The Tabernacle; Lesson six: the Golden Altar of Incense.
When Isaiah prophesied of Jesus arrival here on earth he said it thusly from chapter 7 verse 14 “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” God is with us; can you say amen? Aren’t you that God is with us? Meditate on that thought for a moment or two. God, the High and Lofty One who dwells between the cherubim over the Mercy seat, the One who spoke to Moses and said, “see that ye make all things after the pattern shown you on the mountain”; that same God Almighty, Eternal, all powerful God is with us. Tonight I would like for us to look at the Golden Altar of Incense. As we look into His Word think about the fact that we are sitting in His very Presence tonight. He is here. In our midst. We are gathered in His name. Let’s invoke the Presence of God, let’s pray
Ex. 30:1-10 1 “You shall make an altar to burn incense on; you shall make it of acacia wood. 2 A cubit shall be its length and a cubit its width—it shall be square—and two cubits shall be its height. Its horns shall be of one piece with it. 3 And you shall overlay its top, its sides all around, and its horns with pure gold; and you shall make for it a molding of gold all around. 4 Two gold rings you shall make for it, under the molding on both its sides. You shall place them on its two sides, and they will be holders for the poles with which to bear it. 5 You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. 6 And you shall put it before the veil that is before the ark of the Testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the Testimony, where I will meet with you.7 “Aaron shall burn on it sweet incense every morning; when he tends the lamps, he shall burn incense on it. 8 And when Aaron lights the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense on it, a perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations. 9 You shall not offer strange incense on it, or a burnt offering, or a grain offering; nor shall you pour a drink offering on it. 10 And Aaron shall make atonement upon its horns once a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonement; once a year he shall make atonement upon it throughout your generations. It is most holy to the LORD.”
As you read this portion you can see that this altar wasn’t very big in size…actually it was the narrowest and yet the tallest of the furnishings of the tabernacle, and we have so far concentrated our study on the furnishings and what they represent. The High Priest burned sweet incense every morning and every evening upon this golden altar of incense. The Bible tells me that the prayers of the saints are as a sweet incense unto the Lord See Rev. 5:8, Rev. 8:3, 4. David said in Psalm 141:2, “Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.” Isn’t that a beautiful portion of scripture? The lifting up of my hands, my prayer unto God…a sweet incense unto Him. Every time you ask the blessing on your food, every time you ask His presence in to our services, every time we lift our needs up in prayer, every time we pray for each others needs; that is offering up incense unto the Lord and every time we lift up our hands in praise it is as the evening sacrifice…now wouldn’t you think that praise would be the sweet incense? And wouldn’t you think prayer would be more sacrifice? No, the Bible says that prayer is as a sweet incense. I think if it is a selfish prayer that it doesn’t count and that gets us into a whole other subject where we won’t go just now. But when we lift our hands in praise and worship it is sacrifice. In Hebrews, which is still our study book; we have not abandoned that study just paused for a while; it says in ch.13, vs.15, “By Him therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” Do you have a hard time lifting up your hands? Some folks do because they feel conspicuous but as you do, it is a sacrifice in which God is well pleased and as you do He will help you, so that every time it gets easier. Many times when no one else has their hands lifted, the Spirit will prompt me to get them up AND WHEN I DO I know the touch of His presence.
I know that it can be a fake on the part of a hypocrite. I think that is like offering strange fire if your heart is not right.
The High Priest burned incense every morning and every evening because God required that special incense be burned on this altar continuously as He requires of you and I tonight. It was a special sweet incense, a mixture of sweet spices to only be used in the Tabernacle ceremonial worship. It was God’s recipe and nothing else was to be burned on this altar. Anything else or less was considered strange fire…and I have likened that to a pretense of worship…when it is offered with our hearts not being cleansed before the Lord and we shall talk about cleansing as we continue to study the furnishings. But for this study we need to look at what the consequences are for offering strange fire. Jesus said “not every one who says, Lord, Lord will make it in” words to that effect. He says there will come a day when He is going to say, “depart from Me ye workers of iniquity, I never knew you!” What an indictment! What a terrible sentence, but there will be those in that category, sad to say. Let us insure that we won’t be in that group of people and let us endeavor never to offer strange fire upon the altar of incense of our hearts. Read Lev. 10:1,2. The Bible warns us to be careful what we offer unto God as a sweet smelling savor and that is our worship out of a pure conscience. Hebrews 10:19-22 19 “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and having a High Priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” Again referring to a good conscience look at 1 Peter 3:16 I like
Those verses 3:16, sometime I would like to do a study on them…John 3:16, 1 Tim 3:16 1 Peter…the list goes on. I think it would be very interesting. The new and living way. That is what Jesus obtained for us at Calvary.
