tent of Meeting, they shall wash with water, that they not die; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire to Yahweh. So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they not die. This shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his descendants throughout their generations.”
Moreover Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Also take fine spices: of liquid myrrh, five hundred shekels; and of fragrant cinnamon half as much, even two hundred and fifty; and of fragrant cane, two hundred and fifty; and of cassia five hundred, according to the shekel of the sanctuary; and a hin of olive oil. You shall make it into a holy anointing oil, a perfume compounded after the art of the perfumer: it shall be a holy anointing oil. You shall use it to anoint the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the covenant, the table and all its articles, the lamp stand and its accessories, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the basin with its base. You shall sanctify them, that they may be most holy. Whatever touches them shall be holy. You shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and sanctify them, that they may minister to me in the priest’s office. You shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘This shall be a holy anointing oil to me throughout your generations. It shall not be poured on man’s flesh, and do not make any like it, according to its composition. It is holy. It shall be holy to you. Whoever compounds any like it, or whoever puts any of it on a stranger, he shall be cut off from his people.’ ”
Yahweh said to Moses, “Take to yourself sweet spices, gum resin, onycha, and galbanum; sweet spices with pure frankincense. There shall be an equal weight of each. You shall make incense of it, a perfume after the art of the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy. You shall beat some of it very small, and put some of it before the covenant in the Tent of Meeting, where I will meet with you. It shall be to you most holy. The incense which you shall make, according to its composition you shall not make for yourselves: it shall be to you holy for Yahweh. Whoever shall make any like that, to smell of it, he shall be cut off from his people.”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 15, 19, 21, 23, 26, 32, 33, 34, 37 Upon the which the sweet perfume was burnt, verse…
Upon the which the sweet perfume was burnt, verse 34.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 26, 29, 30, 32, 33, 36 Exo 30:1 And thou shalt make an altar to…
Exo 30:1 And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon: [of] shittim wood shalt thou make it.
Ver. 1. An altar to burn incense upon.] Shadowing Christ, as perfuming and presenting the prayers of saints, {Rev 8:3; Rev 5:8} and obtaining answer thereto "from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God." {Rev 9:13}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, 24, 26, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36 Incense signifies the prayers of God’s people, Psa 141:2;…
Incense signifies the prayers of God’s people, Psa 141:2; Rev 8:3; which are not acceptable to God except they be offered upon the true altar, Christ. This incense also was useful to correct the bad smell of the sacrifices, which were offered on another altar not far from it. Yea, some sacrifices were offered upon this altar, as appears from Exo 30:10; Lev 4:7. But here only the principal and constant use of it is noted.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 11, 17, 22 I. The orders given concerning the altar of incense…
I. The orders given concerning the altar of incense are, 1. That it was to be made of wood, and covered with gold, pure gold, about a yard high and half a yard square, with horns at the corners, a golden cornice round it, with rings and staves of gold, for the convenience of carrying it, Exo 30:1-5. It does not appear that there was any grate to this altar for the ashes to fall into, that they might be taken away; but, when they burnt incense, a golden censer was brought with coals in it, and placed upon the altar, and in that censer the incense was burnt, and with it all the coals were taken away, so that no coals nor ashes fell upon the altar. The measure of the altar of incense in Ezekiel's temple is double to what it is here (Eze 41:22), and it is there called an altar of wood, and there is no mention of gold, to signify that the incense, in gospel times, should be spiritual, the worship plain, and the service of God enlarged, for in every place incense should be offered, Mal 1:11. 2. That it was to be placed before the veil, on the outside of that partition, but before the mercy-seat, which was within the veil, Exo 30:6. For though he that ministered at the altar could not see the mercy-seat, the veil interposing, yet he must look towards it, and direct his incense that way, to teach us that though we cannot with our bodily eyes see the throne of grace, that blessed mercy-seat (for it is such a throne of glory that God, in compassion to us, holds back the face of it, and spreads a cloud upon it), yet we must in prayer by faith set ourselves before it, direct our prayer, and look up. 3. That Aaron was to burn sweet incense upon this altar, every morning and every evening, about half a pound at a time, which was intended, not only to take away the ill smell of the flesh that was burnt daily on the brazen altar, but for the honour of God, and to show the acceptableness of his people's services to him, and the pleasure which they should take in ministering to him, Exo 30:7, Exo 30:8. As by the offerings on the brazen altar satisfaction was made for what had been done displeasing to God, so, by the offering on this, what they did well was, as it were, recommended to the divine acceptance; for our two great concerns with God are to be acquitted from guilt and accepted as righteous in his sight. 4. That nothing was to be offered upon it but incense, nor any incense but that which was appointed, Exo 30:9. God will have his own service done according to his own appointment, and not otherwise. 5. That this altar should be purified with the blood of the sin-offering put upon the horns of it, every year, upon the day of atonement, Exo 30:10. See Lev 16:18, Lev 16:19. The high priest was to take this in his way, as he came out from the holy of holies. This was to intimate to them that the sins of the priests who ministered at this altar, and of the people for whom they ministered, put a ceremonial impurity upon it, from which it must be cleansed by the blood of atonement.
II. This incense-altar typified, 1. The mediation of Christ. The brazen altar in the court was a type of Christ dying on earth; the golden altar in the sanctuary was a type of Christ interceding in heaven, in virtue of his satisfaction. This altar was before the mercy-seat; for Christ always appears in the presence of God for us; he is our advocate with the father (Jo1 2:1), and his intercession is unto God of a sweet-smelling savour. This altar had a crown fixed to it; for Christ intercedes as king. Father, I will, Joh 17:24. 2. The devotions of the saints, whose prayers are said to be set forth before God as incense, Psa 141:2. As the smoke of the incense ascended, so much our desires towards God rise in prayer, being kindled with the fire of holy love and other pious affections. When the priest was burning incense the people were praying (Luk 1:10), to signify that prayer is the true incense. This incense was offered daily, it was a perpetual incense (Exo 30:8); for we must pray always, that is, we must keep up stated times for prayer every day, morning and evening, at least, and never omit it, but thus pray without ceasing. The lamps were dressed or lighted at the same time that the incense was burnt, to teach us that the reading of the scriptures (which are our light and lamp) is a part of our daily work, and should ordinarily accompany our prayers and praises. When we speak to God we must hear what God says to us, and thus the communion is complete. The devotions of sanctified souls are well-pleasing to God, of a sweet-smelling savour; the prayers of saints are compared to sweet odours (Rev 5:8), but it is the incense which Christ adds to them that makes them acceptable (Rev 8:3), and his blood that atones for the guilt which cleaves to our best services. And, if the heart and life be not holy, even incense is an abomination (Isa 1:13), and he that offers it is as if he blessed an idol, Isa 66:3.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–38 And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense…
And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon,.... The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan call it incense of spices, properly enough, for it was made of various spices; of which see Exo 30:34 and this was necessary on a natural and civil account, to remove those ill smells from the sanctuary, occasioned by the number of beasts continually slain in it; but chiefly on a religions account, to denote the acceptableness of the service of the sanctuary to God:
of shittim wood shall thou make it: of the same that the altar of burnt offering was made, which was covered with brass, but this with gold, as after related; of this sort of wood; see Gill on Exo 25:5 as this altar was a type of Christ, the shittim wood may respect his human nature; which wood, though it sprung out of the earth, was not common, but choice and excellent, and very strong durable, and incorruptible; and so Christ, though he was man made of an earthly woman in his human nature, yet was chosen out of the people, is the chiefest among ten thousand, and excellent as the cedars, the man of God's right hand, whom he made strong for himself; and though he died in it, he saw no corruption, he now lives, and will live for evermore; in which nature he acts the part of a Mediator, and intercedes for his people, and offers up their prayers, perfumed with the much incense of his mediation, to which this altar has a special respect.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 7, 10, 11, 12, 18, 19, 23, 34 Moses in this chapter farther instructed, (1.) Concerning the…
Moses in this chapter farther instructed, (1.) Concerning the altar of incense, ver. 1-10. (2.) Concerning the ransom money, which the Israelites were to pay when they were numbered, ver. 11-16. (3.) Concerning the laver of brass, ver. 17-21. (4.) Concerning the anointing oil, ver. 22-33. (5.) Concerning the incense and perfume, which was to be burned on the golden altar, ver. 34-38.
The altar of incense was to be about a yard high, and half a yard square, with horns at the corners, a golden cornish round it, with rings and staves of gold for the convenience of carrying it, ver. 1- 5. It doth not appear that there was any grate to this altar for the ashes to fall into, that they might be taken away; but when they burn incense, a golden censer was brought, with coals in it, and placed upon the altar, and in that censer the incense was burnt, and with it all the coals were taken away, so that no coals or ashes fell upon the altar. The altar of incense in Ezekiel's temple is double to what it is here, Ezek. xli, 22, and it is there called an altar of wood, and there is no mention of gold, to signify that the incense in gospel times should be spiritual, the worship plain, and the service of God enlarged. It was placed before the veil, on the outside of that partition, but before the mercy-seat, which was within the veil. For though he that ministered at that altar could not see the mercy-seat, the veil interposing, yet he must look towards it, and direct his incense that way, to teach us, that though we cannot with our bodily eyes see the throne of grace, that blessed mercy-seat, yet we must in prayer by faith set ourselves before it, direct our prayer and look up.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 18, 20, 21, 23, 25, 30, 34 The altar of burnt incense, 1.
CHAPTER XXX
The altar of burnt incense, 1.
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Dimensions, 2.
Golden crown, 3.
Rings and staves, 4, 5.
Where placed, 6, 7.
Use, 8-10.
The ransom price of half a shekel, 11-13.
Who were to pay it, 14.
The rich and the poor to pay alike, 15.
The use to which it was applied, 16.
The brazen laver, and its uses, 17-21.
The holy anointing oil, and its component parts, 22-25.
To be applied to the tabernacle, ark, golden table, candlestick,
altar of burnt-offerings, and the laver, 26-29.
And to Aaron and his sons, 30.
Never to be applied to any other uses, and none like it ever to
be made, 31-33.
The perfume, and how made, 34, 35.
Its use, 36.
Nothing similar to it ever to be made, 37, 38.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXX
Verse 1. Altar to burn incense] The Samaritan omits the ten first verses of this chapter, because it inserts them after the 32d verse of chap. xxvi. See Clarke on Ex 26:32.
Shittim wood] The same of which the preceding articles were made, because it was abundant in those parts, and because it was very durable; hence everywhere the Septuagint translation, which was made in Egypt, renders the original by ξυλον ασηπτον, incorruptible wood.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 7, 10, 11, 12, 18, 23, 34 Exo 30:1-6. Thou shalt make an altar to burn…
Exo 30:1-6. Thou shalt make an altar to burn incense thereon — The altar of incense was to be about a yard high, and half a yard square, with horns at the corners, a golden cornice round it, with rings and staves of gold for the convenience of carrying it, Exo 30:1-5. It doth not appear that there was any grate to this altar for the ashes to fall into, that they might be taken away; but when they burned incense, a golden censer was brought, with coals in it, and placed upon the altar, and in that censer the incense was burned, and with it all the coals were taken away, so that no coals or ashes fell upon the altar. The altar of incense in Ezekiel’s temple is double to what it is here, (Eze 41:22,) and it is there called an altar of wood, and there is no mention of gold, to signify that the incense in gospel times should be spiritual, the worship plain, and the service of God enlarged. It was placed before the veil, on the outside of that partition, but before the mercy-seat, which was within the veil. For though he that ministered at that altar could not see the mercy-seat, the veil interposing, yet he must look toward it, and direct his incense that way, to teach us, that though we cannot with our bodily eyes see the throne of grace, that blessed mercy- seat, yet we must in prayer by faith set ourselves before it, direct our prayer, and look up.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 11, 17, 22, 34 Exo 37:25-28; Exo 40:26-27. The altar of incense was…
Exo 37:25-28; Exo 40:26-27. The altar of incense was to be a casing of boards of shittim wood Exo 25:5, Exo 25:18 inches square and three feet in height (taking the cubit as 18 inches), entirely covered with plates of gold. Four “horns” were to project upward at the corners like those of the altar of burnt-offering Exo 27:2. A crown or moulding of gold was to run round the top. On each of two opposite sides there was to be a gold ring through which the staves were to be put when it was moved from place to place.
Exo 30:4
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By the two corners thereof - Not corners. See the margin. The sense appears to be: And two gold rings shalt thou make for it under its moulding; on its two sides shalt thou make them (i. e. one ring on each side).
Exo 30:6
The place for the altar of incense was outside the veil, opposite to the ark of the covenant and between the candlestick on the south side and the showbread table on the north Exo 40:22-24. It appears to have been regarded as having a more intimate connection with the holy of holies than the other things in the holy place; and the mention of the mercy-seat in this verse, if we associate with it the significance of incense as figuring the prayers of the Lord’s people Psa 141:2; Rev 5:8; Rev 8:3-4, seems to furnish additional pound for an inference that the incense altar took precedence of the table of showbread and the candlestick.
Exo 30:7
The lamps - See Exo 25:37.
