Message 150
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Scripture Reading: Exo. 30:6-10; 40:5, 26-27; Psa. 84:3; 141:2; Rev. 8:3-6; Exo. 30:26-28
In the previous message we emphasized three important matters related to the incense altar. First, when we pray, we need to be in the tabernacle, which signifies the incarnated God. Second, in order to pray at the incense altar, we must first be filled and satisfied by eating the holy food, our portion of the offerings. Third, when we pray, we should offer incense to God. If we have a clear view of these matters, our prayer life will be revolutionized. Instead of being occupied in prayer with material needs or personal concerns, we shall pray for the executing of God’s purpose, for the carrying out of the divine administration, and for the dispensing of God’s supplying grace.
Matthew 6:33 is a verse often quoted by today’s Christians: “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” This indicates that if we seek God’s kingdom and His righteousness, whatever we need — food, clothing, housing — will be added to us. This shows that there is no need for us to be occupied in our prayer with things such as food and clothing. Instead, we should pray for God’s kingdom.
What is the kingdom of God today? God’s kingdom is the church. But what is the church? The church is Christ. Therefore, to seek God’s kingdom is to seek Christ with the church.
According to Matthew 6:33 we should also seek God’s righteousness. What is God’s righteousness? God’s righteousness is Christ expressed through the church. Thus, to seek God’s kingdom and His righteousness is to seek Christ and the church. Our prayer should be related to God’s kingdom and His righteousness, that is, to Christ and the church.
What is sad is that many Christians know how to pray for a better job, a larger house, or their safety on a journey, but they do not know how to pray for Christ or the church. When some pray for the church, they do not pray directly for the church, but instead pray for business matters related to the church. We should forget about praying in such a way and pray instead for Christ and the church. When some Christians hear this word regarding their prayer life, they may say, “This word is troublesome. It seems that you are robbing me of all my prayers. After hearing this word, I don’t know how to pray. It seems that any way I try to pray is wrong.”
I encourage you to read again this portion of the Word. We should burn incense upon the golden altar. However, there is a serious prohibition: we must not burn strange incense. Only the resurrected and ascended Christ is acceptable; everything else is prohibited. We should not burn strange incense, and we should not even burn at the incense altar what is acceptable to God at the offering altar. This means that we should not present the crucified and judged Christ at the incense altar. Rather, we must burn as incense the resurrected and ascended Christ. We must present such a living Christ to God as incense at the incense altar.
If some saints were to ask me to tell them how to pray, I would not do it. If I told you how to pray and you prayed accordingly, that kind of prayer would still not be Christ. You may use the right terminology, but you may still be praying outside of God. You would not be praying in God, in the center of God’s dwelling place. Furthermore, while you are praying, you may not have the inner satisfaction or the inner energizing. This means that you do not have God praying in you as you are praying. When we pray, we need to pray in God, and we need to pray with God energizing us inwardly. Then we need to offer Christ to God and pray Him to God.
If you were to stay with me for a period of several days, you would learn that I am a person who much of the time is not happy. The situation of today’s Christians makes me very sad. Consider the people around you and what they are doing. What do they know concerning God’s economy? How pitiful is the situation! The Lord Jesus has delayed His coming back for nearly two thousand years. Of course, to Him two thousand years are as two days. What is a long time to us is a short time to Him. From the Lord’s point of view, two hundred fifty years is like six hours, one-fourth of a day. It is Peter who says that with the Lord a thousand years are as one day (2 Pet. 3:8). In the same chapter Peter passes over the millennium and speaks directly concerning the new heavens and the new earth in eternity (2 Pet. 3:13). This indicates that even a thousand years is not long to the Lord. But as far as I am concerned, the Lord has delayed His coming a long time.
Who today is praying that God would dispense His grace into people? Who is praying in such a way as to motivate God’s throne of authority to judge this age? Christ has a great deal of incense, but where are the prayers that are qualified to receive the incense of Christ? Is Christ able to add His incense to your prayers? I am afraid that too few of our prayers are qualified to have Christ’s incense added to them. Therefore, it is very important for us to see that concerning our prayer life, Christ is the tabernacle, Christ is the food offered, and Christ is also the incense.
According to the Bible, the two altars are linked. Exodus 30:27 and 28 say that both the altar of incense and the altar of burnt offering were anointed with the holy anointing oil. After the tabernacle and its utensils were anointed, the two altars were anointed. Exodus 30:26-28 says, “And you shall anoint with it the tent of meeting, and the ark of the testimony, and the table and all its utensils, and the lampstand and its utensils, and the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the laver and its base.” Notice that the sequence in these verses is the tabernacle, the ark, the table, the lampstand, the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt offering. Thus, the anointing connects the two altars.
