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At this point we need another insertion to see how in our praises we need Christ as our incense. Christ must be the incense of our praise.
Two chapters in the book of Revelation speak of incense in our prayer. In Revelation 5:8 we are told that each of the living creatures and elders in the heavens have a harp. Harps, of course, are for praising. They also hold golden bowls full of incense, which bowls are the prayers of the saints. We must be clear here that the bowls, not the incense, are the prayers of the saints. Our prayers are the containers, the golden bowls, to be filled with incense. Then in 8:3 we read, “Another Angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer, and much incense was given to Him to offer with the prayers of all the saints.” We need much incense to be added to our prayers. The word offer, literally give, does not mean that we offer the prayer and He offers the incense or we both offer together, but that the incense has been added unto or given to our prayers. Our prayers are the bowls, and the incense is the content. Many times we have merely the bowls with no content; we have only the prayers without the incense.
What is the incense? The New Testament is a book of statements and definitions; to see the pictures we must go back to the Old Testament. It is indeed interesting that in Exodus 30 we have first a picture of the ointment; then immediately following is another picture showing us the incense. The incense typifies Christ. Christ is an incense which we must burn to God. Have you ever noticed these two pictures, the one of the ointment and the other of the incense? The significance here is tremendous. It is that of two-way traffic, the coming and the going: the ointment is coming to us, and the incense is going to God. Christ as the Spirit coming to us is the ointment; Christ ascending from us to God is the incense. The ointment is toward us; the incense is toward God. The ointment is for us to enjoy, while the incense is for God’s enjoyment. We should not enjoy the incense; if we do, we will be cut off. Incense is absolutely and entirely for God. But there is an enjoyment for us — the ointment. With the ointment the priests and all the parts of the tabernacle were anointed. This is our portion. The incense is God’s portion. The ointment is Christ for us; the incense is Christ for God. We should not only have one-way traffic: we should not only have Christ coming to us without Christ going back to God. We must complete the circuit by burning the incense. We need the anointing ointment, and we need the burning of the incense as well. God anoints us with the ointment, and we burn the incense to God.
Now let us see the ingredients or components of this incense. The revelation given us concerning them in Exodus 30 is exceedingly marvelous. In the incense are three kinds of spices — stacte, onycha, and galbanum — with pure frankincense (v. 34). In other words, according to the numbers and items of the ingredients, there are three in one — three kinds of spices with one kind of pure frankincense. According to the grammatical construction, we must realize that the first three form one group, while the fourth, the pure frankincense, forms another. This means three plus one, which equals four. Three is always the number of the Triune God, and four, the number of the creature, the human being, in a good sense. So the meaning here is that the Triune God becomes a human being; divinity is brought into humanity. What is this and who is this? Of course, this is Jesus Christ: He is the very God becoming a man, divinity brought into humanity. All four ingredients are compounded and mingled into one incense. It is God mingled with man, God compounded with man, divinity mingled and compounded with humanity to produce the incense.
Now we come to the essence of all these spices and the pure frankincense. It is really difficult to interpret these, but with the aid of many dictionaries and some writings of ancient times, we may arrive at their meaning. It is indeed interesting. The first and the third, the stacte and the galbanum, are of the plant life; they are gums from certain kinds of trees. The second spice, however, is not derived from plant life, but from animal life. The onycha is a kind of shellfish. According to the best writings, it is a shellfish produced in the marshes of the Red Sea. Its origin is not good. Now look at the picture: the first and the third are of the vegetable life, and the second, the middle one, is of the animal life. Of course, this is entirely figurative. What is its meaning?
We must see first that there are two factors in the life of Christ. In one sense His life is a generating life: He is the grain of wheat that produces so many more grains of wheat. This is the vegetable life. Christ’s life is just like the generating and reproducing vegetable life. Second, His life is also like the animal life, a life that can be slain and from which blood may be shed. He is the Lamb who was crucified on the cross for our redemption. These two kinds of lives have both been mentioned by the one writer, the apostle John. In the first chapter of his Gospel he says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (v. 29). Then in chapter 12 of the same Gospel he says that Christ is the grain of wheat, which when it falls into the earth and dies produces many grains (v. 24). As the Lamb of God He has the animal life, and as the grain of wheat He has the plant life. The animal life is for redeeming, and the vegetable life is for generating, for producing.