Exo 30:7-8
The offering of the incense accompanied that of the morning and evening sacrifice. The two forms of offering symbolized the spirit of man reaching after communion with Yahweh, both in act and utterance. See Psa 141:2.
Exo 30:9
By this regulation, the symbolism of the altar of incense was kept free from ambiguity. atonement was made by means of the victim on the brazen altar in the court ontside; the prayers of the reconciled worshippers had their type within the tabernacle.
Exo 30:10
See the marginal references.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 18, 19, 23, 24, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36 An altar to burn incense. This burning of incense…
An altar to burn incense. This burning of incense was an emblem of prayer, ascending to God from an inflamed heart. See Psalm cxl. 2; Apocalypse v. 8, and viii. 4. (Challoner) --- Nothing but incense was daily offered by the high priest upon this altar. On the day of expiation he touched the four corners with blood. It stood over-against the bread of proposition.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 5. The Altar of Incense. Exo_30:1-10
5. The Altar of Incense. Exo_30:1-10
The reason why the directions concerning the altar of incense are given so late is seen in the design of it, which puts it among the things directly connected with the ritual worship; also in the fact that it marks the last point in the movement of the priest towards the Holy of holies, the highest point in the ritual before the entrance into the Holy of holies. This eminent position is even indicated in the circumstance that, being slender in form, gilt all over, adorned besides with a golden rim, furnished with golden rings, even with golden staves to carry it with, it stands at the middle of the veil of the Holy of holies, bearing a direct relation to the mercy-seat. For this reason we would rather find a theological idea than an archæological error in that passage of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb_9:4) which puts it in the Holy of holies. For this is the altar which by its incense symbolizes the prayer of the high-priest (Rev_5:8; Heb_5:7). On the day of atonement (according to Lev_16:13) the incense is to be carried into the Holy of holies and fill the whole room. The morning and evening sacrifice on the altar of burnt-offering are here to find their higher expression in the fragrant incense which Aaron has to offer morning and evening in the holy place; and it is not without significance that this incense is intimately connected with those sacrifices. In the morning he is to burn incense when he trims the lamps, and in the evening when he lights them; for without illumination and the light of knowledge even his prayer does not attain its higher form of sacerdotal intercession. The incense, moreover, is to be a perpetual one before Jehovah, and so to continue throughout the future generations. This implies the exclusion, in the first place, of common incense, for not all prayers are true prayers, e. g. those of selfishness and fanaticism; secondly, of the burnt-offering, for here the material point is the offering of the heart, not mortifications of the body; finally, of meal-offerings and drink-offerings, for prayer requires abstemiousness. Finally, the altar of prayer is to have its horns sprinkled once a year with the blood of the sin-offering as an atonement. This doubtless was simultaneous with the sprinkling of the mercy-seat, but had not the same meaning. The expiation is offered to the mercy-seat; the altar of incense is covered with the expiation newly dedicated by it.
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6. The Assessments for the Temple. Exo_30:11-16
It should be here observed that in this section there is no reference to the temporary work of building the tabernacle, but to those things which enter into the regular ritual service which is to continue through future time. It is therefore certainly an error when Keil and Knobel start out with the notion that the shekel or half-shekel of the sanctuary is to be expended once for all on the erection of the tabernacle. The tabernacle itself was to be built from voluntary contributions (Exo_35:5), not from legally imposed taxes, and in this voluntary way more was given than was needed (Exo_36:5 sqq.). Moreover, the designation of the use of the money, עַל־עֲבֹדַת אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד [“for the service of the tent of meeting,” Exo_30:16], does not mean: for the work of the building, but: for the perpetual service of God in the building. This is implied also in Luther’s translation [and in the A. V.]. Moreover, it is said, that this tax is to be collected from the Israelites when the census of the adult males is taken. But such an enumeration did not take place till after the tabernacle was erected (Num_1:1-18).1 These enumerations, too, had to be repeated from time to time. The question is easily solved when we reflect on the continuous pecuniary demands made by the sacrificial service. Besides the personal occasions for special offerings (Leviticus 1 sqq.), a perpetual sacrificial service was ordained. For this service (Exo_29:38 and in this place.), which is to be distinguished from the great offering at the dedication of the tabernacle (Numbers 7), and not less from the consecratory offerings or heave-offerings for the priests (Exo_29:9 sqq.). a legally-imposed tax for the temple was necessary; for the priests had themselves no means for it. This explains also how this contribution serves for expiation (Exo_30:12); it did not do this directly, but because it served for the permanent expiation of the people by means of the offerings. In this connection it is important to observe the directions, that only adult men make the contribution for this expiation, and that every man, as representative of the whole congregation of the people, without distinction of poor and rich, contributed the same amount, viz. half a shekel. As a consequence of the census this tax had also to be paid by the Levites. The sacred shekel, different from the common one, is afterwards more exactly defined; and as the half-shekel amounted to 13 groschen [i. e., 31 cents, or 1 shilling and 3 pence; but vid. note on p. 91], the tax could not fall heavily on any man able to bear arms. Only it is to be remarked, that the taxation—as well as the census itself—is imposed on the adult members of the political congregation of the people. By this payment the consecrated congregation of the people is distinguished from a people in the unconsecrated state of nature.—כֹּפֶר is the term applied to the payment on account of the use for which it was designed. So also the enumeration is indirectly an enumeration, or review, which Jehovah institutes with His people. It is true that in the voluntary gifts of silver for the building of the sanctuary the precept concerning the half-shekel was taken as a standard.2
7. The Laver. Exo_30:17-21 (Exo_38:8)
The command concerning the copper laver is not, as some would think, to be regarded as a supplementary direction: it is connected with the foregoing as being the last thing through the medium of which the regular services of the tabernacle were carried on. The expiation which the Israelites have to pay for with the half-shekel applies to the Levites and priests (comp. Mat_17:25, where no exception seems to be made). Besides this there were special expiations for the priests, when they were consecrated, and on the day of atonement. But all this was not sufficient to make them appear as pure men in reference to their daily deportment. They were obliged on penalty of death to wash their hands and feet, when they were about to enter the inner sanctuary, or even only to approach the altar of burnt-offering to minister. This washing symbolizes a purification from the daily (even unconscious) defilements. Later the Pharisees applied the practice of washing the hands also to preparation for the daily meals (Mar_7:3 sqq.); and little as Christ sanctioned this ordinance, He yet made the washing of the feet a highly significant transaction before the Passover meal and the first Lord’s supper.—As to the base (כֵּן) of the laver in particular, the passage Exo_38:8 has led to extended discussions. The expression בְּמַרְאֹת, etc., may mean “from [of] the mirrors,” as the LXX. and Vulg. translate. This explanation is reduced to an ascetic or pietistic form by Heng-stenberg, who says that what heretofore had served as a means of gaining the good-will of the world was henceforth to become a means of gaining the good-will of God. According to this, then, there ought to be no mirrors in pious households, and especially none in a pastor’s robing-room. We would confidently [with Bähr] render: “[provided] with women’s mirrors,” were it not that brass itself had been used for metal mirrors, and that בְּ might also mean “as,” “in the character of,” according to which the passage would mean: “to serve as mirrors for women.”3—Observing here again the general connection, we see that the topic is not the erection of the tabernacle, but life in the tabernacle as marked by the sacred utensils permanently belonging to it. Furthermore, it is clear that reference is made to crowds of women who were to come into the court. Keil, it is true, observes with regard to the character of these women: “The צֹבְאֹת are indeed, according to 1Sa_1:22, women; not washer-women, however, but women who devoted their lives to pious exercises,” etc. But, it may be asked, might not the pious exercises consist just in the washing of the sanctuary and keeping it clean? Or could not the women who did the washing be pious women? Luther, it is well known, thought otherwise. Knobel remarks, with entire correctness, that before the erection of the tabernacle there could be nothing said of women coming into the court of the tabernacle; but he adds a most singular explanation of the passage. Furthermore, we must ask, what could here be the use of the expression, “out of the mirrors of the women,” since it is related beforehand that all the materials for the building and its furniture were furnished voluntarily and in the mass?4 The LXX. seem first to have invented this ascetic notion—one which in the connection has no sense at all. As to this connection, however, we are to observe that this base sustained the laver of the priests. If now they had to cleanse themselves in preparation for their service, is it not to be expected that a similar command was imposed on the women who kept the court in order? To be sure, they could not wash themselves in the court, at least not their feet, from considerations of modesty; and they did not need to do it, since they did not have to touch the altar. But they were quite fittingly reminded of their duty to appear comely by the mirrors of the base,5 on which the laver rested, and in which the priests were to cleanse themselves. It is easy to see that this use of the base was for the purposes of symbolic admonition rather than of the toilette. We also find it more natural that the mirror, at its first appearance in the Scriptures, should receive this higher symbolic significance, according to which the law is also called a mirror, than that it should at the outset be proscribed with the remark, that henceforth the pious women used no more mirrors. In its spiritual sense the washing of the priests is also a perpetual ordinance.
8. The Holy Anointing Oil. Exo_30:22-33
In the case of the anointing oil, it is at once obvious that it is not designed to be used simply at the erection of the tabernacle. In the first place, direction is given of what materials and in what proportions it shall be compounded; next, the use of the oil is stated, i. e., to anoint the several parts of the sanctuary; finally, there is enunciated the sternest prohibition against any imitation of this sacred anointing oil for common use. The number four being the mundane number [the four points of the compass], the union of four fragrant spices with olive oil indicates that the sanctuary is to be dedicated with the noblest of the world’s products, as combined with the oil of unction, the spirit of the sanctuary. If one were to look for pairs of opposites, myrrh and cinnamon might be taken as related to one another; so calamus and cassia. It might be said of the myrrh, that it denotes that fine, higher kind of pain which enables one to overcome natural pain; cinnamon denotes the warmest feeling of light and life; the bitterness of calamus might also be noticed; but the significance of the cassia is difficult to determine. With this ointment everything in the sanctuary is anointed, Aaron not excepted. But it is pronounced to be a most severe and punishable offence for common men to aspire to make this composition (this reconciliation) of the spiritual perfumes of the world and the spiritual oil of the sanctuary. On the anointing oil vid. Bähr, Symbolik II., p. 173. The correct method of preparing it is called a sacred art.
9. The Holy Incense. Exo_30:34-38
As in the anointing oil four kinds of spices are combined with oil as the base of the ointment and are subsidiary to it, so it is here the pure frankincense which constitutes the base; but the spices combined with it are three in number. Inasmuch as the incense certainly symbolizes prayer (Psa_141:2), we may naturally look for three principal occasions of prayer. The first and noblest resembles the spontaneous exudation of trees, suggesting the breathings of prayer prompted by the higher life. The second substance is a pulverized shell of a mollusk—something obtained by crushing; the meaning of this is readily understood, vid. Psa_51:19 [17]. “According to modern authorities, when burnt alone it (the onycha) has a bad odor; but everywhere, e. g., in India, it is made the fundamental ingredient of incense, and imparts to the materials of the incense their real strength” (Knobel). The third substance, galbanum, being used as an antidote to the most diverse injurious forces, seems fitted to denote the divine remedial force in the soul, as being liable to be irritated by the most manifold injurious influences. Says Knobel: “I had the sacred incense of the Hebrews prepared in the laboratory of Prof. Mettenheimer in Giessen; I tested it, and found its odor strong, refreshing, and very agreeable.” In this case the ingredients are of equal weight; the rigorous prohibition of imitation for common use is the same. This may symbolize that prayer is not to be used for selfish or worldly purposes. It is incorrect, with Knobel, to say that the incense consists of the same number of ingredients as the anointing oil.
Footnotes:
[1][Keil and Knobel infer from Exo_38:26 that a census was taken before the tabernacle was finished, and that the one mentioned in Numbers 1 is the same thing more formally executed and recorded. The identity of the numbers in Exo_38:26 and Num_1:46 seems to favour this supposition.—Tr.]
[2][This refers to the above-mentioned correspondence between Exo_38:26 and Num_1:46. Lange apparently makes the former describe the voluntary contributions of the people for the construction of the tabernacle. But if it was, it is singular that a purely voluntary contribution, when summed up, should have proved to amount to exactly one-half a shekel for each adult male.—Tr.]
[3][This certainly is not a satisfactory explanation. Not to mention that grammatically it is the least probably, it is almost inconceivable that it should be said, that the laver was made of brass in order that it might serve as a mirror for the women who ministered at the tabernacle! If Hengstenberg’s interpretation partakes of a pietistic spirit, surely this is the opposite extreme. Knobel renders מַרְאֹת, etc., by “Anblicken,” i.e., views, or figures, “of women marching up to the door of the tabernacle.” He adds: “Probably they were Levite women who at particular times presented themselves in a sort of procession at the sanctuary, in order there to wash, to clean, to furbish.” But we can hardly agree with him that “such figures were appropriate on the vessel which was for the priests to wash from.” Grammatically too this rendering is open to the same objection as that of Bähr’s viz. that בְּ cannot naturally to rendedred “with,” in the sense of “accompanied by” or “furnished with.” Keil’s statement, that בְּ “never signifies with in the sense of outward addition,” is too strong (comp. Psa_66:13); but certainly that is a rare use of the preposition. The translation, “made the laver of brass.…of the mirros” etc., is the easiest; but it is not necessary in adopting it to adopt Hengstenberg’s theory of the significance of the thing.—Tr.]