The anointing signifies God’s move. According to God’s move, therefore, the incense altar and the altar of burnt offering are connected. The anointing is the connecting element.
The altars were also connected by the blood of the sin offering offered for propitiation, or atonement, on the day of Atonement. The day of Atonement, or as we would prefer to translate it, the day of propitiation, occurred once a year. On that day the most important sin offering was offered. After the blood of this offering was shed, it was brought from the altar into the Holy Place and applied to the four corners of the incense altar. A portion of the blood was also brought into the Holy of Holies, and the remainder was poured out around the altar in the outer court. This propitiating blood also connected the two altars.
Furthermore, the two altars were connected by the fire that burned on the altar in the outer court. If we read the Old Testament carefully, we shall see that no strange fire was allowed to be on the incense altar for the burning of the incense. Rather, the only fire that could be used to burn the incense was the fire from the altar of burnt offering, the fire which had come down from the heavens. That fire was not strange. Any other kind of fire, however, would have been strange. The heavenly fire, the fire that came from God, that was used to burn the offerings on the altar of burnt offering was also used to burn the incense on the incense altar. By this we see that the fire that burned the offerings was also an element that linked these two altars.
From the altar of burnt offering a sweet savor ascended to God. A sweet savor also ascended to Him from the incense altar. Hence, from both the burning on the offering altar and from the burning on the incense altar a sweet savor ascended to God for His satisfaction. There was a difference, however, between these two kinds of burnings. The burning on the offering altar was a burning of judgment, but the burning on the incense altar was a burning of acceptance.
These two kinds of burning and ascending reflect each other. In particular, the first kind of sweet savor, that from the altar of burnt offering, is reflected in the second, that from the incense altar. The sweet savor ascending to God from the altar of burnt offering is reflected in the savor that ascended to Him from the incense altar. Here in these two kinds of sweet savor we have the sweetness of Christ in His death at the offering altar and the sweetness of Christ in His resurrection and ascension at the incense altar. The fragrance of Christ in His resurrection and ascension is for our acceptance. By these three elements — the anointing, the blood, and the fire — the two altars are connected.
Because the two altars are connected, the psalmist speaks of them together: “Yea, the sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God” (Psa. 84:3). Writing in a poetic way, the psalmist appreciates the two altars. This is especially interesting when we realize that in God’s dwelling place there were other furnishings and utensils, such as the ark, the table, and the lampstand. But the two altars are foremost in the psalmist’s appreciation.
The sparrow and the swallow signify us, human beings who are small, weak, and unworthy. The Lord Jesus said that two sparrows were sold for a penny (Matt. 10:29). Nevertheless, we who are as frail as sparrows can find a house at the Lord’s altars. Furthermore, as swallows, we can lay our young at these altars.
Those who do not have the proper appreciation of Psalm 84 may wonder how sparrows and swallows could possibly make their nest at the Lord’s altars. Those who view the psalm in this way may regard the altars as desolate and not taken care of by anyone. However, Psalm 84 is very sweet. It is filled with appreciation of God’s dwelling place, in particular, of the two altars.
These altars signify Christ’s death and His intercession. The offering altar is the altar of Christ’s death, and the incense altar is the altar of Christ’s intercession. I can testify that these two altars, joined together, have become very sweet to me in my experience. I am like a sparrow or a swallow nesting at the altars and laying my young ones there.
In their experience many Christians have only one altar, the first altar, the offering altar in the outer court. This means that they have the cross, but they do not have the incense altar. In our experience we need both altars.
Now that we are studying the incense altar described in chapter 30 of Exodus, I am burdened to point out that we are not merely having a Bible study or simply teaching the Bible. All the points we are covering should be applied to our prayer life. Our prayer life must be in God, and it must be with God in us as our supply and satisfaction. If we are to have a proper prayer life, we must also offer Christ to God as incense. Furthermore, it is very important for us to see that this kind of prayer is linked to the crucified Christ. I would encourage you to bring all these matters to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to show you something further.
The revelation concerning the incense altar has helped me a great deal. Often it has served to govern my prayers. But sometimes, due to the environment, I too have prayed in a rather natural way.
May the Lord have mercy on us that we may see that the proper and genuine prayer life is in God and requires that God be in us; that it is one with the resurrected and ascended Christ as our incense to God; and that it is linked to the crucified Christ by the blood, the fire, and the sweet savor. If we have this kind of prayer, we shall be able to live a life that motivates God’s move. This kind of prayer governs God’s dispensation of grace and His administration of His authority. This means that the prayer offered at the incense altar governs the universe. This is a matter of great significance. May our eyes be opened to see it.