At the Altar of Incense there are a few things we need to see.
It was made from the acacia tree and overlaid with gold as was the Ark and the Table of Showbread, the bread of His Presence, it had two staves made from acacia wood just like those used in the Ark and the Table had, it was not solid gold like the candlestick was because in it we can see the humanity as well as divinity…we see man offering up spiritual sacrifices of praise and worship as a continual, morning and evening sacrifice. Even the fruit of our lips we read it in Hebrews ch. 10
This blending of wood and gold was a preparation for Jesus and His priestly work. Look up John 17:4,5.
It was placed directly in front of the Ark of the covenant just outside the veil and it had a constant column of smoke ascending to God day and night, mixed with the sweet incense
that was made from mixing four kinds of spices which we shall discuss a little later on.
It had four horns…the horns of the altar. Horns speak of power in the Word of God and they were located squarely on the four corners speaking of the four square gospel and the power of prayer. The four square gospel sees Jesus as Saviour, BAPTIZER, HEALER , and soon coming King.The horns, trimmings, were of solid gold and it was on the horns of the Altar of Incense that the blood was applied. The blood of the sin offering both for the priest as well as the people. Ex. 30:10 and Lev. 4:7 and also the 18th. Verse
Then once a year on the day of atonement the blood was applied on these same horns…look up Lev. 16:18.The very fact that prayer could be effective on this Altar was based on the shed blood applied there; before the Priest could enter the Holy of Holies on the day of atonement, the blood had to be applied; remember we have approached this study with a God coming to man format(computer generation) and we have not talked about the Brazen Altar as yet; that is actually the next item after we have covered this golden Altar of incense. So let me try to explain here what took place as far as the atoning of sin at the golden altar was concerned.
The sacrifice, that being an animal, was made at the Brazen Altar which was just inside the entrance to the outer court, but the atonement for sin was not effective until the blood was applied to the Mercy Seat between the two cherubim. After that it was applied to the four horns of the altar seven times
and the Tabernacle and all were cleansed when there were no other priests in the Holy Place. Read about it in Leviticus 16:15-20. There are several points to consider that this scripture reading points out:
1.A complete sacrifice was made.
2. Complete cleansing has been accomplished.
3. Complete atonement has been accepted.
4. Prayer is offered in complete confidence.
5. Answered prayer is guaranteed.
I said that this altar represents the four square Gospel of Saviour, Baptizer, Healer and soon coming King. It was the narrowest of the furnishings and this Gospel message is a narrow way the Bible says and it was the tallest of all the furnishings as this Gospel is the highest of all proclamations.
Jesus said it in Matt. 7:13,14. “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there be many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Read Eph. 3:14-19. “That you might be filled with all the fullness of God” Is that what you want tonight? To be filled with all the fullness of God? That is my desire.
Let’s look at the Incense again. Ex. 30:34-38. These sweet spices mixed together were an acceptable sweetness before God. I spoke earlier of the fruit of our lips being that sweetness, prayer and thanksgiving. praise…is what we say acceptable to God? Once I say something…I CAN NEVER RECOVER IT. Think about what I am saying. There have been a few things over the course of this study that I wish I could take back. BUT THAT IS NOT POSSIBLE. ONCE you say a thing it is impossible to take those words back…that is why forgiveness is so very important. Sometimes we speak before we think about what we are going to say. Sometimes you may have heard somebody say…might as well say it as think it.