[4][The use of the observation was to state a fact. And this supposition is in no way interfered with by the circumstance that the contributions for the tabernacle were made voluntarily.—Tr.]
[5][Lange understands that only the base, not the whole laver, was made to serve for this purpose. The attempt made in what follows to meet the obvious objection to his theory, viz. that the use attributed to this copper base is quite out of keeping with the tenor of the narrative, is rather strained. The symbolic use certainly cannot exclude the literal use. The declaration, therefore, must stand that the base (or the whole laver) was made in order to serve for the purpose of mirrors for the attendant women. But if the symbolic use was the chief or only one, why confine it to the women? Did not the priests need such admonition as Well as they?—Tr.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 18, 23, 24, 34 foursquare--the meaning of which is not that it was…
foursquare--the meaning of which is not that it was to be entirely of a cubical form, but that upon its upper and under surface, it showed four equal sides. It was twice as high as it was broad, being twenty-one inches broad and three feet six inches high. It had "horns"; its top or flat surface was surmounted by an ornamental ledge or rim, called a crown, and it was furnished at the sides with rings for carriage. Its only accompanying piece of furniture was a golden censer or pan, in which the incense was set fire to upon the altar. Hence it was called the altar of incense, or the "golden altar" [Exo 39:38; Exo 40:26], from the profuse degree in which it was gilded or overlaid with the precious metal. This splendor was adapted to the early age of the church, but in later times, when the worship was to be more spiritual, the altar of incense is prophetically described as not of gold but of wood, and double the size of that in the tabernacle, because the church should be vastly extended (Mal 1:11).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 22, 25, 34, 35 THE ALTAR OF INCENSE, Exo_30:1-10.
THE ALTAR OF INCENSE, Exo_30:1-10.
1. An altar to burn incense upon — This was to be one of the pieces of furniture belonging to the holy place, (Exo_30:6,) and the description of it would have been appropriate in connexion with the table and the candlestick, (Exo_25:23-37,) but seems to have been reserved for this place in order to stand in connexion with the consecration and sacrificial ministry of the priests.
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Shittim wood — The same as that employed for the table (Exo_25:23) and the ark, (Exo_25:10,) the boards of the sanctuary, (Exo_26:15,) and the framework of the altar of burnt offering, (Exo_27:1.)
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Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38 1. incense] Heb. ḳeṭôreth, ‘sweet smoke’ (see on Exo_29:13),…
1. incense] Heb. ḳeṭôreth, ‘sweet smoke’ (see on Exo_29:13), which may denote, according to the context, either the ‘sweet smoke’ rising from animal sacrifices (Psa_66:15; and perhaps usually in the earlier literature, Deu_33:10, 1Sa_2:28, Isa_1:13), or the sweet smoke rising from ‘incense’ (so always in P and Chron.).
1–10. The Altar of incense: its construction and place (vv. 1–6), and its use (vv. 7–10).
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1–6 (cf. Exo_37:25-28, Exo_40:26). The altar of incense was to be of acacia wood, overlaid with gold, a cubit (1½ ft.) broad and long, and 2 cubits (3 ft.) high; at its upper corners were to be four horns (cf. Exo_27:2); a rim or moulding of gold was to run round it, probably near its top; and close under this moulding, on two of the opposite sides, there were to be two gold rings to receive the poles for carrying it. It was to stand in the Holy place, directly in front of the mercy-seat. A remarkable incense-altar, decorated with lions and composite animal figures, has been found at Taanach (see the writer’s Schweich Lectures, p. 84 f., with an illustration); but it bears no resemblance to the altar here described.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 30, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37 (1) Thou shalt make an altar to burn incense…
XXX.
THE ALTAR OF INCENSE.
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(1) Thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon.—Why the directions concerning the altar of incense were delayed until this place, instead of being given when the rest of the furniture of the holy place was described (Exodus 25), it is impossible to say. But there is certainly no reason to suspect a dislocation of the text. The mode in which Aaron is spoken of in Exo_30:7-10 implies a previous mention of his consecration to the high priesthood.
That incense would be among the offerings which God would require to be offered to Him had appeared already in Exo_25:6. Its preciousness, its fragrance, and its seeming to mount in cloud after cloud to heaven, gave it a natural place in the symbolism of worship, and led to its employment in the religious rites of a variety of nations. Egyptian priests continually appear on the monuments with censers in their hands, in which presumably incense is being offered, and the inscriptions mention that it was imported from Arabia, and used largely in the festivals of Ammon (Records of the Past, vol. x., pp. 14-19). Herodotus tells us that the Babylonians consumed annually a thousand talents’ weight of it at the feast of Belus (i. 183). The employment of it by the Greeks and Romans in their sacrifices is well known. Here again, as so often in the Mosaical dispensation. God sanctioned in His worship an innocent rite, which natural reason had pointed out to man as fitting and appropriate, not regarding its employment in false religions as debarring it from adoption into the true.
Of shittim wood shalt thou make it.—Of the same main material as “the brazen altar” (Exo_27:1), but covered differently.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 Vers. 1-10. THE ALTAR OF INCENSE. This chapter has…
Vers. 1-10. THE ALTAR OF INCENSE. 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 (ver. 6) would seem to have been Exo_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 (ver. 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 (vers. 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.
An altar to burn incense upon. The offering of incense was an element in the religious worship of most ancient nations. In Egypt frankincense was especially used in the festivals of the god Ammon (Records of the Past , vol. 10. pp. 18, 19); and on one occasion an Egyptian sovereign sent a naval expedition to Arabia for the express purpose of bringing frankincense and frankincense trees to Egypt, in connection with the Ammon feasts (Brugsch, History of Egypt, vol. 1. pp. 305-311). The Babylonians burnt a thousand talents" weight of frankincense every year at the great festival of Bal (Heb 1:183). The Greeks and Romans offered frankincense, as a rule, with every offering; and in the early ages of Christianity it was made the test of a Christian whether he would do this or no. What exactly the religious notion was which underlay these acts, or whether it was the same everywhere, may be questioned. In the Mosaic religion, however, there can be little doubt that, in the main, incense symbolised prayer. (see Psa_141:2; Luk_1:10) Of shittim wood. Compare above, Exo_27:1.
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Vers. 1-10. The symbolism of the Altar of Incense.
We have seen that the ascent of incense signifies the mounting up to heaven of the grateful odour of man"s earnest and heart-felt prayers. The altar, therefore, symbolises the heart which offers such prayers,
1. IN ITS MATERIALS. The altar is of acacia wood and gold the one a 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.
II IN ITS SITUATION. The altar was "by the ark of the testimony 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. There is still a veil between man and the spiritual world. Through death only can he pass beyond it.
III IN ITS HORNS, WHICH WERE SYMBOLS OF POWER. Great is 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. (Gen_32:26) The parable of the importunate widow 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 shelf not tempt" (i.e. "try" or "test") "the Lord thy God." He does not undertake to answer faithless, or even doubting, wavering prayers. The promise is 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". (Mar_11:23)
HOMILIES BY J. ORR Vers. 1-11. The Altar of Incense.
See vers. 34-38. J.O.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR Vers. 1-11, 34-38. The golden altar and the perfume.
The golden altar was of small dimensions, a cubit in length, a cubit in breadth, and two cubits high. It was a true altar, as shown by its square shape, and by its horns. Its place was immediately in front of the vail dividing the two portions of the sanctuary, with the innermost or" which the holy of holies it was regarded as having the more intimate connection. (1Ki_6:22; Heb_9:4) The command was that Aaron should burn upon it sweet incense morning and evening in the morning when he trimmed, and in the evening when he lighted, the lamps. This was done, in the one case, at the offering of morning, in the other, at the offering of evening sacrifice, the synchronism of the acts deserving our attention. Once a year the horns of the altar were to be smeared with the blood of the sin-offering. Minute directions are given for the making of the incense (vers. 34-38). It was to be "salted, pure, and holy" (ver. 35). The burning of this incense on the altar was at once a symbol of prayer and devotion, and a call to the congregation to engage in these spiritual exercises. (Psa_141:2; Luk_1:10; Rev_5:8 Rev_8:3, Rev_8:4) As an act of the priest, it may be viewed as a type of the intercession of Christ. The service of this altar suggests the following ideas
1. Prayer taking the word in its widest sense, as denoting the exercise of all devout feeling and spiritual desire towards Godis the holiest act of the spiritual life. It is figured as incense. And the altar of incense stood in immediate relation with the holy of holies. The altar and the incense offered upon it, are declared to be "most holy" (vers. 10, 36). The reason is not difficult to find. The very essence of the devotional life expresses itself in prayer. Its love, its awe, its thankfulness, its aspirations, its unutterable yearnings after God its breathings after holiness, its very contrition and sorrow for its sins all ascend to Jehovah in this supreme act of the nature. Words bear but a small part in prayer. The province of words is to define. Hence the soul, in the intensity of its aspirations, in its reachings out towards the infinite, often feels the need of escaping from words, of leaving them behind. Prayer becomes "the burden of a sigh falling of a tear perhaps a purely inward act of the mind realising union with Jehovah. Or its uncontrollable desires may express themselves in "groanings which cannot be uttered". (Rom_8:26) And it is precisely these unutterable parts of our prayers which are the sweetest to God. The appropriate symbol of them is the incense, rising in its unconfined wreaths from the priest"s censer, or from the golden altar.
2. Prayer is an act of sacrifice. "In prayer," says Martensen, "the profoundest act of conscience and obedience is inwardly accomplished, for prayer is only in so far a laying hold and appropriation of God, as it is likewise a sacrifice; and we can only receive God into us when we likewise give ourselves to him. he who offers no sacrifice in his prayer, who does not sacrifice his selfwill, does not really pray.
3. The connection with the sacrifice of burnt-offering. The coals for the altar of incense were brought from the altar of burnt-offering (cf. Lev_16:12, Lev_16:13) This teaches that the worshipper needs reconciling before he can acceptably offer the sacrifices of his devotion. But there is a further connection, arising from the significance of the burnt-offering as a symbol of dedication. Keil says truly incense-offering was not only a spiritualising and transfiguring of the burnt-offering, but a completion of it also." The connection may be stated thus. The yielding up of the life to God, symbolised in the continual burnt-offering, transforms itself in practice into the three following modes of self-surrender.
1. Holy practical activity, of which the fruit, good works, is represented inthe shew-bread.
2. Public witness-bearing for God, by manifestation of the truth, and byholiness of walk represented by the candlestick.
3. Devotion soul"s going forth to unite itself in appropriate actings with the great centre of Being, and to devote its own inmost being to him" (Fairbairn) symbolised by the burning of the incense. This is the culminating act of self-devotion, and crowns the sanctuary-worship, raises it to its consummation.
4. Connection with light. The incense was to be burned at the time of the trimming, and again of the lighting of the lamps. The brighter the light, the purer the devotion. In Christianity no countenance is given to the maxim that devotion is connected with ignorance. Christ and his apostles attach the utmost importance to the possession of right knowledge, and to growth in it. Growth in knowledge is the condition of sanctification, of spiritual fruitfulness, of enlargement of nature, of being filled with all the fulness of God.
5. Prayer a daily duty. The "perpetual incense before the Lord" reminds us of the apostolic injunction, "Pray without ceasing". (1Th_5:17) Prayer, devotion, is to be the element we live in. And prayer, "with thanksgiving," is to sanctify everything we do. J.O. (Eph_5:20; Php_4:6; Col_3:17; 1Ti_4:4, 1Ti_4:5)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv8, 12, 17, 22, 34 Burn incense upon it.
Exo_30:8
Burn incense upon it.
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Incense
All religious ceremony and ritual is a picture, in external and material form, and upon a lower platform, of something higher, properly religious. Now this altar of incense had a very distinct meaning.
I. The first thing that I want to point out is what a lovely, significant, and instructive symbol of prayer the incense is. Now what were the aspects of prayer suggested by the symbolism?
1. First of all, I suppose that the essence of it is the ascent of a mans soul to God. To enter into thyself is to ascend to God. To go deep down into thine own heart is to go straight up to the Father in heaven. Incense is prayer, because incense surely wreathes itself upwards to God.
2. Let us learn another lesson from the incense, and that is that the prayer which ascends must be the prayer that comes from a fire. The incense only climbs when it is hot.
3. The kindled incense gave forth fragrant odours. When we present our prayers, they rise up acceptable to God in curling wreaths of fragrance that He accepts.
II. Notice the position of the altar of incense in relation to the rest of the sanctuary. It stood in the holy place, midway between the outer court, where the whole assembly of worshippers were in the habit of meeting, and the holiest of all. It stood in a right line betwixt the outer court and the mercy-seat, where the symbolical presence of God was visible in the Shekinah: and whosoever approached the altar of incense had to pass by the altar of sacrifice: and whosoever was on his way to the holiest of all had to pass by the altar of incense. All prayer must be preceded by the perfect sacrifice; and my prayer must be offered on the footing of that perfect Sacrifice which Christ Himself has offered. And so you and I remember the Altar of Sacrifice whenever we say, For Christs sake.
