Message 167
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Scripture Reading: Exo. 30:34-38
Toward the end of the section concerned with the revelation of the tabernacle two things are described: the anointing oil and the incense. I believe that in the foregoing messages we have considered thoroughly the matter of the anointing oil. We have seen that this oil is a fine and all-inclusive type of Christ being the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. As the life-giving Spirit, Christ not only comes to us from God, but He is also God coming to us. His coming is not only from God but also with God, for Christ comes as God. Eventually, this coming One passed through death and resurrection and has become the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. There is a divine traffic in this universe that moves in two directions. The coming of God to us in Christ is the first direction of this divine traffic. With the incense we have the other direction of this divine traffic, Christ going from us to God. Therefore, the anointing oil is Christ as God coming to us from God, and the incense is Christ going from us to God. It is important that we all see this two-way traffic.
This traffic has much to do with our Christian experience. Do you know what our Christian experience is? It is God coming to us in Christ and our going to God in Christ and with Christ. God’s coming to us is a matter of the anointing, and our going to God is a matter of prayer. This divine traffic is the proper Christian experience. In particular, our going to God in Christ requires experience.
Without adequate spiritual experience, we shall not be able to understand the type of the incense or interpret it. This type is actually very strange, more strange than that of the anointing oil. The incense is strange because its three spices — stacte, onycha, and galbanum — are unusual. Even the words themselves are not common. Rather, they are peculiar words used to refer to unusual things.
More than twenty years ago, I spent a good deal of time to study the incense and its ingredients. Then I gave messages on the incense on at least two occasions. Some of those messages were published in the book How to Meet.
Exodus 30:34 says, “And Jehovah said to Moses, Take to yourself fragrant spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum — fragrant spices, and pure frankincense; there shall be an equal part of each.” In this verse the Lord twice speaks of fragrant spices. Stacte, the first of these spices, is a resinous gum used as the purest myrrh, a myrrh that is edible. Years ago I read that this kind of myrrh can be used as an expectorant. In particular, it can heal the throat and reduce excess saliva. It is an edible medicine. However, the other two spices, onycha and galbanum, are not edible. Actually, they are poisonous. Galbanum has a very disagreeable odor that is even poisonous. Nevertheless, the Lord indicates that it also is a fragrant spice. Later we shall see how this disagreeable and poisonous element can be fragrant.
Most Christians, including those who have been in the Lord’s recovery for many years, still do not have much knowledge of what genuine prayer is. Furthermore, we may not have much experience of genuine prayer. We thank the Lord that sometimes our prayer is genuine. But most of the time our prayers have not been genuine. Only a small percentage of our prayers have been genuine. For the most part, our prayers have been natural.
Both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament incense signifies our prayer. In the Psalms the saints’ prayer is likened to incense that is offered to God and ascends to Him (Psa. 141:2). However, incense is not actually for offering; it is for ascending. We often speak of a prayer being offered to the Lord. Strictly speaking, this understanding is not scriptural. According to the Bible, prayer is not an offering; it is an incense that ascends to God.
We have seen that with the tabernacle there were two altars: the bronze altar in the outer court and the golden altar in the Holy Place. The bronze altar was for burning offerings, sacrifices. On that altar offerings were presented to God. Of course, with the burning of the offerings on the bronze altar in the outer court something did ascend to God.
The golden altar inside the tabernacle was close to the ark in the Holy of Holies. At this golden altar of incense no offerings were offered. The burnt offering, the meal offering, or any other kind of offering could not be presented there. This altar was only for the purpose of burning incense to God. Therefore, the incense that was burned at the golden altar ascended to God. This is not an offering; it is an ascending. The incense that ascends to God typifies our prayer.
The incense was not for God to see; it was for Him to smell. This indicates that God smells our prayer rather than sees it. What does your prayer smell like? This question may help us to realize that the incense is a deeper type, a type that cannot be understood merely according to doctrine or teaching. We can understand this type only by our experience.
Both the ointment and the incense are Christ. God’s coming to us is Christ, and our prayer ascending to Him is also Christ. The anointing is from God and is also of God, for the anointing actually is God Himself. We have used paint as an illustration of the ointment. Just as we paint a wall with paint, so God anoints us with Himself. He “paints” us with Himself as the divine paint. When God anoints us with Himself as the ointment, He is applied to us and comes into us. In other words, when God anoints us with Himself, He is added to us. His divine element is added to our being in somewhat the same way as paint is added to a wall. This anointing is God’s coming.