No, if it is going to hurt someone else, then you hadn’t better say it. It becomes a serious thing just how we use the God-given ability to speak. Do we use this privilege lightly? Do we use it to murmur and complain, to find fault, to gossip, to curse or blaspheme? Or do we use it to bless God? to worship Him or to bless others? To exhort one another daily, the Bible says…it’s all right there in Hebrews. The fruit of our lips giving thanks as the song says. Come let us offer the sacrifice of praise…let’s do just that right now.
This blending of these ingredients was so carefully protected that it could not be duplicated, it could not be used for a common or ordinary purpose…are you getting the picture?
Ex. 30:34-38. Equal amounts of statche…what is statche?
It is derived much the same as frankincense from the gum of a tree. While frankincense comes from the sap or gum of the boswellia trees, statche is said to come from the gum of a storax tree, which probably means nothing to you and I except the word for storax was in the original Hebrew called “nataf” and means “to drop”…read Job 36:27 and also Job 29,22&23.
The dropping of rain is pictured here as sometimes the gracious words that fall from some people’s mouths…serious words and not foolish jesting..words of life and virtue. Do you know folks like that? Their speech is gracious, serious? No one was more gracious in His speech than Jesus was. Look at Luke 4:22. His words were compared to the distilling of water. We used to use distilled water in large battery instillations when I worked both for N.B.Power and at the Irving refinery and those distillation units just let out a drop at a time and it is pure water. As is needed in those batteries , it has to be pure water. Jesus’ words are like pure water, His words are carefully thought out beforehand. Remember the woman who wa taken in adultery, how Jesus just wrote in the sand while these religious men were ranting on and accusing her? Remember the words of Jesus? He that is without sin…let him be the first to stone her. Amen? Let us be careful when we are tempted to accuse or retaliate when someone does accuse us.
His words were pure, no intent to harm in them, I don’t think He would have wasted His time telling jokes, do you? Read Matt. 5:37 Also James 5:12
God speaks and He has given us that capability also. The Psalmist said, “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O LORD my strength and my Redeemer.” Let our words drop down like rain and be Christlike.
The next spice named in Ex. 30 was “onycha”and the same word is used for a herb and also a shellfish found in the Red Sea and when ground up gave off a special fragrance. If the shellfish was what they used it would be a costant reminder of God’s deliverance from the bondage they had faced DAILY IN Egypt and Egypt in typology is a type of sin. The bondage of sin is gone as we surrender to Jesus.
Next is “Galbanum.” It seems hard to identify but it had an odour that drove away vermin and destructive pests and when mixed with the other three it gave off a sweet smelling savour. Prayer and intercession can sometimes seem hard to do also but when mixed with thanksgiving it will yield the peace of God that passes understanding Philippians 4:6
We have already talked about the frankincense in another session so I won’t spend a lot of time with it except to say it
was costly. Prayer will cost you something if it is the kind of prayer that is effective. Prayer that is TO BE EFFECTIVE MOST TIMES IS THAT PERSISTANT, INSISTENT kind of praying PERSERVERING prayer and that will cost time but it is worth every moment in His presence. “In HIS PRESENCE THERE IS FULNESS of joy and at His right hand there are pleasures evermore.” And I need to do more of that kind of praying. You know Bible study is wonderful but unless you are spending time in prayer and in His presence then your spiritual life is out of balance…that’s where the staves come in…the poles for carrying the altar. They provided the balance that was necessary to move the altar. And as we pray and intercede the Holy SPIRIT WILL PRAY AND INTERCEDE THROUGH US AND WHEN HE mixes his prayer with ours it truly is a sweet smelling savour.
Jessus is praying for you and I tonight…John 17:9 and Hebrews 7:25. Jesus is our High Priest and He intercedes for His own…He didn’t promise to intercede for the world; that is our job On the basis of HIS sacrifice, His shed blood, His atonement for sin and His resurrection, He effectually presents our requests with much incense before the Father.