Amen. And if we mean anything by these words except the mere empty formula, we mean this:--I stand here, and venture to put my grains of incense upon the altar, because He died yonder upon the Cross, that I might pass into the Holy Place. The prayer that goes another way round, and does not pass by the Altar of Sacrifice, is not the prayer that God desires and accepts. And, still further, let me remind you that, as I said, whosoever was on his road into the holiest of all had to pass by the altar of incense. That is to say, there is no true communion of spirit with God, except on condition of habitual prayer, and they that are strangers to the one, are strangers to the other.
III. The perpetuity of this offering. Morning and evening the incense was piled up and blown into a flame, and all the day and night it smouldered quietly on the altar; that is to say, special seasons and continual devotion, morning and evening kindled, heaped up, and all the day and night glowing. And dim lives may still, like the priests in this ritual, pile up the incense on the altar at fixed seasons, sure that if we do, it will glow there all the day long. But only remember, there is not much chance of a mans devotion being continuous unless he has, and sticks to, his fixed seasons for formal and verbal supplication.
IV. This altar that bore the perpetual incense, once a year aaron had to offer a sacrifice of expiation for it. It was never used for anything except the laying upon it of the fragrant incense, and yet yearly this sacrifice to cleanse it from defilement was duly presented. Now why was that? Was it not in order to express the profound feeling that the purest worship is stained, and that howsoever clear and exclusive may be the occupation and the use of this altar for the one solemn purpose, the iniquities of the offerers had defiled it. Let us be thankful that we have a great High Priest who truly cleanses us from the infirmities of our worship, and bears the iniquities of our natures, and is ever ready to aid our prayers with the incense of His own sacrifice, that all their imperfections may be washed away, and they and we received and made acceptable in His sight. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The altar of incense
The altar of incense was made of acacia wood, and stood about a yard high and eighteen inches square. The altar and incense were symbolic--
I. Of the prayers of Gods people.
1. In prayer we speak to God and tell Him the thoughts of our minds, the feelings of our hearts, the desires of our spirits. The incense smoke ascended, arrow-like, in a straight and most direct column to heaven. Our prayers ascend immediately and in the directest way to the heart and ear of God.
2. In prayer we stand very near God. The altar of incense was placed before the mercy-seat.
3. The pleasant odour of the incense is symbolic of the acceptableness of prayer.
II. Of intelligent, unceasing, and reverent prayer.
1. The burning of incense is intelligent prayer. It took place in the light; and our prayers should be presented to God intelligently.
2. Unceasing prayer. It was a perpetual incense before the Lord.
3. Reverent prayer (Exo_30:9)
III. Of prayer offered in Christs name. Aaron sprinkled the golden horns, with the blood of atonement. This act is typical of the offering of prayer in the name of Christ.
IV. Of the power of prayer. The horns of the altar symbolize power. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much (D. R. Jenkins.)
The altar of incense
I. We gather our first lesson from the shape and position of this altar. The altar was four-square. The same measure and estimate were thus presented every way, whether towards God, or towards man. But the squareness of the altar also denoted the stability of the service connected with it. Prayer and praise are not temporary things. Prayer indeed will be confined to earth, for it is the language of want. But praise waiteth for God in the heavenly, as well as in the earthly Zion.
II. Our second lesson from the golden altar is taught us by the condition necessary to the offering of its incense, viz., that there be a fire burning on it.
1. This incense on the altar typified the intercession of Christ. But the fragrance of the incense could not be brought out, nor its efficacy put forth till the action of fire was employed. And these burning coals on the golden altar, to what do they point us in this view of our subject but the sufferings of Christ? It behoved Christ to suffer.
2. The golden censer on this altar, with the incense rising from it, denotes, we know, the prayers of Gods people (see Rev_8:3-4). Here again we see that the incense could yield no fragrance without fire. The priest put it on the live coals, and then the odorous clouds went fuming up, a sweet savour, acceptable to God. And here we are taught in a most significant way, the necessity of heartiness in our worship if we would have it well-pleasing to God.
III. Our third lesson from this altar is taught us by the continuousness of the incense upon it. How beautifully this points us to Jesus, His offering, once made upon the brazen altar, was never repeated; and so the incense of His merits, once thrown upon the fire on the golden altar, never needs to be repeated. The intercession of Christ is uninterrupted.
IV. Our fourth lesson from this subject is furnished by observing the connection of the altar of incense with both the outer and inner sanctuary. Now we know that the outer part of the sanctuary, or the holy place, represented the Church on earth; while the inner part, or the most holy place, represented the Church in heaven. The lesson taught us by the part of the subject now before us is, that the golden altar, with its incense, belongs alike to both these departments of the Church of Christ. All the service performed, and all the joy experienced by the redeemed in the Church on earth is based upon the sacrifice of Christ, and connected with the incense of His merits. And the same will be true of the redeemed in the Church in heaven.
V. Our fifth and last lesson from this subject is gathered from the nature and composition of the incense offered upon the golden altar. Now, observe this incense was composed of four substances. Three of these, onycha, stacte, and galbanum, were substances entirely unknown to us. These may point to the divinity of Christ, in the mysteriousness of its connection with His death and sacrifice. The frankincense was a substance with which we are acquainted. It may represent the humanity of Christ. This we know and understand, for it was like our own, in all respects, save that it was free from sin. The elements composing this incense were mingled together in equal parts. This seems to point significantly to the entire and perfect harmony of character which distinguished our glorious Saviour. There was nothing out of place in Him. Again, the materials of which the incense was composed had to be beaten into small particles, or reduced to powder before it was prepared to give out its rich fragrance. And so Jesus, our glorious Saviour, had to be brought very low, and stoop to the most wondrous humiliation, before the golden censer of His merits could yield those sweet odours which are so refreshing to the souls of His people, and at the same time so well pleasing to God, and so efficacious to secure our acceptance before Him. (R. Newton, D. D.)
Incense and light
I desire to call your attention to the conjunction which was established by the Divine law between the burning of the incense and the lighting of the lamps; these two things, being both of daily observance, were attended to at the same moment for reasons worthy of our study.
I. And first I call your attention to the wonderful co-operation between the intercession of Christ for us, and the work of the Holy Spirit in us.
1. Note, that we have these both revealed in their fulness at the same time. When our Lord ascended on high to plead before the throne, the Spirit descended to abide in the Church. After the Lord was taken up the disciples received the promise of the Father and were illuminated by the Holy Ghost.
2. Now, as they were connected historically, so are they continually connected as a matter of fact. Herein lies our hope for our own eternal salvation, in the ceaseless plea and the quenchless light.
3. Furthermore, this conjunction, as it is a matter of history, and as it is continuous, will always be seen by us personally when our prayer is the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man that availeth much.
4. That in Gods drawing near to man there is the same conjunction of incense and light. If the glory of God were to come forth from between the cherubim, if it should come past the veil to be revealed throughout the world, that glory would pass by these two, the golden altar of incense and the golden lamp of light. I mean this: God can have no dealing with men at all except through the merit of Christ and the light of the Spirit.
II. Secondly, our text seems to teach the connection between prayer and knowledge. The golden altar represents intercession offered by Christ, and also the prayers of all the saints, which are accepted through His intercession; and as the candlestick stood side by side with it, and represented the light of the Spirit of truth, so must true prayer and true knowledge never be separated.
1. So I gather, first, that prayer should be attended with knowledge. It is ill when men worship they know not what. God is light, and He will not have His people worship Him in the dark. When they burn the incense they must also light the lamp.
2. But now turn the thought round the other way--knowledge should always be accompanied by prayer. Revealed truth is as a church-bell summoning us to come into the presence of the Lord, and bow the knee before Him.
III. I desire, in the third place, to show some special practical connection between the incense and the lamp. And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it. So, then, there should be prayer especially at the dressing of the lamps: that is to say, when preparing our minds for that ministry by which we enlighten the people among whom we dwell we should be specially earnest in prayer. Dr. Adam Clarke used to say to young ministers, Study yourselves dead, and then pray yourselves alive again; and that is an excellent rule. One thing more, this burning of the incense was not only at the dressing of the lamps, but also at the kindling of the lamps, when they began to shine. I want to plead very heartily with you that when it is my privilege to come here this week and at all other times to light the lamps, you who are my beloved helpers will take care to burn the incense at the same time. We need the incense of prayer more than ever in these latter days. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The altar of incense
This altar of incense may remind us of many things concerning prayer.
I. Its size: not very large, the smallest altar. A good prayer need not be long. God knows what we have need of. Like the Lords Prayer, it may include much.
II. Its design: symmetrical. Prayers should not be one-sided, but well-proportioned. Not all about one thing, or too many things. There was a simple beauty about the altar. Four-square, crown of gold.
III. Its material: choice, the best wood and metal. In prayer there may be the word of human infirmity and need; but there must be the fine gold of truth, etc.
IV. Its place: in the holy place, in front of the vail that concealed the most holy. There should be prayer before entering Gods house, as well as inside the house.
V. Its use: to burn incense, offering to God of holy desire, thanksgiving, praise. Note--
1. This incense, carefully compounded of the most precious ingredients. Not to be used for ordinary purposes. Prayer is holy to the Lord.
2. The lamp was lighted opposite when the incense was kindled. Prayer needs Divine illumination: should bear the light as being without hypocrisy.
3. The incense was burnt morning and evening. Our days should begin and end with prayer. (Biblical Museum)
.
The altar of incense
Consider this as--
I. A typical institution. Notice here--
1. Its daily use.
2. Its annual expiation.
II. An emblematic rite. In this view it marks--
1. The privilege of Christians.
2. The ground of their acceptance. Application:
(1) How highly we are privileged under the Christian dispensation.
(2) What a holy people we should be unto the Lord. (C. Simeon, M. A.)
The altar of incense
At the west end of the outer apartment, in front of the curtain which separated it from the holy of holies, stood the altar of incense, three feet high, with four equal sides, each one foot and six inches in horizontal measure. It consisted of a frame of acacia wood, with horns of the same material at the four upper corners; plated over all the external surface with gold. It was not left open at the top, like the great altar of burnt-offering, but covered with a board of acacia wood, overlaid with gold like the four vertical sides; and this cover is designated by the word which signifies the roof of a house. Like the ark and the table, it had rings for convenience in transporting it, and a pair of gilded staves, which, however, did not remain in the rings when the altar was in place. Just above the rings was a crown, or cincture, of the kind affixed to the ark and the table. The incense was probably burned in a censer placed on the top of the altar; the ashes remaining in, and being carried away with, the censer. (E. E. Atwater.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1
CHAPTER XXX.
INCENSE.
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Exo_30:1-10.
The altar of incense was not mentioned when the tent of meeting was being prepared and furnished. But when, in the Divine idea, this is done, when all is ready for the intercourse of God and man, and the priest and the daily victims are provided for, something more than this formal routine of offerings might yet be sought for. This material worship of the senses, this round of splendour and of tragedy, this blaze of gold and gold-encrusted timber, these curtains embroidered in bright colours, and ministers glowing with gems, this blood and fire upon the altar, this worldly sanctuary,--was it all? Or should it not do as nature ever does, which seems to stretch its hands out into the impalpable, and to grow all but spiritual while we gaze; so that the mountain folds itself in vapour, and the ocean in mist and foam, and the rugged stem of the tree is arrayed in fineness of quivering frondage, and it may be of tinted blossom, and around it breathes a subtle fragrance, the most impalpable existence known to sense? Fragrance indeed is matter passing into the immaterial, it is the sigh of the sensuous for the spiritual state of being, it is an aspiration.
And therefore an altar, smaller than that of burnt-offering, but much more precious, being plated all around and on the top with gold (a "golden altar") (Exo_39:38), is now to be prepared, on which incense of sweet spices should be burned whenever a burnt-offering spoke of human devotion, and especially when the daily lamb was offered, every morning and every night.
This altar occupied a significant position. Of necessity, it was without the Most Holy Place, or else it would have been practically inaccessible; and yet it was spiritually in the closest connection with the presence of God within. The Epistle to the Hebrews reckons it among the furniture of the inner shrine[41] (Heb_9:4), close to the veil of which it stood, and within which its burning odours made their sweetness palpable. In the temple of Solomon it was "the altar that belonged to the oracle" (1Ki_6:22). In Leviticus (Lev_16:12) incense was connected especially with that spot in the Most Holy Place which best expressed the grace that it appealed to, and "the cloud of incense" was to "cover the mercy-seat." Therefore Moses was bidden to put this altar "before the veil that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy-seat" (Exo_30:6).