Now we must go on to realize that our prayer is our going to God in Christ. Furthermore, because the incense is Christ, our prayer is actually a matter of going to God as Christ. What is genuine prayer? Genuine prayer is Christ. This kind of prayer, prayer which is actually Christ, is our going to God in Christ. This is not merely our going to God; it is our going to God through Christ and with Christ. The anointing brings God to us for our participation in the divine element. The incense is our going to God with Christ and as Christ in prayer for God’s enjoyment. At the altar in the outer court God has food. But the fragrance that makes God happy and satisfies Him ascends from the golden altar of incense. What God desires is not only food to satisfy His appetite, but also a pleasant fragrance to please Him.
Day by day we may eat healthy, nourishing food. But sometimes this food has little taste. Often people go to a restaurant not to enjoy nourishing food but to enjoy pleasant-tasting food. Children, in particular, like to eat things that taste good. God also has a sense of taste and smell. Do not think that God is so majestic that He does not enjoy a fragrant aroma. God not only eats — He also enjoys a pleasant fragrance.
At the bronze altar we offer Christ to God as food. The burnt offering, the meal offering, and the peace offering all typify Christ as food for God to eat. Whenever we offer Christ to God as the peace offering, there is food for God to eat. However, we need to remember that God also enjoys tasting and smelling.
Very few Christians are interested in hearing about things like this. Only those Christians who truly seek the Lord have the desire to know these things. If you are not seeking the Lord Himself, you will have no interest in messages on the incense. Such messages will not tickle your ears. But the genuine seeking ones surely will want to hear a word concerning the incense. They will be interested in hearing about what is sweet smelling to God. I can testify that genuine prayer is sweet.
With the two altars, the bronze altar and the golden altar, there is both nourishment and enjoyment for God. The altar in the outer court is larger than the altar in the Holy Place. The altar in the outer court is made of bronze, and the altar in the Holy Place is made of gold. Furthermore, the golden incense altar is finer than the bronze altar of burnt offering. On the bronze altar there was a great deal of wood and, consequently, a big pile of ashes. But on the golden altar of incense only a small fire burned, and the ashes were very limited in quantity. This altar is not for nourishment, for feeding. It is for fragrance and satisfaction. The purpose of the incense altar is to cause a fragrant aroma to ascend to God for His enjoyment. This is the way our prayer should be.
We have a short hymn in our hymnal that speaks of the two-way traffic between God and us and between us and God. The last stanza of this hymn, a hymn on both the ointment and the incense, goes like this:
Ointment is Christ for us,Exceeding glorious!Incense is Christ for God,Wholly for Him.Ointment flows down to us,Christ is our portion thus;Incense ascends to God,Fragrant to Him.
’Tis by th’ anointingChrist we experienceAnd then the incense burn.Christ in our prayer and praise — O what a Christ we raiseFrom our experience,Precious to God.
Hymns, #1116
This hymn well expresses the burden of this message. My burden is to show you the divine traffic; it is to help you see that God comes to us through Christ, and we go to God in Christ and through Christ. In fact, God’s coming is Christ, and our going to God should also be Christ.
We need to be impressed with the fact that our going to God is our prayer. Perhaps you have never imagined that our going to God is our prayer and that this prayer should be Christ Himself.
In one of the messages on the golden incense altar we pointed out that the incense altar is the administrative center of God’s plan. The tabernacle with the outer court reveals God’s plan, God’s economy. This plan, this economy, is carried out by means of an administration. The incense altar is the center of God’s administration, the divine “White House.” Everything else in the tabernacle and the outer court is for the incense altar. This means that the bronze altar is for the golden altar. Furthermore, the lampstand, the showbread table, and even the ark are for the golden altar of incense.
In our experience we begin at the altar of burnt offering, the bronze altar in the outer court. Then we go to the showbread table, to the lampstand, and to the ark. After we have been to the ark, we come to this administrative center to burn the incense. The incense we burn at this altar is Christ Himself. Hence, the incense that ascends to God is our going to God in Christ. This matter is deep. It means that our going to God in a proper way is Christ for God’s administration.
A deep matter such as the burning of the incense can only be understood by experience. When you reach the point where you have this experience, you will see that your experience is exactly portrayed by the type of the incense in Exodus 30. You go to God in prayer, and your prayer is your going to God. Furthermore, this going to God is Christ. This is your prayer, a sweet-smelling fragrance to God. The prayer that ascends to Him as a sweet-smelling fragrance is God’s administration and carries out God’s plan. God has no other way to carry out His economy.