The burning on this altar never ceased; it was continuous. Read again Ex. 30:8. Jesus our Lord and High Priest never slumbers or sleeps. He is continually offering up intercession on our behalf. He never changes. He is no longer bound by human frailty, He is not that Babe in the manger, in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, He is Onicient, Omnipotent, Omni present, He is God Almighty and He sits on the throne tonight ever making intercession for you and for me. Look at OPsalm 139:17,18 and Heb. 4:15,16
When Isaiah prophesied of Jesus arrival here on earth he said it thusly from chapter 7 verse 14 “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” God is with us; can you say amen? Aren’t you that God is with us? Meditate on that thought for a moment or two. God, the High and Lofty One who dwells between the cherubim over the Mercy seat, the One who spoke to Moses and said, “see that ye make all things after the pattern shown you on the mountain”; that same God Almighty, Eternal, all powerful God is with us. Tonight I would like for us to look at the Golden Altar of Incense. As we look into His Word think about the fact that we are sitting in His very Presence tonight. He is here. In our midst. We are gathered in His name. Let’s invoke the Presence of God, let’s pray
Ex. 30:1-10 1 “You shall make an altar to burn incense on; you shall make it of acacia wood. 2 A cubit shall be its length and a cubit its width—it shall be square—and two cubits shall be its height. Its horns shall be of one piece with it. 3 And you shall overlay its top, its sides all around, and its horns with pure gold; and you shall make for it a molding of gold all around. 4 Two gold rings you shall make for it, under the molding on both its sides. You shall place them on its two sides, and they will be holders for the poles with which to bear it. 5 You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. 6 And you shall put it before the veil that is before the ark of the Testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the Testimony, where I will meet with you.7 “Aaron shall burn on it sweet incense every morning; when he tends the lamps, he shall burn incense on it. 8 And when Aaron lights the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense on it, a perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations. 9 You shall not offer strange incense on it, or a burnt offering, or a grain offering; nor shall you pour a drink offering on it. 10 And Aaron shall make atonement upon its horns once a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonement; once a year he shall make atonement upon it throughout your generations. It is most holy to the LORD.”
As you read this portion you can see that this altar wasn’t very big in size…actually it was the narrowest and yet the tallest of the furnishings of the tabernacle, and we have so far concentrated our study on the furnishings and what they represent. The High Priest burned sweet incense every morning and every evening upon this golden altar of incense. The Bible tells me that the prayers of the saints are as a sweet incense unto the Lord See Rev. 5:8, Rev. 8:3, 4. David said in Psalm 141:2, “Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.” Isn’t that a beautiful portion of scripture? The lifting up of my hands, my prayer unto God…a sweet incense unto Him. Every time you ask the blessing on your food, every time you ask His presence in to our services, every time we lift our needs up in prayer, every time we pray for each others needs; that is offering up incense unto the Lord and every time we lift up our hands in praise it is as the evening sacrifice…now wouldn’t you think that praise would be the sweet incense? And wouldn’t you think prayer would be more sacrifice? No, the Bible says that prayer is as a sweet incense. I think if it is a selfish prayer that it doesn’t count and that gets us into a whole other subject where we won’t go just now. But when we lift our hands in praise and worship it is sacrifice. In Hebrews, which is still our study book; we have not abandoned that study just paused for a while; it says in ch.13, vs.15, “By Him therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” Do you have a hard time lifting up your hands? Some folks do because they feel conspicuous but as you do, it is a sacrifice in which God is well pleased and as you do He will help you, so that every time it gets easier. Many times when no one else has their hands lifted, the Spirit will prompt me to get them up AND WHEN I DO I know the touch of His presence.
I know that it can be a fake on the part of a hypocrite. I think that is like offering strange fire if your heart is not right.
The High Priest burned incense every morning and every evening because God required that special incense be burned on this altar continuously as He requires of you and I tonight. It was a special sweet incense, a mixture of sweet spices to only be used in the Tabernacle ceremonial worship. It was God’s recipe and nothing else was to be burned on this altar. Anything else or less was considered strange fire…and I have likened that to a pretense of worship…when it is offered with our hearts not being cleansed before the Lord and we shall talk about cleansing as we continue to study the furnishings. But for this study we need to look at what the consequences are for offering strange fire. Jesus said “not every one who says, Lord, Lord will make it in” words to that effect. He says there will come a day when He is going to say, “depart from Me ye workers of iniquity, I never knew you!” What an indictment! What a terrible sentence, but there will be those in that category, sad to say. Let us insure that we won’t be in that group of people and let us endeavor never to offer strange fire upon the altar of incense of our hearts. Read Lev. 10:1,2. The Bible warns us to be careful what we offer unto God as a sweet smelling savor and that is our worship out of a pure conscience. Hebrews 10:19-22 19 “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and having a High Priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” Again referring to a good conscience look at 1 Peter 3:16 I like
Those verses 3:16, sometime I would like to do a study on them…John 3:16, 1 Tim 3:16 1 Peter…the list goes on. I think it would be very interesting. The new and living way. That is what Jesus obtained for us at Calvary.