Before man fell, God destined him to eat herbs, only herbs. At that time no sin was involved, and man had no need of redemption. Just the herbs, the vegetable life, were sufficient for his diet. But now since the fall, man must eat something of the animal, involving the shedding of blood. Man has need of both the plant life and the animal life, the generating life and the redeeming life.
In John 6 these two aspects are brought together. Jesus said that He is the bread of life. When the Jewish people could not understand how He could be the bread of life, Jesus said that His flesh is eatable and His blood is drinkable. On one hand, He said that He is the bread, and on the other hand, He said that this bread is His flesh (v. 51). He is the vegetable life plus the animal life. If man had never fallen, he would not need the Lord Jesus as the animal life, but he would still need Him as the vegetable life in order to generate that life within him. We have fallen, however, so God must redeem us and regenerate us.
In order to redeem us, there is the need of the second person of the Godhead with the aspect of the animal life to be slain on our behalf. We know that Jesus was such a redeeming One. The second person, the middle person, accomplished this. So it is the second spice, not the first or the third, that has the animal life. It grows in the marshes of the Red Sea. What is the Red Sea? It is the corrupted world. Christ became a little “animal” in the marshes of this corrupted world for thirty-three and a half years. But with Him there is the fragrant shell — the onycha. This is the Christ who was crucified to redeem us.
The first spice is called in English stacte; in Hebrew it is myrrh. It is a kind of resinous gum which may be used as myrrh, even the purest myrrh. So we may say that stacte is another kind of myrrh, signifying death. Of course, the second item, onycha, which comes from a little slain animal, also signifies death. Then we have the third item, the galbanum. Galbanum is another type of gum derived from another tree. Nearly all the dictionaries and other writings tell us that its odor is exceedingly strong and disagreeable. But this unpleasant odor has three strange functions: (1) It strengthens the fragrance of the other odors. When this spice is added to the other spices, the fragrance of the other spices will be increased. (2) It causes the fragrance of the incense to remain, to endure. (3) Finally, the odor of this spice repels and expels insects and poisonous reptiles. In other words, it expels the serpent. The death of Christ in a sense is not so pleasant, but it really strengthens, it really keeps, and it really expels. Perhaps you have been as I have in places where there is an abundance of mosquitoes. It has been my custom every day to put repellent on my hands and feet to protect myself and expel the insects. Christ’s death is a kind of repellent; it has repelling power to expel Satan.
From such a picture we may say that all three spices signify the death of Christ. In the essence of all the ingredients is the death of Christ. The Triune God came into humanity to die in order that He might (1) produce, (2) redeem, and (3) expel. The Triune God became a man to generate us as sons, to redeem us from the fall, and to expel all the evil.
Following these three spices, we come immediately to the frankincense. Frankincense signifies the resurrection of Christ. So we have here both the death and the resurrection. When we put all these concepts together, we see that the incense is just Christ as God, incarnated to be a man, who died and was resurrected. In this incense we have both divinity and humanity, both the death and the resurrection of Christ. The Triune God in man passed into death and came out in resurrection — this is the incense. Divinity mingled with humanity suffered death to impart His life to us, to redeem the fallen ones, and to expel all the poison. We have the numbers three and four signifying divinity and humanity, we have the three spices signifying the death for generating, redeeming, and expelling, and we have the frankincense to signify His resurrection. So we have here a picture of such a wonderful person. The incense is nothing less than Christ Himself with all that He passed through and with all He accomplished, His death and resurrection.
In the prescription for the ointment recorded in Exodus 30, definite quantities are designated for each ingredient. But in the prescription for the incense, no quantities whatever are mentioned. What is the meaning of this? This means that Christ is immeasurable, unlimited. With this incense there is no measurement, no weight. In the entire universe there are no means available to weigh Christ; there is no scale large enough to measure Him. Ephesians tells us that Christ is the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth (3:18). You may have studied modern science — can you tell how long is the length, how high is the height, or how broad is the breadth? The answer is this: the length is just Christ, and the height is just Christ; the length is as long as Christ; the height is as high as Christ. This is the incense.