It can never have been difficult to see the meaning of the rite for which this altar was provided. When Zacharias burned incense the multitude stood without, praying. The incense in the vial of the angel of the Apocalypse was the prayers of the saints (Luk_1:10; Rev_8:3). And, long before, when the Psalmist thought of the priest approaching the veil which concealed the Supreme Presence, and there kindling precious spices until their aromatic breath became a silent plea within, it seemed to him that his own heart was even such an altar, whence the perfumed flame of holy longings might be wafted into the presence of his God, and he whispered, "Let my prayer be set forth before Thee as incense" (Psa_141:2).
Such being the import of the type, we need not wonder that it was a perpetual ordinance in their generations, nor yet that no strange perfume might be offered, but only what was prescribed by God. The admixture with prayer of any human, self-asserting, intrusive element, is this unlawful fragrance. It is rhetoric in the leader of extempore prayer; studied inflexions in the conductor of liturgical service; animal excitement, or sentimental pensiveness, or assent which is merely vocal, among the worshippers. It is whatever professes to be prayer, and is not that but a substitute. And formalism is an empty censer.
But, however earnest and pure may seem to be the breathing of the soul to God, something unworthy mingles with what is best in man. The very altar of incense needs to have an atonement made for it once in the year throughout their generations with the blood of the sin-offering of atonement. The prayer of every heart which knows its own secret will be this:
"Forgive what seemed my sin in me,
What seemed my worth since I began;
For merit lives from man to man
And not from man, O Lord, to Thee."
THE CENSUS.
Exo_30:11-16.
Moses by Divine command was soon to number Israel, and thus to lay the foundation for its organisation upon the march. A census was not, therefore, supposed to be presumptuous or sinful in itself; it was the vain-glory of David's census which was culpable.
But the honour of being numbered among the people of God should awaken a sense of unworthiness. Men had reason to fear lest the enrolment of such as they were in the host of God should produce a pestilence to sweep out the unclean from among the righteous. At least they must make some practical admission of their demerit. And therefore every man of twenty years who passed over unto them that were numbered (it is a picturesque glimpse that is here given into the method of enrolment) should offer for his soul a ransom of half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary. And because it was a ransom, the tribute was the same for all; the poor might not bring less, nor the rich more. Here was a grand assertion of the equality of all souls in the eyes of God--a seed which long ages might overlook, but which was sure to fructify in its appointed time.
For indeed the madness of modern levelling systems is only their attempt to level down instead of up, their dream that absolute equality can be obtained, or being obtained can be made a blessing, by the envious demolition of all that is lofty, and not by all together claiming the supreme elevation, the measure of the stature of manhood in Jesus Christ.
It is not in any phalanstre of Fourier or Harmony Hall of Owen, that mankind will ever learn to break a common bread and drink of a common cup; it is at the table of a common Lord.
And so this first assertion of the equality of man was given to those who all ate the same spiritual meat and drank the same spiritual drink.
This half-shekel gradually became an annual impost, levied for the great expenses of the Temple. "Thus Joash made a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem, to bring in for the Lord the tax that Moses, the servant of God, laid upon Israel in the wilderness" (2Ch_24:9).
And it was the claim for this impost, too rashly conceded by Peter with regard to his Master, which led Jesus to distinguish clearly between His own relation to God and that of others, even of the chosen race.
He paid no ransom for His soul. He was a Son, in a sense in which no other, even of the Jews, could claim to be so. Now, the kings of the earth did not levy tribute from their sons; so that, if Christ paid, it was not to fulfil a duty, but to avoid being an offence. And God Himself would provide, directly and miraculously, what He did not demand from Jesus. Therefore it was that, on this one occasion and no other, Christ Who sought figs when hungry, and when athirst asked water at alien hands, met His own personal requirement by a miracle, as if to protest in deed, as in word, against any burden from such an obligation as Peter's rashness had conceded.
And yet, with that marvellous condescension which shone most brightly when He most asserted His prerogative, He admitted Peter also to a share in this miraculous redemption-money, as He admits us all to a share in His glory in the skies. Is it not He only Who can redeem His brother, and give to God a ransom for him?
It is the silver thus levied which was used in the construction of the sanctuary. All the other materials were free-will offerings; but even as the entire tabernacle was based upon the ponderous sockets into which the boards were fitted, made of the silver of this tax, so do all our glad and willing services depend upon this fundamental truth, that we are unworthy even to be reckoned His, that we owe before we can bestow, that we are only allowed to offer any gift because He is so merciful in His demand. Israel gladly brought much more than was needed of all things precious. But first, as an absolutely imperative ransom, God demanded from each soul the half of three shillings and sevenpence.
THE LAVER.
Exo_30:17-21.
For the cleansing of various sacrifices, but especially for the ceremonial washing of the priests, a laver of brass was to be made, and placed upon a separate base, the more easily to be emptied and replenished.
We have seen already that although its actual use preceded that of the altar, yet the other stood in front of it, as if to assert, to the very eyes of all men, that sacrifice precedes purification. But the use of the laver was not by the man as man, but by the priest as mediator. In his office he represented the absolute purity of Christ. And therefore it was a capital offence to enter the tabernacle or to burn a sacrifice without first having washed the hands and feet. At his inauguration, the whole person of the priest was bathed, and thenceforth he needed not save to remove the stains of contact with the world.
When the laver was actually made, an interesting fact was recorded about its materials: "He made the laver of brass, and the base of it of brass, of the mirrors of the serving-women which served at the door of the tent of meeting" (Exo_38:8). Thus their instruments of personal adornment were applied to further a personal preparation of a more solemn kind, like the ointment with which a penitent woman anointed the feet of Jesus. There is a fitness which ought to be considered in the direction of our gifts, not as a matter of duty, but of good taste and charm. And thus also they continually saw the monument of their self-sacrifice. There is an innocent satisfaction, far indeed from vanity, when one looks at his own work for God.
THE ANOINTING OIL AND THE INCENSE.
Exo_30:22-38.
We have already seen the meaning of the anointing oil and of the incense.
But we have further to remark that their ingredients were accurately prescribed, that they were to be the best and rarest of their kind, and that special skill was demanded in their preparation.
Such was the natural dictate of reverence in preparing the symbols of God's grace to man, and of man's appeal to God.
With the type of grace should be anointed the tent and the ark, and the table of shewbread and the candlestick, with all their implements, and the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt sacrifice and the laver. All the import of every portion of the Temple worship could be realized only by the outpouring of the Spirit of grace.
It was added that this should be a holy anointing oil, not to be made, much less used, for common purposes, on pain of death. The same was enacted of the incense which should burn before Jehovah: "according to the composition thereof ye shall not make for yourselves; it shall be unto thee holy for the Lord: whosoever shall make like unto that, to smell thereto, he shall be cut off from his people."
And this was meant to teach reverence. One might urge that the spices and frankincense and salt were not in themselves sacred: there was no consecrating efficacy in their combination, no charm or spell in the union of these, more than of any other drugs. Why, then, should they be denied to culture? Why should her resources be thus restricted? Does any one suppose that such arguments belong peculiarly to the New Testament spirit, or that the saints of the older dispensation had any superstitious views about these ingredients? If it was through such notions that they abstained from vulgarising its use, then they were on the way to paganism, through a materialised worship.
But in truth they knew as well as we that gums were only gums, just as they knew that the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands. And yet they were bidden to reverence both the shrine and the apparatus of His worship, for their own sakes, for the solemnity and sobriety of their feelings, not because God would be a loser if they did otherwise. And we may well ask ourselves, in these latter days, whether the constant proposal to secularise religious buildings, revenues, endowments and seasons does really indicate greater religious freedom, or only greater freedom from religious control.
And we may be sure that a light treatment of sacred subjects and sacred words is a very dangerous symptom: it is not the words and subjects alone that are being secularised, but also our own souls.
There is in our time a curious tendency among men of letters to use holy things for a mere perfume, that literature may "smell thereto."
A novelist has chosen for the title of a story "Just as I am." An innocent and graceful poet has seen a smile,--
"'Twas such a smile,
Aaron's twelve jewels seemed to mix
With the lamps of the golden candlesticks."
Another is bolder, and sings of the war of love,--
"In the great battle when the hosts are met
On Armageddon's plain, with spears beset."
Another thinks of Mazzini as the
"Dear lord and leader, at whose hand
The first days and the last days stand,"
and again as he who
"Said, when all Time's sea was foam,
'Let there be Rome,' and there was Rome."
And Victor Hugo did not shrink from describing, and that with a strange and scandalous ignorance of the original incidents, the crucifixion by Louis Napoleon of the Christ of nations.
Now, Scripture is literature, besides being a great deal more; and, as such, it is absurd to object to all allusions to it in other literature. Yet the tendency of which these extracts are examples is not merely toward allusion, but desecration of solemn and sacred thoughts: it is the conversion of incense into perfumery.
There is another development of the same tendency, by no means modern, noted by the prophet when he complains that the message of God has become as the "very lovely song of one who hath a pleasant voice and playeth well on an instrument." Wherever divine service is only appreciated in so far as it is "well rendered," as rich music or stately enunciation charm the ear, and the surroundings are ¾sthetic,--wherever the gospel is heard with enjoyment only of the eloquence or controversial skill of its rendering, wherever religion is reduced by the cultivated to a thrill or to a solace, or by the Salvationist to a riot or a romp, wherever Isaiah and the Psalms are only admired as poetry, and heaven is only thought of as a languid and sentimental solace amid wearying cares,--there again is a making of the sacred balms to smell thereto.
And as often as a minister of God finds in his holy office a mere outlet for his natural gifts of rhetoric or of administration, he also is tempted to commit this crime.
FOOTNOTES:
[41] For it is incredible that, in a catalogue of furniture which included Aaron's rod and the pot of manna, this altar should be omitted, and "a golden censer," elsewhere unheard of, substituted. The gloss is too evidently an endeavour to get rid of a difficulty. But in idea and suggestion this altar belonged to the Most Holy. That shrine "had" it, though it actually stood outside.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 11, 17, 22, 26, 34 Exo_30:1. Altar of incense] = Miktar Ketoreth, literally, the…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Exo_30:1. Altar of incense] = Miktar Ketoreth, literally, the incenser of incense, or, to incense incense, because, strictly speaking, this was not an altar, as no sacrifices were offered upon it. It was also called the golden altar (Exo_39:38; Num_4:11) to distinguish it from the altar of burnt-offering which was of less costly materials. There was a special importance attached to this altar from various circumstances. The sweet incense, the symbol of prayer, was burnt upon it every day, morning and evening (Exo_30:7-8). The blood of the sin-offering, too, was sprinkled upon it every year on the great day of atonement (Lev_16:18-20), and at such other times as occasion required (Lev_4:17-18). The position of this altar was, no doubt, calculated to enhance its typical import. It stood between the altar of burnt-offering in the Court and the mercy-seat in the Holy of Holies, separated from the latter by the great partition veil. Thus the priest as he ministered with his face turned in the direction of the mercy-seat, though assured of its reality, was still only permitted to see it with the eyes of his mind). Hence the High priest’s ministrations in this rite taught Israel to offer the incense of prayer towards the throne above, which, though invisible to the bodily eye at the time, is nevertheless real and present to the eye of faith.
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MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Exo_30:1-10
WORSHIP
The altar of incense is instructive as to worship in all generations.
I. The material of the altar is suggestive of the elements of a praying heart. It was to be made of acacia wood, Exo_30:1; significant of the fact that prevailing prayer must rise from a sound heart. Acacia wood was incorruptible. In prayer the heart must be sincere—no lightness, no hollowness, no hypocrisy. Effectual prayer must rise from a pure heart. This is signified by the altar being overlaid with pure gold, Exo_30:3. It was called the golden altar. True prayer springs from a sin-renouncing heart. How often do we seem to think that any altar will do for heaven! Any rotten wood, any unconsecrated stones, any brazen altar. We ask amiss. We ask with an insincere, sin-regarding, unbelieving heart. “Let us draw near with a true heart.”
II. The position of the altar is suggestive of the grand function of prayer. “And thou shalt place it before the vail,” &c., Exo_30:6. It stood before the curtain which separated the sanctuary from the Holy of Holies. By prayer we gain access into the immediate presence of the merciful God. “Before the mercy-seat which is over the testimony.” By prayer we gain an interest in all the great promises of God to mankind. “By the ark of the testimony.” By prayer, whatever is in the covenant becomes ours. We cannot expect mercy without a life of prayer: “Let us come boldly to the throne of grace that we may find mercy.” We cannot expect the blessings of providence and grace without prayer. We must enter heaven by prayer. Prayer brings us into the presence of God; into fellowship with God; and makes us partakers of all the treasures of God.
III. The pure incense is suggestive of the sweetness of prayer, Exo_30:7. Prayer is sweet to us. To pour out our soul to God, to pray, to praise, is the highest joy of our spiritual life. Prayer is sweet to God. The gratitude and trust of the heart are to God as the fragrant perfume of golden censers (Rev_8:3-4).