At the Altar of Incense there are a few things we need to see.
It was made from the acacia tree and overlaid with gold as was the Ark and the Table of Showbread, the bread of His Presence, it had two staves made from acacia wood just like those used in the Ark and the Table had, it was not solid gold like the candlestick was because in it we can see the humanity as well as divinity…we see man offering up spiritual sacrifices of praise and worship as a continual, morning and evening sacrifice. Even the fruit of our lips we read it in Hebrews ch. 10
This blending of wood and gold was a preparation for Jesus and His priestly work. Look up John 17:4,5.
It was placed directly in front of the Ark of the covenant just outside the veil and it had a constant column of smoke ascending to God day and night, mixed with the sweet incense
that was made from mixing four kinds of spices which we shall discuss a little later on.
It had four horns…the horns of the altar. Horns speak of power in the Word of God and they were located squarely on the four corners speaking of the four square gospel and the power of prayer. The four square gospel sees Jesus as Saviour, BAPTIZER, HEALER , and soon coming King.The horns, trimmings, were of solid gold and it was on the horns of the Altar of Incense that the blood was applied. The blood of the sin offering both for the priest as well as the people. Ex. 30:10 and Lev. 4:7 and also the 18th. Verse
Then once a year on the day of atonement the blood was applied on these same horns…look up Lev. 16:18.The very fact that prayer could be effective on this Altar was based on the shed blood applied there; before the Priest could enter the Holy of Holies on the day of atonement, the blood had to be applied; remember we have approached this study with a God coming to man format(computer generation) and we have not talked about the Brazen Altar as yet; that is actually the next item after we have covered this golden Altar of incense. So let me try to explain here what took place as far as the atoning of sin at the golden altar was concerned.
The sacrifice, that being an animal, was made at the Brazen Altar which was just inside the entrance to the outer court, but the atonement for sin was not effective until the blood was applied to the Mercy Seat between the two cherubim. After that it was applied to the four horns of the altar seven times
and the Tabernacle and all were cleansed when there were no other priests in the Holy Place. Read about it in Leviticus 16:15-20. There are several points to consider that this scripture reading points out:
1.A complete sacrifice was made.
2. Complete cleansing has been accomplished.
3. Complete atonement has been accepted.
4. Prayer is offered in complete confidence.
5. Answered prayer is guaranteed.
I said that this altar represents the four square Gospel of Saviour, Baptizer, Healer and soon coming King. It was the narrowest of the furnishings and this Gospel message is a narrow way the Bible says and it was the tallest of all the furnishings as this Gospel is the highest of all proclamations.
Jesus said it in Matt. 7:13,14. “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there be many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Read Eph. 3:14-19. “That you might be filled with all the fullness of God” Is that what you want tonight? To be filled with all the fullness of God? That is my desire.
Let’s look at the Incense again. Ex. 30:34-38. These sweet spices mixed together were an acceptable sweetness before God. I spoke earlier of the fruit of our lips being that sweetness, prayer and thanksgiving. praise…is what we say acceptable to God? Once I say something…I CAN NEVER RECOVER IT. Think about what I am saying. There have been a few things over the course of this study that I wish I could take back. BUT THAT IS NOT POSSIBLE. ONCE you say a thing it is impossible to take those words back…that is why forgiveness is so very important. Sometimes we speak before we think about what we are going to say. Sometimes you may have heard somebody say…might as well say it as think it.
