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.