Exodus 30 says furthermore regarding the incense that all the ingredients must be in equal proportion. Why? This simply means that Christ is balanced in everything. In all that He is, in all His being and in all that He does, He is so balanced. We are all unbalanced. Sometimes a brother is so humble, but he is also rather slow. Those who are humble always have an amount of slowness. We do not like the slowness; we like the speed. But with those who are quick, there is always an amount of pride. Neither are balanced. Take a good look at the Lord Jesus in the four Gospels: He is so balanced; every part is in right proportion. He is immeasurable but balanced; He is unlimited but so fine and equal. No human words can adequately explain Him, but we have such a picture from which we may learn.
All four ingredients of the incense when mingled together must be seasoned with salt. Salt is not one of the main elements but something added to season the whole. What is the meaning of this? It is a type of Christ’s nature, a nature which is incorruptible, a nature which remains forever the same. All that Christ is, all that Christ does, is a kind of incense before God; His fragrance is unchangeable and incorruptible. There is nothing in the universe like Him. With this incense there is no need of refrigeration — it is seasoned with salt. In salt there is corruption-killing power. In typology it signifies the keeping and killing power of the death of Christ. The death of Christ has such power.
If we would offer this incense to God, we must grind or beat it into small pieces, even to powder (v. 36). Finally, it must be burnt. In summary, the incense must be seasoned, ground, and burnt.
Sometimes it seems that we have some experiences of Christ, but they do not remain long; they are here today and gone tomorrow. Why? Because they are not seasoned with salt. Three days ago Brother So-and-so may have given a marvelous testimony, but tonight when he is speaking, there is a clear sense of oldness. His experience has not been seasoned with salt. Sometimes you may sense that the testimony given by a brother is good, but there is no beating, no grinding. His experience of Christ is good, but it has never been broken into pieces or ground into powder. What do I mean by this? Suppose a sister has a real experience of Christ and in the meeting relates it with a long speech. Suppose then that while she is speaking one of the brothers interrupts her and asks her to abbreviate her testimony. If so, she may really be offended. She may say, “If they treat me like that, I will never come to the meeting again.” She has had a good experience of Christ, but she has not been broken. How could our experiences of Christ become a sweet fragrance to God? They require the beating, the breaking, and eventually the burning. When our experiences pass through all of these processes, they become a sweet savor to God. We not only need to experience the essence of what Christ is and does, but our experiences of this Christ must be seasoned, beaten, ground, and burnt.
Sometimes when others give testimonies, we sense that they are good, but they are stretched and raw. They are incense, but they are not burnt. Anything after being burnt is reduced; it is not so great in form or in quantity; neither is it so fine in quality. It is reduced to ashes. Whatever we offer to God will be consumed, but it will be so fragrant to the Father. The experiences of Christ are indeed good and fragrant to us, but they need to be burnt that they may be fragrant to God.
If we would have a proper church life, this is the way. It is not just that we all have some experiences of Christ and bring them to the meetings. We may do that and we should do that, but we still need the seasoning, the breaking, and the burning; otherwise, the more experiences of Christ we have, the more of a problem we will be to the church. Only when we are seasoned, broken, and burnt, will the church be built up, and we will have the fragrance of burnt incense to God. We will have a little heap of ashes, not much in form or quantity, and not even so good in quality, but so sweet and fragrant to the Father. This kind of incense must be the content of our praises and our prayers. It is not just that we are so happy; so we come to the meeting to rejoice and to praise. First we need the real experiences of Christ with all the ingredients of the incense. Second we need the seasoning, the breaking, and the burning of this incense to the Father. This is the incense we should offer to God in His Tent of Meeting. This is the way for us to meet, and this is the way to be built up together by meeting one with another.
Experience is indispensable for the burning of the incense — the experiences of Christ, seasoned, beaten, and burnt. These must be offered not in our home but in the Tent of Meeting for the building up of the local church, God’s dwelling place. May the Lord unveil these things to us.
