Incense to God

Exodus 30:36, 38 says that the incense was holy and most holy to God, and no one could make it for his own use. Whoever made incense according to the “recipe” given by God in order to smell it would be cut off from his people. This was because the incense must only be offered to God in order that the prayers might be accepted by Him.

Verse 36 says that one part of the incense should be beaten very fine and placed before the ark in the Holy of Holies where God would meet with Moses. When it was being prepared, the incense was in the form of granules or in bars. One part of it was crushed and beaten until it turned to powder. When Moses entered the Holy of Holies he had to take a handful of this beaten incense and set it on the coals in the censor. In this way a pleasant-smelling smoke ascended to God.

When the granulated incense was placed on the coals, it burned slowly, whereas the incense that was beaten burned up instantly. What does this mean? We have already said that the incense symbolizes the Lord Jesus. When He was on the earth, He was “beaten” and “ground” by all the sufferings and trials He passed through. But after His death, He resurrected and ascended to God, bringing the sweet fragrance of His resurrection to Him. In this way His vicarious and redeeming death was fully accepted by God.

Verse 35 also says that the incense should be mingled with salt. Salt has the ability to preserve food because it kills germs and bacteria, thus preventing it from decomposing. Salt typifies the preserving and killing power of the death of Christ. The incense that was beaten and placed before the ark symbolizes the sweet death of Christ and His fragrant resurrection as an offering to God, and the offering of the incense at the altar indicates that our basis for coming to God in prayer is in the fact that Christ died and rose for us.

In order to adequately understand the spiritual reality of burning the incense, we need to have the experience of praying. Then we will see that our prayer is not only an opportunity to ask things of God, but that it is our going to Him to touch His lovable being. This prayer is a sweet fragrance to God because it is filled with Christ and it fills us with willingness to cooperate with God in His economy. If we persist in seeking the Lord we will eventually have the experience that genuine prayer is simply Christ Himself. Our prayer is Christ; it is our coming to God in Christ and with Christ.

When we pray, we cannot act like children, only asking for our needs and desires to be supplied. If we draw near to the Lord saying, “Oh, Lord Jesus, I love You, I need You, I need Your grace,” spontaneously we will begin to be unloaded of ourselves and will be filled with His Spirit. As a result, He will show us the matters we should pray for. In this way, our prayer will be accepted by God. We cannot say that God never listens to us if we pray in a childish way, as we saw in the case of Hannah, but what really matters is that we exercise in prayer until we touch the Lord and pray His prayer.

Previous Page         Next Page

COPYRIGHT © 2006
All rights reserved by
Jasper Life Publications