If we persist in seeking the Lord, eventually our experience will bring us into the realization of the fact that our prayer is simply Christ Himself. Our prayer is Christ, and it is also our going to God in Christ, with Christ, and even as Christ. This kind of prayer not only satisfies God with a sweet-smelling fragrance, but simultaneously carries out God’s administration.
In the Old Testament the serving priests were required to come to the altar before entering the tabernacle. At that point the priests had two needs — they needed the blood to cleanse them, and they needed food to nourish them. The bronze altar in the outer court supplied the priests these two needs. The blood washed them of their sins, and the meat nourished them. When they came to this altar, they were unclean and empty. Outwardly, they were defiled; inwardly, they were empty. Therefore, they needed the blood shed on the altar to cleanse them of their defilement, and they needed the meat of the offerings to satisfy their hunger.
After being cleansed and fed at the altar, the priests could move on. This means that the supply at the bronze altar equipped them and qualified them to enter the tabernacle. Spontaneously they could come to the showbread table to receive a further supply of life. This indicates that our eating must be continual. We do not eat once for all. There is one kind of eating at the bronze altar, and there is a continuation of our eating at the showbread table.
The life supply on the showbread table brought the priests to the lampstand, where they received light. The life supply always brings forth light. If we do not eat at the showbread table, we shall be in darkness. But feeding at this table brings us to the lampstand. This means that, experientially, this feeding produces light. Many of us have experienced this. Early in the morning we offer Christ as our sin offering and as our trespass offering. We experience this at the bronze altar in the outer court, where we are cleansed and fed. This strengthens us to continue our enjoyment of Christ at the showbread table, where we take Him as our life supply. The life supply always turns us to the light. How much light we receive depends on how much of the life supply we enjoy.
The light received at the lampstand guides us to the ark. There at the ark we contact God, and God’s presence leads us to the golden altar of incense, the place of prayer.
Once we are in God’s presence, His presence turns us to the incense altar. In other words, it turns us to prayer. Spontaneously, anyone who comes into God’s presence will pray; no one can hold back the prayer. When we pray, we are no longer at the ark. Instead, we are at the incense altar.
We have pointed out that the incense altar is very close to the ark. Regarding the incense, 30:36 says, “And you shall grind some of it very fine, and put some of it before the testimony in the tent of meeting, where I will meet with you.” What is the testimony? The testimony is the law inside the ark. For this reason, the ark is called the ark of testimony. Verse 36 indicates that the incense altar was directly in front of the ark. Although there was a veil separating the ark from the incense altar, they were still very close. According to the record in the Bible, sometimes the incense altar was within the veil. The meaning of the closeness of the ark and the incense altar is that the kind of prayer which is Christ Himself is the outcome of our contact with God. We may also say that it is the result of being in God’s presence.
If we would enter into God’s presence, we must first come to the bronze altar. Then we must spend time at the showbread table and the lampstand. The lampstand will eventually guide us to the ark, where God meets with us on the propitiatory-cover. Now we are in the presence of God. The outcome of being in His presence is the prayer that is Christ ascending to God as incense.
If your experience has not come to this point, this word may seem strange to you, and you will not understand what I am talking about. But if you have had even some amount of experience, you will understand my word and feel very good about it, knowing that it is true.
Have you ever paid careful attention to these two pictures in Exodus 30, the one of the ointment and the other of the incense? The significance of these pictures is tremendous. The significance here is that of two-way traffic, the coming and the going. As we have pointed out, the ointment is coming to us, and the incense is going to God. Christ as the Spirit coming to us is the ointment, and 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, and the incense is for God’s enjoyment. We should not think that the incense is for our enjoyment. If we try to enjoy it ourselves, we shall be cut off. Exodus 30:38 speaks clearly concerning this: “Whoever makes any like it, to smell it, he shall be cut off from his people.” Incense is absolutely and entirely for God. However, there is an enjoyment for us, and this enjoyment is the ointment, the compound Spirit. We have emphasized the fact that 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.
In our experience we should not only have one-way traffic. This means that we should not only have Christ coming to us but also have Christ going back to God. We need to have two-way traffic, God coming to us through Christ and our going to God through Christ. We should complete the circuit by burning the incense. Therefore, 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. In the next two messages we shall consider in detail the elements of the incense.