IV. The offering of the incense in connection with the lighting of the lamps suggests the illuminations of prayer, Exo_30:7-8. We get light through prayer. The Word of God is a great lamp for our illumination, but we only realise its luminous teachings when we ponder, them in the spirit of prayer (Jas_1:5-7)
V. The horns at the corners of the altar remind us of the power of prayer, Exo_30:2-10. How great the power of prayer in the day of trouble, in the day of temptation! Day by day we need the strength which prayer alone can supply. Horns are the symbols of power, and from the altar of God comes the strength to make us conquerors. Prayer is not only sweet, but animating—not only full of poetry, but full of power.
“Let us pray.” And if we pray with a pure heart, offering no strange incense, Exo_30:9, and resting all our intercessions upon the atoning merit of Christ, Exo_30:10, God shall shew us His glory, enrich us with His gifts, and fill us with His eternal joy.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WILLIAM ADAMSON
Sacrificial Speech! Exo_30:1-38.
(1.) No student of the Bible needs to be reminded that by the complicated and long protracted series of events which preceded, accompanied, and followed the Exodus from Egypt, the essential doctrine of Gospel truth and grace are distinctly made known. By a stupendous array of symbolic acts and facts they are most emphatically confirmed and illustrated.
(2.) Thomson remarks that what is more pertinent, if possible, is that the record of them is so guided as to suggest and evolve the very best words, figures, and phrases by which these fundamental doctrines can be set forth. This is equally true of the words and ideas in this chapter of Exodus, as of the paschal lamb in Egypt, or the smiting of the rock in Horeb.
(3.) The symbolic acts and facts, it has been wisely asserted, in connection with the typical institutions, rites, and ceremonies of the Mosaic economy, were designed to permeate, and did permeate, the entire religious consciousness of the Hebrews. They thus gave birth to spiritual ideas and emotions wholly peculiar, and to corresponding formulas by which to give expression to them.
“I saw a Moslem work upon his shroud alone,
With earnest care, even as the silkworms weave their own,
When with that sacred Script it was filled from side to side,
He wrapt it round his body, and in calmness died.”
—Oriental.
Incense-Altar! Exo_30:1-10.
(1.) In the gorgeous ceremonial worship of the Hebrews, none of the senses were excluded from taking part in the service. Macmillan observes that the eye was appealed to by the rich vestments of Exodus 28; and the splendid furniture of Exodus 26, 27. The ear was exercised by the sound of the trumpet, and the voice of praise and prayer. The nostril was gratified by the clouds of fragrant smoke that rose from the golden altar of incense and filled all the place.
(2.) This altar of incense occupied one of the most conspicuous and honoured positions in the Tabernacle. It stood between the table of shew-bread and the golden candlestick in the Holy Place. It was made of shittim or cedar wood, overlaid with plates of pure gold. The expiating altar was behind the priest, who stood at this altar. His steps had brought him to the borders of the holiest place. He has passed the spot where dying victims bleed; so that its position divinely arranged seems to be a link joining Sacrifice to Acceptance.
“I read God’s Holy Word, and find
Great truths which far transcend my mind;
And little do I know beside
Of thoughts so high, so deep, so wide;
This is my best theology,
I know the Saviour died for me.”
—Bethune.
Incense-Altar Prefigurings! Exo_30:2-8. It is worth while observing—
(1.) Pattern! Gold and wood; four-square.
(2.) Place! Within the Holy Place; midway between the Altar of Sacrifice and the Throne of Grace.
(3.) Purpose! Incense to he offered daily thereon; by the priest; morning and evening; along with the sacrifices.
(4.) Purport! Significant of prayer; the duty and privilege of prayer; presented through an intercessor.
(5.) Precept! Daily prayer is our privilege; and should be our duty; it is also holy; unworthy prayers incur danger, (a.) Doubtless the Jews felt, when they saw the soft white clouds of fragrant smoke rising slowly from the altar of incense, as if the voice of the priest were silently but eloquently pleading in that expressive emblem on their behalf. (b.) We should remember that from the altar of our souls God expects that daily prayer is to ascend, kindled by the altar fire of Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary, perfumed with the merits of His sinless mediation within the veil. (c.) But it was perfumed incense, telling the Jew that praise must ever be associated with prayer. This is a needful reminder to the Christian, who is so apt to offer unperfumed prayer, i.e., prayer minus the fragrance of thankfulness and adoration. Canst thou close
“Thine eyes with comfort, and in peace repose,
Before thou lift thy voice, and to the skies
Send up devotion’s thankful sacrifice,
Sweet as the fumes which from the censer rose?”
—Mant.
Incense-Intent! Exo_30:7.
(1.) Priestly! Looking upon the Tabernacle as the palace of God, the theocratic King of Israel, and the Ark of the Covenant His throne, we may regard this incense as merely corresponding to the perfume so lavishly employed about the person and appointments of an Oriental monarch. The Persian sculptures exhibit the burning of incense as one of the marks of honour offered to royalty. In the Canticles of Solomon, there seems to be express allusion to these perfumes burned in the presence of the king, when the bride enters his palace; signifying the Prince of Peace and the Church, which He hath purchased with His blood.
(2.) Priestly! No doubt incense derived its chief importance in connection with the ceremonial observances of the Mosaic ritual, from the fact of its being the great symbol of prayer. It seems to have been regarded in the light of a sacred offering. The Spirit has selected incense as the type of prayer in Psa_112:2. Fragrance is the breath of flowers—the sweetest expression of their in-most being; and prayer is the breath of life—the expression of the soul’s best, holiest, and heavenliest aspirations.
(3.) Prophetically! When the morning lamps were trimmed, and when the evening lights were lit, this perfume ascended as a great prediction. The nostril of smell and the eye of sight may have seen in the fragrant cloud only the symbol of their own daily orisons to God; but the nostril and eye of faith realised the perfumed incense of Messianic Intercession. They perceived in the unceasing harmonic offering up of incense—a beautiful and expressive type of the all-prevailing prayers of their Messiah.
“He, Who for men their Surety stood,
And pour’d on earth His precious blood,
Pursues in heaven His mighty plan,
The Saviour and the Friend of man.”
Prayer! Exo_30:8. Ryle says that cold prayers are like incense without the fire. Seeker remarks that when prayer mounts upon the wing of fervour to God, then answers come down like lightning from God. It is Spurgeon who writes, When thou art wrestling, ask the Holy Spirit to nerve thine arm. Prayer may be the incense, and the fire may come from the altar of burnt-offering; but it is the Holy Spirit who sends the fire from heaven. Trapp says that a good Christian is ever praying or praising. He drives a constant trade between earth and heaven. The incense-altar is ever smoking with the sweet perfumes of thankfulness and supplication, though there may be times when the odours are sweeter and stronger. Of the delight which the Lord has in the fragrant entreaties of His servants, ample illustrations are afforded in the Canticles of Solomon.
“My God, is any hour so sweet,
From blush of morn to evening star,
As that which calls me to Thy feet—
The hour of prayer?”
—Elliot.
Praise! Exo_30:8.
(1.) Power well remarks that daily praise should ascend from each of us to God, as the perfume-incense of the daily sacrifice ascended in olden times. There must not be fewer incense-offerings under the New than under the Old Testament. We are priests to offer up unto God the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving (Heb_13:15).
(2.) Pilkington says that, if Christ dwell—mark dwell, not sojourn—praise will go up like incense continually. It used to be the custom in some monasteries in the Roman Church to have a constant change of choir. Thus, both night and day an endless odour of adoration went up to God.
(3.) It is said that when the sun rises and sets, the pious herdsmen of the Alps sound their horns with the words: “Praise ye the Lord!” The echo is caught up by herdsmen on the other slopes and summits. These have the mountains for their brazen altars, the thankful spirit for their incense, and the love of God for their enkindling fire.
“ ‘Not unto us;’ O Lord of lords, supreme,
Whate’er we work, Thou workest;
Thine the praise;
Oh, wash us cleanse us, light us with Thy beam,
And work in us, through us, to endless days.”
—Taylor.
Strange-Incense! Exo_30:9.
(1.) The allusion is to the incense employed in Egyptian and other heathen worship. The burning of incense prevailed in most of the ancient religions. It was of a particularly sensuous spirit; and hence the pertinent caution against its use. But the extreme force of the caution shows that some other design was in the mind of God.
(2.) Strange incense censures the use of wrong words in prayer. The utmost refinement and reverence, purity and piety, should be cultivated in our approaches to the Throne of Grace. Worldly expressions in supplication are like strange incense—“an abomination to the Lord.”
(3.) Strange incense condemns a wrong spirit in prayer. Ideas of an unworthy kind; as well as words. Too great care cannot be exercised in this respect. The mind of Christ should be our mind in prayer. He is our model, in the Lord’s Prayer, in the Supper Intercession, and in the Gethsemane Supplication.
(4.) Disregard of right spirit and speech brings judgment. The mother, who, when her only child was given up by the doctor, besought God to spare her child, as she would not say, “Nevertheless, Thy will be done,” received a sore visitation for this “strange incense” on the altar of her soul, by living to see her son ascend the scaffold in maturer years.
“To Thee I, therefore, Lord, submit
My every fond request,
And own, adoring at Thy feet,
Thy will is always best.”
—Wesley.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Exo 30:6-10
Exo 30:6-10
The altar of incense was made of acacia wood, and stood about a yard high and eighteen inches square. Incense was burnt upon it every morning and evening, and it was used for this purpose only. The altar and incense were symbolic—
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I. Of the prayers of God’s people. (1) In prayer we speak to God and tell Him the thoughts of our minds, the feelings of our hearts, the desires of our spirits. The incense smoke ascended, arrow-like, in a straight and most direct column to heaven. Our prayers ascend immediately and in the directest way to the heart and ear of God. (2) In prayer we stand very near God. The altar of incense was placed "before the mercy-seat." (3) The pleasant odour of the incense is symbolic of the acceptableness of prayer.
II. Of intelligent, unceasing, and reverent prayer. (1) The burning of incense is intelligent prayer. It took place in the light, and our prayers should be presented to God intelligently. (2) Unceasing prayer. It was a perpetual incense before the Lord. (3) Reverent prayer. "Ye shall burn no strange incense thereon; it is most holy unto the Lord."
III. Of prayer offered in Christ’s name. Aaron sprinkled the golden horns with the blood of atonement. This act is typical of the offering of prayer in the name of Christ.
IV. Of the power of prayer. The horns of the altar symbolise power. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."
D. Rhys Jenkins, The Eternal Life, p. 387.
Reference: Exo 30:7, Exo 30:8.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxix., No. 1710.
Exo 30:8
This altar of incense had a very distinct meaning, and there are large lessons to be drawn from it.
I. The incense is a lovely, significant, and instructive symbol of prayer. (1) It teaches that prayer is the ascent of a man’s soul to God. (2) That the prayer which ascends must be the prayer that comes from a fire. (3) The kindled incense gave forth fragrant odours. When we present our poor prayers, they rise up acceptable to God in curling wreaths of fragrance that He delights in and that He accepts.
II. Notice the position of the altar of incense in relation to the rest of the sanctuary. It stood in the holy place, midway between the outer court, where the whole assembly of worshippers were in the habit of meeting, and the holiest of all, where the high-priest alone went once a year. Whoever approached the altar of incense had to pass by the altar of sacrifice, and whoever was on his way to the holiest of all had to pass by the altar of incense. These things teach us these plain lessons: (1) That all prayer must be preceded by the perfect sacrifice, and that our prayers must be offered on the footing of the perfect sacrifice which Christ Himself has offered. (2) That there is no true fellowship and communion of spirit with God except on condition of habitual prayer, and they that are strangers to the one are strangers to the other.
III. The offering was perpetual. Morning and evening the incense was piled up and blown into a flame, and all the day and night it smouldered quietly on the altar; that is to say, special seasons and continual devotion, morning and evening kindled, heaped up, and all the day and night glowing.
IV. Once a year Aaron had to offer a sacrifice of expiation for this altar that bore the perpetual incense. Even our prayers are full of imperfections and sins, which need cleansing and forgiveness by the great High-priest.
A. Maclaren, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. v., p. 234
Reference: Exo 30:11-16.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii., No. 1581
Exo 30:12
The word which is here rendered "ransom" is afterwards rendered "atonement." The atonement covered or removed what displeased God, and thus sanctified for His service. Our notion of atonement under the law should ordinarily be limited to the removal of the temporal consequences of moral or ceremonial defilement.
The sum of half a shekel was the tax that every man had to pay as his ransom, and as this is the single instance in the Jewish law in which an offering of money is commanded, it seems highly probable that it was not a ransom for the soul so much as a ransom for the life which the Israelite made when he paid his half-shekel. On all occasions in which the soul, the immortal principle, is undeniably concerned, the appointed offerings are strictly sacrificial.
Consider:—
I. The ransom for the life. Our human lives are forfeited to God; we have not accomplished the great end of our being, and therefore we deserve every moment to die. The Israelites paid their tax as a confession that life had beneforfeited, and as an acknowledgment that its continuance depended wholly on God. We cannot give the half-shekel payment, but we should have before us the practical remembrance that in God’s hand is the soul of every living thing.
II. The rich and the poor were to pay just the same sum. This was a clear and unqualified declaration that in the sight of God the distinctions of rank and estate are altogether as nothing; that, whilst He gathers the whole human race under His guardianship, there is no difference in the watchfulness which extends itself to the several individuals.
