The priesthood must also burn the incense at the golden altar in the Holy Place. The lighting of the lamp and the burning of the incense are taken care of at the same time. These two things can never be separated. “And thou shalt put it (the incense altar) before the veil that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee. And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it. And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations” (Exo. 30:6-8).
If we burn the incense, we must light the lamp, and if we light the lamp, we must burn the incense. This shows us that to receive the light from the Word, we must pray by burning the incense; and if we pray by burning the incense, we must light the lamp by reading the Word. Reading and praying must be mingled as one. While we pray, we must read, and while we read, we must pray. To read the Word is to light the lamp, and to pray is to burn the incense.
What is the incense? It is the sweetness of Christ. It is the sweet odor of Christ as our acceptance to God. When we experience Christ in such an inner way, He becomes our inner life, our inner supply, and our inner light. At the same time we have a deep sense that the sweet odor of Christ is going up to God. The preciousness of Christ becomes our acceptance to God. It is not an outward improvement of our behavior; rather, it is an inward sweetness. When we experience Christ as the inner life and inner light, and enjoy Him as the inner life supply, there is a sweet and precious feeling that we are so acceptable and pleasing to God. This is to burn the incense on the golden altar. Christ as the sweet incense is ascending to God as our acceptance.
“And Joshua spake unto the priests, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass over before the people. And they took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people.
And the LORD said unto Joshua...And thou shalt command the priests that bear the ark of the covenant, saying, When ye are come to the brink of the water of Jordan, ye shall stand still in Jordan...And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the LORD, the LORD of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand upon a heap” (Josh. 3:6, 7, 8, 13).
The fifth item which the priesthood must take care of is the ark. The ark is the very testimony of God, which is Christ Himself. Not only should we experience Christ as the offerings, the inner life, the inner light, and the inner acceptance, but we must go on to experience Him as the very testimony of God. The priests must bear the ark at all times. The third chapter of Joshua mentions clearly that the priests must bear the ark. As the priesthood, we must experience Christ as life, as light, and as our acceptance to God, and we must especially bear Christ as God’s full testimony. We must experience the riches of Christ and then bear the living, all-inclusive Christ as the very testimony of God. The experiences of the offerings, the showbread, the lamp, and the incense are the experiences of all the different aspects of the riches of Christ. But these experiences lead us to Christ as God’s testimony.
To have the experience of Christ only as our life and light is not enough. Even the experience of Christ as our acceptance to God is not enough. We should experience Christ as the full and complete testimony of God among us. He is the living testimony of God borne by the priesthood. The priesthood must take care of and bear the ark. If we are really in the priesthood, we will bear Christ as the living testimony of God. This testimony will not be simply in one aspect, but will be complete in all aspects. We will bear Christ as the whole testimony of God.
We have seen five things which must be taken care of by the priesthood: the offerings, the showbread, the lamp, the incense, and the ark. The sixth item which the priesthood must take care of is the tabernacle, which typifies the enlarged Christ as the dwelling place of God. After we, as the priesthood, richly experience Christ, we must take care of the whole church, the whole Body of Christ. The church is simply the enlargement of Christ. Christ enlarged is the church; Christ increased is the Body.
In chapter four of Numbers, the priests take care of the tabernacle—the boards, the coverings, and all the utensils within the tabernacle. The priests must take care of the tabernacle, whether it is set in a certain place, or while it is traveling on a long journey. This shows us that the priesthood must take care of the church, that is, the Body of Christ. The experiences of Christ as the offerings, as the inner life, as the inner light, as the inner acceptance, and as the testimony of God are for the church. The more we experience Christ in all these items, the more we will be for the Body of Christ, the church. As the priesthood of God experiencing Christ as everything, we must take care of the church so that the Body of Christ may become God’s dwelling place on the earth. All the experiences of Christ must eventually be for the church, the Body of Christ. The partaking of Christ as our life in so many aspects is for the church life. The church life comes out of our experience of Christ as the inner life. This is all that the priesthood must have and take care of. We must ask the Lord to bring us into all these experiences and make them real to us.