No, if it is going to hurt someone else, then you hadn’t better say it. It becomes a serious thing just how we use the God-given ability to speak. Do we use this privilege lightly? Do we use it to murmur and complain, to find fault, to gossip, to curse or blaspheme? Or do we use it to bless God? to worship Him or to bless others? To exhort one another daily, the Bible says…it’s all right there in Hebrews. The fruit of our lips giving thanks as the song says. Come let us offer the sacrifice of praise…let’s do just that right now.
This blending of these ingredients was so carefully protected that it could not be duplicated, it could not be used for a common or ordinary purpose…are you getting the picture?
Ex. 30:34-38. Equal amounts of statche…what is statche?
It is derived much the same as frankincense from the gum of a tree. While frankincense comes from the sap or gum of the boswellia trees, statche is said to come from the gum of a storax tree, which probably means nothing to you and I except the word for storax was in the original Hebrew called “nataf” and means “to drop”…read Job 36:27 and also Job 29,22&23.
The dropping of rain is pictured here as sometimes the gracious words that fall from some people’s mouths…serious words and not foolish jesting..words of life and virtue. Do you know folks like that? Their speech is gracious, serious? No one was more gracious in His speech than Jesus was. Look at Luke 4:22. His words were compared to the distilling of water. We used to use distilled water in large battery instillations when I worked both for N.B.Power and at the Irving refinery and those distillation units just let out a drop at a time and it is pure water. As is needed in those batteries , it has to be pure water. Jesus’ words are like pure water, His words are carefully thought out beforehand. Remember the woman who wa taken in adultery, how Jesus just wrote in the sand while these religious men were ranting on and accusing her? Remember the words of Jesus? He that is without sin…let him be the first to stone her. Amen? Let us be careful when we are tempted to accuse or retaliate when someone does accuse us.
His words were pure, no intent to harm in them, I don’t think He would have wasted His time telling jokes, do you? Read Matt. 5:37 Also James 5:12
God speaks and He has given us that capability also. The Psalmist said, “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O LORD my strength and my Redeemer.” Let our words drop down like rain and be Christlike.
The next spice named in Ex. 30 was “onycha”and the same word is used for a herb and also a shellfish found in the Red Sea and when ground up gave off a special fragrance. If the shellfish was what they used it would be a costant reminder of God’s deliverance from the bondage they had faced DAILY IN Egypt and Egypt in typology is a type of sin. The bondage of sin is gone as we surrender to Jesus.
Next is “Galbanum.” It seems hard to identify but it had an odour that drove away vermin and destructive pests and when mixed with the other three it gave off a sweet smelling savour. Prayer and intercession can sometimes seem hard to do also but when mixed with thanksgiving it will yield the peace of God that passes understanding Philippians 4:6
We have already talked about the frankincense in another session so I won’t spend a lot of time with it except to say it
was costly. Prayer will cost you something if it is the kind of prayer that is effective. Prayer that is TO BE EFFECTIVE MOST TIMES IS THAT PERSISTANT, INSISTENT kind of praying PERSERVERING prayer and that will cost time but it is worth every moment in His presence. “In HIS PRESENCE THERE IS FULNESS of joy and at His right hand there are pleasures evermore.” And I need to do more of that kind of praying. You know Bible study is wonderful but unless you are spending time in prayer and in His presence then your spiritual life is out of balance…that’s where the staves come in…the poles for carrying the altar. They provided the balance that was necessary to move the altar. And as we pray and intercede the Holy SPIRIT WILL PRAY AND INTERCEDE THROUGH US AND WHEN HE mixes his prayer with ours it truly is a sweet smelling savour.
Jessus is praying for you and I tonight…John 17:9 and Hebrews 7:25. Jesus is our High Priest and He intercedes for His own…He didn’t promise to intercede for the world; that is our job On the basis of HIS sacrifice, His shed blood, His atonement for sin and His resurrection, He effectually presents our requests with much incense before the Father.
The burning on this altar never ceased; it was continuous. Read again Ex. 30:8. Jesus our Lord and High Priest never slumbers or sleeps. He is continually offering up intercession on our behalf. He never changes. He is no longer bound by human frailty, He is not that Babe in the manger, in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, He is Onicient, Omnipotent, Omni present, He is God Almighty and He sits on the throne tonight ever making intercession for you and for me. Look at OPsalm 139:17,18 and Heb. 4:15,16
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