III. If we understand the word "soul" in the ordinary sense, the text is a clear indication that God values at the same rate the souls of all human beings. Every soul has been redeemed at the price of the blood of God’s Son; the Mediator died that the soul might live; and if rich and poor acknowledge by a tribute that from God is the life of the soul, it is right that they should acknowledge it by the same tribute. Rich and poor must offer the same atonement for the soul.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2566.
References: Exo 30:19.—Parker, vol. ii., p. 321. Exo 30:22-38.—B. Isaac, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 395. Exo 31:1-6.—J. Spencer Bartlett, Sermons, p. 284. Exo 31:1-11.—Parker, vol. ii., p. 251. Exo 31:6.—J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. ii., p. 368.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv1, 12, 15
Exodus
THE ALTAR OF INCENSE
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Exo 30:1.
Ceremonies are embodied thoughts. Religious ceremonies are moulded by, and seek to express, the worshipper’s conception of his God, and his own relation to Him; his aspirations and his need. Of late years scholars have been busy studying the religions of the more backward races, and explaining rude and repulsive rites by pointing to the often profound and sometimes beautiful ideas underlying them. When that process is applied to Australian and Fijian savages, it is honoured as a new and important study; when we apply it to the Mosaic Ritual it is pooh-poohed as ‘foolish spiritualising.’ Now, no doubt, there has been a great deal of nonsense talked in regard to this matter, and a great deal of ingenuity wasted in giving a Christian meaning-or, may I say, a Christian twist?-to every pin of the Tabernacle, and every detail of the ritual. Of course, to exaggerate a truth is the surest way to discredit a truth, but the truth remains true all the same, and underneath that elaborate legislation, which makes such wearisome and profitless reading for the most of us, in the Pentateuch, there lie, if we can only grasp them, great thoughts and lessons that we shall all be the better for pondering.
To one item of these, this altar of incense, I call attention now, because it is rich in suggestions, and leads us into very sacred regions of the Christian life which are by no means so familiar to many of us as they ought to be. Let me just for one moment state the facts with which I wish to deal. The Jewish Tabernacle, and subsequently the Temple, were arranged in three compartments: the outermost court, which was accessible to all the people; the second, which was trodden by the priests alone; and the third, where the Shechinah dwelt in solitude, broken only once a year by the foot of the High Priest. That second court we are concerned with now. There are three pieces of ecclesiastical furniture in it: an altar in the centre, flanked on either side by a great lampstand, and a table on which were piled loaves. It is to that central piece of furniture that I ask your attention now, and to the thoughts that underlie it, and the lessons that it teaches.
I. This altar shows us what prayer is.
Suppose we had been in that court when in the morning or in the evening the priest came with the glowing pan of coals from another altar in the outer court, and laid it on this altar, and heaped upon it the sticks of incense, we should have seen the curling, fragrant wreaths ascending till ‘the House was filled with smoke,’ as a prophet once saw it. We should not have wanted any interpreter to tell us what that meant. What could that rising cloud of sweet odours signify but the ascent of the soul towards God? Put that into more abstract words, and it is just the old, hackneyed commonplace which I seek to try to freshen a little now, that incense is the symbol of prayer. That that is so is plain enough, not only from the natural propriety of the case, but because you find the identification distinctly stated in several places in Scripture, of which I quote but two instances. In one psalm we read, ‘Let my prayer come before Thee as incense.’ In the Book of the Apocalypse we read of ‘golden bowls full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.’ And that the symbolism was understood by, and modified the practice of, the nation, we are taught when we read that whilst Zechariah the priest was within the court offering incense, as it was his lot to do, ‘the whole multitude of the people were without praying,’ doing that which the priest within the court symbolised by his offering. So then we come to this, dear friends, that we fearfully misunderstand and limit the nobleness and the essential character of prayer when, as we are always tempted to do by our inherent self-regard, we make petition its main feature and form. Of course, so long as we are what we shall always be in this world, needy and sinful creatures; and so long as we are what we shall ever be in all worlds, creatures absolutely dependent for life and everything on the will and energy of God, petition must necessarily be a very large part of prayer. But the more we grow into His likeness, and the more we understand the large privileges and the glorious possibilities which lie in prayer, the more will the relative proportions of its component parts be changed, and petition will become less, and aspiration will become more. The essence of prayer, the noblest form of it, is thus typified by the cloud of sweet odours that went up before God.
In all true prayer there must be the lowest prostration in reverence before the Infinite Majesty. But the noblest prayer is that which lifts ‘them that are bowed down’ rather than that which prostrates men before an inaccessible Deity. And so, whilst we lie low at His feet, that may be the prayer of a mere theist, but when our hearts go out towards Him, and we are drawn to Himself, that is the prayer that befits Christian aspiration; the ascent of the soul toward God is the true essence of prayer. As one of the non-Christian philosophers-seekers after God, if ever there were such, and who, I doubt not, found Him whom they sought-has put it, ‘the flight of the lonely soul to the only God’; that is prayer. Is that my prayer? We come to Him many a time burdened with some very real sorrow, or weighted with some pressing responsibility, and we should not be true to ourselves, or to Him, if our prayer did not take the shape of petition. But, as we pray, the blessing of the transformation of its character should be realised by us, and that which began with the cry for help and deliverance should always be, and it always will be, if the cry for help and deliverance has been of the right sort, sublimed into ‘Thy face, Lord, will I seek.’ The Book of Ecclesiastes describes death as the ‘return of the spirit to God who gave it.’ That is the true description of prayer, a going back to the fountain’s source. Flames aspire; to the place ‘whence the rivers came thither they return again.’ The homing pigeon or the migrating bird goes straight through many degrees of latitude, and across all sorts of weather, to the place whence it came. Ah! brethren, let us ask ourselves if our spirits thus aspire and soar. Do we know what it is to be, if I might so say, like those captive balloons that are ever yearning upwards, and stretching to the loftiest point permitted them by the cord that tethers them to earth?
Now another thought that this altar of incense may teach us is that the prayer that soars must be kindled. There is no fragrance in a stick of incense lying there. No wreaths of ascending smoke come from it. It has to be kindled before its sweet odour can be set free and ascend. That is why so much of our prayer is of no delight to God, and of no benefit to us, because it is not on fire with the flame of a heart kindled into love and thankfulness by the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The cold vapours lie like a winding-sheet down in the valleys until the sun smites them, warms them, and draws them up. And our desires will hover in the low levels, and be dank and damp, until they are drawn up to the heights by the warmth of the Sun of righteousness. Oh! brethren, the formality and the coldness, to say nothing of the inconsecutiveness and the interruptedness by rambling thoughts that we all know in our petitions, in our aspirations, are only to be cured in one way:-
‘Come! shed abroad a Saviour’s love,
And that will kindle ours.’
It is the stretched string that gives out musical notes; the slack one is dumb. And if we desire that we may be able to be sure, as our Master was, when He said, ‘I know that Thou hearest me always,’ we must pray as He did, of whom it is recorded that ‘He prayed the more earnestly,’ and ‘was heard in that He feared.’ The word rendered ‘the more earnestly’ carries in it a metaphor drawn from that very fact that I have referred to. It means ‘with the more stretched-out extension and intensity.’ If our prayers are to be heard as music in heaven, they must come from a stretched string.
Once more, this altar of incense teaches us that kindled prayer delights God. That emblem of the sweet odour is laid hold of with great boldness by more than one Old and New Testament writer, in order to express the marvellous thought that there is a mutual joy in the prayer of faith and love, and that it rises as ‘an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God.’ The cuneiform inscriptions give that thought with characteristic vividness and grossness when they speak about the gods being ‘gathered like flies round the steam of the sacrifice.’ We have the same thought, freed from all its grossness, when we think that the curling wreaths going up from a heart aspiring and enflamed, come to Him as a sweet odour, and delight His soul. People say, ‘that is anthropomorphism-making God too like a man.’ Well, man is like God, at any rate, and surely the teaching of that great name ‘Father’ carries with it the assurance that just as fathers of flesh are glad when they see that their children like best to be with them, so there is something analogous in that joy before the angels of heaven which the Father has, not only because of the prodigal who comes back, but because of the child who has long been with Him, and is ever seeking to nestle closer to His heart. The Psalmist was lost in wonder and thankfulness that he was able to say ‘He was extolled with my tongue.’ Surely it should be a gracious, encouraging, strengthening thought to us all, that even our poor aspirations may minister to the divine gladness.
Now let us turn to another thought.
II. This altar shows us where prayer stands in the Christian life.
There are two or three points in regard to its position which it is no fanciful spiritualising, but simply grasping the underlying meaning of the institution, if we emphasise. First, let me remind you that there was another altar in the outer court, whereon was offered the daily sacrifice for the sins of the people. That altar came first, and the sacrifice had to be offered on it first, before the priest came into the inner court with the coals from that altar, and the incense kindled by them. What does that say to us? The altar of incense is not approached until we have been to the altar of sacrifice. It is no mere arbitrary appointment, nor piece of evangelical narrowness, which says that there is no real access to God, in all the fullness and reality of His revealed character for us sinful men, until our sins have been dealt with, taken away by the Lamb of God, sacrificed for us. And it is simply the transcript of experience which declares that there will be little inclination or desire to come to God with the sacrifice of praise and prayer until we have been to Christ, the sacrifice of propitiation and pardon. Brethren, we need to be cleansed, and we can only be delivered from the unholiness which is the perpetual and necessary barrier to our vision of God by making our very own, through simple faith, the energy and the blessedness of that great Sacrifice of propitiation. Then, and then only, do we properly come to the altar of incense. Its place in the Christian life is second, not first. ‘First be reconciled to thy’ Father, ‘then lay’ the incense ‘on the altar.’
Again, great and deep lessons are given to us in the place of our altar in regard to the other articles that stood in that inner court. I have said that there were three of them. In the centre this altar of incense; on the one hand the great lampstand; on the other hand the table with loaves thereon. The one symbolised Israel’s function in the world to be its light, which in our function too, and the other with loaves thereon symbolised the consecration to God of Israel’s activities, and their results.
But between the two, central to both, stood the altar of incense. What does that say as to the place of prayer, defined as I have defined it, in the Christian life? It says this, that the light will burn dim and go out, and the loaves, the expression and the consequences of our activities, will become mouldy and dry, unless both are hallowed and sustained by prayer. And that lesson is one which we all need, and which I suppose this generation needs quite as much as, if not more than, any that has gone before it. For life has become so swift and rushing, and from all sides, the Church, the world, society, there come such temptations, and exhortations, and necessities, for strenuous and continuous work, that the basis of all wholesome and vigorous work, communion with God, is but too apt to be put aside and relegated to some inferior position. The carbon points of the electric arc-light are eaten away with tremendous rapidity in the very act of giving forth their illumination, and they need to be continually approximated and to be frequently renewed. The oil is burned away in the act of shining, and the lamp needs to be charged again. If we are to do our work in the world as its lights, and if we are to have any activities fit to be consecrated to God and laid on the Table before the Veil, it can only be by our making the altar of incense the centre, and these others subsidiary.
One last thought-the place of prayer in the Christian life is shadowed for us by the position of this altar in reference to ‘the secret place of the Most High,’ that mysterious inner court which was dark but for the Shechinah’s light, and lonely but for the presence of the worshipping cherubim and the worshipped God. It stood, as we are told a verse or two after my text, ‘before the veil.’ A straight line drawn from the altar of sacrifice would have bisected the altar of incense as it passed into the mercy-seat and the glory. And that just tells us that the place of prayer in the Christian lift is that it is the direct way of coming close to God. Dear brother, we shall never lift the veil, and stand in ‘the secret place of the Most High,’ unless we take the altar of incense on our road.
There is one more thought here-
III. The altar of incense shows us how prayer is to be cultivated.
Twice a day, morning and evening, came the officiating priest with his pan of coals and incense, and laid it there; and during all the intervening hours between the morning and the evening the glow lay half hidden in the incense, and there was a faint but continual emission of fragrance from the smouldering mass that had been renewed in the morning, and again in the evening. And does not that say something to us? There must be definite times of distinct prayer if the aroma of devotion is to be diffused through our else scentless days. I ask for no pedantic adherence, with monastic mechanicalness, to hours and times, and forms of petitions. These are needful crutches to many of us. But what I do maintain is that all that talk which we hear so much of in certain quarters nowadays as to its not being necessary for us to have special times of prayer, and as to its being far better to have devotion diffused through our lives, and of how laborare est orare-to labour is to pray-all that is pernicious nonsense if it is meant to say that the incense will be fragrant and smoulder unless it is stirred up and renewed night and morning. There must be definite times of prayer if there is to be diffused devotion through the day. What would you think of people that said, ‘Run your cars by electricity. Get it out of the wires; it will come! Never mind putting up any generating stations’? And not less foolish are they who seek for a devotion permeating life which is not often concentrated into definite and specific acts.
