Leviticus 16:18-19 says, “And he shall go out unto the altar that is before the LORD, and make an atonement for it; and shall take of the blood of the bullock, and of the blood of the goat, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about. And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel.”
In Leviticus 16:12-13 it says, “And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the LORD, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil: And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not.”
The above two passages indicate that the priest first needed to make atonement for the people of God at the altar with the blood of the sin offering. Second, when the priest went into the Holy of Holies to burn the incense, the coals of fire which he used were to be taken from off the altar.
Exodus 30:9-10 says, “Ye shall offer no strange incense thereon, nor burnt sacrifice, nor meat offering; neither shall ye pour drink offering thereon. And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements; once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generations: it is most holy unto the LORD.”
The above passage refers to the incense altar, not the offering altar. The tabernacle had two altars; outside was the offering altar, and inside was the incense altar. The offering altar was brass and the incense altar was gold. Both altars were places where atonements were made, and both used the same sacrifice. The tenth day of the seventh month was the day of atonement for the children of Israel. On that day the high priest took of the blood of the sin offering and sprinkled it upon the four horns of the altar outside. He also brought that blood with him into the Holy Place and sprinkled it upon the four horns of the incense altar, thus making atonement on both altars.
In Revelation 8:3 and 5 it says, “And another Angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer, and much incense was given to Him that He should add it to the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the Angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar and cast it to the earth; and there were thunders and voices and lightnings and an earthquake.”
“Another Angel” here refers to the Lord Jesus. By the following verse, verse 6, we know that the seven trumpets began to trumpet as a result of the Angel casting down the fire of the altar. In other words, the seven trumpets are the answer to those prayers. We need to notice that here it mentions the censer, the incense, and the prayers.
Revelation 5:8 says, “And when He took the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.”
The four living creatures and the twenty-four elders each held a harp and golden bowls. The harp is for praising, whereas the golden bowls full of incense are for prayers. In this verse, “which” refers to the bowls, not to the incense. This means the golden bowls are the prayers of the saints. This interpretation is based on the fact that in chapter eight the incense and the prayers of the saints are mentioned as two different items. The incense is Christ added to the saints’ prayers. Therefore, the golden bowls here refer to the prayers of the saints.
Both Exodus and Leviticus show us that no one can enter into the tabernacle to burn incense before God and draw near to God except by passing through the altar. The altar is the cross. This means that without passing through the cross, no one can be before God and have prayer which is as fragrant incense that is acceptable to God. Hence, we still need to look at the relationship between the cross and prayer.
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