But the other side is as true. It is bad to clot your religion into lumps, and to leave the rest of the life without it. There must be the smouldering all day long. ‘Rejoice evermore; pray without ceasing.’ You can pray thus. Not set prayer, of course; but a reference to Him, a thought of Him, like some sweet melody, ‘so sweet we know not we are listening to it,’ may breathe its fragrance, and diffuse its warmth into the commonest and smallest of our daily activities. It was when Gideon was threshing wheat that the angel appeared to him. It was when Elisha was ploughing that the divine inspiration touched him. It was when the disciples were fishing that they saw the Form on the shore. And when we are in the way of our common life it is possible that the Lord may meet us, and that our souls may be aspiring to Him. Then work will be worship; then burdens will be lightened; then our lamps will burn; then the fruits of our daily lives will ripen; then our lives will be noble; then our spirits will rest as well as soar, and find fruition and aspiration perpetually alternating in stable succession of eternal progress.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Altar of Incense. The Ransom Money. The Laver.…
The Altar of Incense. The Ransom Money. The Laver. The Anointing Oil. The Incense
1-10. The Altar of Incense. The use of incense in worship was probably due to the worshipper's desire to honour God by offering to Him what he enjoys himself. 'Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart' (Pro_27:9). It served also to counteract the strong smell of burning flesh, and was therefore usually presented as an accompaniment of sacrifice, and offered either in censers (Lev_10:1; Lev_16:12; Num_16:17), or on an altar erected for the purpose, as here. In Scripture incense is an emblem of prayer, probably because its smoke ascends to the clouds, where God is supposed to dwell: see e.g. Psa_141:2; Rev_5:8; Rev_8:3. The existence of this altar of incense at the time of Moses has been disputed. In about one hundred places mention is made of 'the altar' as if there was only one, that of burnt offering; no mention is made of an altar of incense in Leviticus 16, where it might have been expected; it is not alluded to among the furniture of Solomon's temple; and the directions given here for its construetion would have stood more naturally in Exodus 25 or 26, where the omission is somewhat strange. It is accordingly supposed that this passage, and others where an altar of incense is spoken of, are of later date: see on Exo_30:6. Indeed, the whole of Exodus 30, 31 is believed by some to be a later addition. Observe the solemn conclusion at the end of Exodus 29.
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2. On the horns, see on Exo_27:2. Of the same] see on Exo_25:31.
3. Pure gold] Hence this altar is called 'the golden altar' (Exo_39:38; Exo_40:26; Num_4:11; Heb_9:4; RM, etc.), to distinguish it from the altar of burnt offering, which is called the 'brazen altar' (Exo_39:39). Crown] i.e. rim or moulding, as in Exo_25:11.
6. Before the vail] This means outside the veil and, therefore, in the Holy Place, not in the Holy of Holies, where it would be inaccessible save once a year, when the High Priest entered on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16): see on Exo_40:5. In Heb_9:4, however, it is said to have stood within the Holy of Holies. There seems to have been some doubt, therefore, as to its position in the tabernacle, a fact which is reflected in the construction of this v., which is overloaded and apparently self-contradictory. The altar is before the veil, and it is also before the mercy seat. The LXX omits the words 'before the mercy seat.. testimony.' This confusion corroborates the view that this altar did not belong to the original furniture of the tabernacle: see on Exo_30:1-10.
9. Strange incense] i.e. incense prepared differently from that prescribed in Exo_30:34-38 : see on Lev_10:1. Meat offering] RV 'meal offering': see on Leviticus 2.
10. Make atonement upon it] RV 'for it.' Owing to the imperfection of all human worship, the altar itself needs to be cleansed with a special rite: see on Exo_28:38; Exo_29:36. The reference here is to the ceremonial of the yearly Day of Atonement, for which see Leviticus 16. Most holy] see on Lev_2:3.
11-16. The Ransom Money. It is here enacted that, when a census is taken, every person above the age of twenty shall pay half a shekel as his ransom. At the time of a census the people would be impressed with the great privilege of membership in God's chosen nation, and at the same time with their unworthiness to be reckoned in a 'kingdom of priests': see on Exo_19:5, Exo_19:6. This need of atonement underlies the payment of a money ransom, which is here called a 'ransom, or atonement, for your souls.' It is to be distinguished from the money given as a redemption for the firstborn, for which see Exo_13:13. For the use made of the ransom money, see Exo_38:25-28.
12. When thou takest the sum] A census of the people was probably in contemplation at this time, and was made twice during the forty years' sojourn in the wilderness: see Numbers 1, 26. Whether it was done regularly does not appear. In time the half shekel became an annual tax devoted to the maintenance of the public sacrifices in the Temple: see e.g. Mat_17:24. Plague] as the result of disobedience.
13. Half a shekel] A silver shekel was equal to fully half-a-crown. The shekel of the sanctuary seems to have been a standard weight, and was probably preserved by the priests in the sanctuary.
14. Twenty was the age when liability to military service began (Num_1:3).
15. All give alike, for it is a ransom for the soul or life, and all souls are equal in the sight of God.
16. For the service of the tabernacle] see Exo_38:25-28.
17-21. The Laver. This was of bronze (see on Exo_25:3), and stood in the court of the tabernacle between the altar of burnt offering and the door of the sanctuary, and held the water required for the ablutions of the priests (Exo_30:19-21 see on Exo_29:4). According to Exo_38:8 it was made of the mirrors of the serving women: see on Num_4:11. Solomon's Temple had ten lavers (1Ki_7:24-43).
22-33. The Holy Anointing Oil.
23. Calamus] The word means 'reed' or 'cane.' Several species of aromatic reed are known in the East.
24. Cassia] a kind of cinnamon of a very pungent flavour. An hin] about a gallon and a half.
25. Apothecary] RV 'perfumer.' In the warm East ointments and perfumes are greatly employed as cosmetics, and the art of preparing these is carried to a high degree of perfection. Among the Jews there was a guild of perfumers in later times.
29. Most holy] see on Lev_2:3.
32. Upon man's flesh shall it not be poured] It must be reserved for the priests, and not used as an ordinary unguent: see Exo_30:33.
33. Stranger] one who is not a priest, as in Exo_29:33. Cutoff] see on Exo_12:15.
34-38. The Incense.
34. Stacte] a kind of gum, probably myrrh. Onycha] part of the shell of a shell fish. It burns with a pungent odour. Galbanum] a gum resin. Frankincense] a fragrant gum obtained by slitting the bark of an Indian tree, which was also to be found in ancient times in Arabia: see e.g. Isa_60:6; Eze_27:22. The substance called in modern times 'common frankincense' is obtained largely from fir trees. The English word means 'pure incense.'
35. RV 'and thou shalt make of it incense, a perfume after the art of the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy.' Salt, as preventing corruption, is the symbol of purity and durability; it was used with all sacrifices both animal and vegetable: see Lev_2:13; Ezr_6:9; Eze_43:24; Mar_9:49. Among the Arabs salt is the emblem of fidelity and lasting friendship. To have 'eaten salt' with a person, and so partaken of his hospitality, is equivalent to a pledge of mutual and indissoluble amity. Hence in OT. a 'covenant of salt' is one that cannot be broken: see Lev_2:13; Num_18:19; 2Ch_13:5, and cp. Ezr_4:14 (AM) and Mar_9:50.
37. This particular compound is not to be used for any profane purpose: cp. the similar direction in the case of the holy anointing oil (Exo_30:32-33).
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv1, 5, 9, 10, 13, 18, 31, 34, 38 Altar of incense, type of Christ our intercessor Joh…
incense
Altar of incense, type of Christ our intercessor Joh 17:1-26; Heb 7:25 through whom our own prayers and praises ascend to God; Heb 13:15; Rev 8:3; Rev 8:4 and of the believer-priest’s sacrifice of praise and worship Heb 13:15.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 CHAPTER 30 The Altar of Incense and the Worshippers
CHAPTER 30 The Altar of Incense and the Worshippers
1. The altar (Exo 30:1-10)
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2. The atonement money (Exo 30:11-16)
3. The brazen laver and the unction of the Spirit (Exo 30:22-33)
4. The incense (Exo 30:34-38)
This is a beautiful chapter, filled with blessed lessons. We have before us instructions concerning true, priestly worship. The brazen altar was of shittim wood, but this altar is of shittim wood covered with pure gold. The altar of brass tells of the work of Christ on the cross when judgment fell upon Him. There we learn in faith that our sins and guilt were fully met. The golden altar typifies Christ as entered into heaven. He is an altar there likewise, a place of sacrifice, but not a bleeding sacrifice. As believers we are a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ (1Pe 2:5). “By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips confessing His name.” The altar of incense stands for this true, heavenly worship. There is a warning not to offer strange incense. In Leviticus (10:1-3) the additional warning is against strange fire. Strange incense is that kind of worship which is called ritualistic; a mere outward form, which puts a man in the place of leader in worship. Strange fire is a soulical, emotional worship, which is destitute of the Holy Spirit, who alone gives power to worship.
And those who come as true worshippers must be redeemed. This is seen in Exo 30:11-16. Here is a confession of the fact that all are lost, all on equal footing, and all need redemption.
The brazen laver is mentioned next. This was for the washing of the hands and feet, symbolical of the washing of water by the Word, the cleansing from daily defilement. This is so blessedly illustrated in the washing of the feet of the disciples by our Lord. We must be cleansed, self-judged and self-denied, separated from evil, if we are to be true worshippers before the altar of incense. No real communion with God is possible save on the ground of personal holiness. Later we shall find that the laver was made of the looking-glasses of the assembling women (Exo 38:8). The Word of God is the true looking-glass where we see ourselves as we are, and then go to Him who is our laver for cleansing.
The holy anointing oil is the type of the Holy Spirit. He is needed for worship in the Spirit. A closer examination of the principal spices and their possible meaning, we must pass over. Notice that this oil was not to be poured upon man’s flesh, “neither shall ye make any other like it” (Exo 30:32-33). “The natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” The flesh is so corrupt that the Holy Spirit can have nothing to do with it. And how much the Spirit and His real work is counterfeited in these days.
The ingredients of the incense are also given. It is typical of the wonderful fragrance Christ is to God. His life on earth, His obedience, His death on the cross, His presence in Glory, all He is and all He does are of unspeakable fragrance and value to God.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 11, 17, 22, 34 The Altar of Incense
The Altar of Incense
v. 1. And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon; of shittim wood shalt thou make it, of the same Arabian acacia wood which was to be used for all the wooden appointments.
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v. 2. 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. It was also ornamented with small. hornlike projections, the symbols of power.
v. 3. And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, the top thereof, that is, its plate, and the sides thereof round about, and the horns thereof; and thou shalt make unto it a crown of gold round about, a heavy, decorated molding of gold, similar to that on the ark and on the table of showbread. Since the entire altar was so completely covered with gold, it was often designated simply as the golden altar, Exo 39:38; Exo 40:5-26; Num 4:11.
v. 4. 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, rings set solidly into the material of the altar; and they shall be for places for the staves to bear it withal.
v. 5. And thou shalt make the staves, the carrying poles, of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold.
v. 6. And thou shalt put it before the veil that is by the Ark of the Testimony, so that it occupied a position between the large candlestick and the table of showbread, before the mercy-seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee. The altar of incense was thus brought into a direct and intimate relation to the mercy-seat, so close to the Most Holy Place that it could be considered as a part of its equipment in the wider sense, 1Ki 6:22; Heb 9:4.
v. 7. And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning; when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it, that is, when he trims and cleans the lamps of the large candlestick.
v. 8. And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, putting back the lamps in place at the time of the evening sacrifice, Exo 29:41, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations, as regularly as the sacrifice of burnt offering was made, Exo 29:42.
v. 9. Ye shall offer no strange incense thereon, such as was not ordered for that purpose by Jehovah nor such as was not made according to His precept, nor burnt sacrifice, nor meat-offering, the unbloody sacrifices of baked or fried cakes; neither shall ye pour drink-offering thereon.
v. 10. 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, namely, on the great Day of Atonement; it is most holy unto the Lord. The altar of incense thus served a double purpose: it was in use daily for the offering of incense, the aromatic substance whose odor was pleasant to the Lord, since it signified the prayer of the saints; and it served on the great Day of Atonement for the dedication of the blood of expiation, before the high priest entered the Most Holy Place. We Christians also let our prayers rise to the Lord like incense, that is, in the name of Jesus Christ the Savior, knowing that they are pleasing to the Lord for His sake.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 11, 15, 17, 19, 22, 26, 29, 32, 34, 37 General Information:
General Information:
Yahweh tells Moses how to build the worship equipment.
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You must make
Here "you" refers to Moses and the people of Israel. (See: Forms of You)
Its horns must be made
These were projections that looked like ox horns attached to the four corners of the altar. See how you translated "horns" in Exodus 27:2. AT: "You must make its horns" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
altar
incense
acacia
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 6, 12, 17, 22, 33 30:1-10 Plans for the altar of acacia wood are…
30:1-10 Plans for the altar of acacia wood are included here rather than with the plans for the other items in the sanctuary (25:23-40), perhaps because of the reference to the priest’s use of it in 30:7-10.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.