As we have seen, priests are those who open themselves unto the Lord, who go into the presence of the Lord, and who contact Him and fellowship with Him until He fills and saturates them to make them one with Him. They always enjoy Christ as their food and as their nourishment. Eventually, He becomes their very content, their inner element. Then they express Christ. He is not only their inward nourishment, but also their outward expression. Because He is their inward nourishment, spontaneously He becomes their outward expression. And in this outward expression of the priesthood there is the building up of the Body of Christ which is the house of God, the habitation of God in spirit.
In this chapter, we now need to see that the main commission of the priesthood is to burn the incense before God. God is in the Holy of Holies. Upon the mercy seat, which is the covering of the ark, God meets with man. How can man get into the Holy of Holies to meet God at the mercy seat? First, he must pass the outer, brazen altar, upon which the offerings are sacrificed. Why does man have to pass through this altar? It is because he is sinful and fallen. Sinful and fallen man can never enter the presence of God, for God is holy. The Ten Commandments within the ark demand and require man to be this and to do that. But man has failed in all these things; so the Ten Commandments condemn man.
Upon the mercy seat there are also the two cherubim of God’s glory. This means that not only the righteousness and holiness of God (shown through the Ten Commandments) demand and require something of man, but the glory of God does, also. If a sinful person were to get into the Holy of Holies without the redeeming blood, immediately he would die before the righteousness, holiness, and glory of God. Therefore, if man is to enter the Holy of Holies to meet God at the mercy seat, he must first pass through the process of redemption. He must offer the sin offering at the altar so that he might be redeemed.
At the altar, sin is dealt with and redemption is accomplished. Then the redeeming blood from the sin offering must be brought into the tabernacle to be sprinkled in two places. The first place for it to be sprinkled is the incense altar, because when we commune and fellowship with God we must do so through the redeeming blood. This is why the redeeming blood must be applied to the four corners of the incense altar. Without the redeeming blood, sinful man cannot converse with a holy God. Man needs the redeeming blood in order that his conduct may be acceptable to God.
The blood was also brought into the Holy of Holies to be sprinkled upon the mercy seat. It was first shed upon the offering altar, then it was brought into the tabernacle and put on the corners of the incense altar, and finally it was brought into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled upon the mercy seat. If we desire to contact God, we must do so through the redemption of Christ. Without the redeeming blood of Christ, we can never fellowship with God, and our prayers will never be acceptable to Him.
We can never go into the Holy of Holies to meet God at the mercy seat without the blood. Every time we meet God we need the blood. By the redeeming blood the priests can go into the tabernacle; through the blood the priests can offer incense to God; and by this blood the priests can enter the Holy of Holies to contact God at the mercy seat.
The office of the priest is not primarily for offering the sacrifices. Of course, the priests do offer the offerings, but that is not their main function. The main commission of the priesthood is to burn the incense. All the offerings are for the purpose of burning the incense, which means to pray.
Praying is not so simple; it means very much. The incense offered at the golden altar is something coming forth and going back, and this something is Christ. The incense offered is Christ mingled with the priests; it is Christ going forth and coming back.
We all know that Christ is the reality of all the offerings at the altar. He is the sin offering, the trespass offering, the peace offering, the meal offering, and the burnt offering. He is every kind of offering. Christ is the offerings, and the blood shed on the altar signifies the blood of Christ. We know that the priests not only offer the offerings on the altar, but they also partake of them. They take the offerings into themselves by eating them. After this, they bring the blood of the offerings into the tabernacle. When they bring the blood into the Holy Place, within them is the offering, and without is the blood of the offering. This means that Christ is within them, and His blood is without. Then they offer the incense. What and who is the incense? Christ! It is all Christ.
But what is the difference between Christ at the offering altar and Christ at the incense altar? The answer is this: Christ on the offering altar is quite coarse, but Christ on the incense altar is very fine. Do we realize the difference between the offerings and the incense? The offerings are very coarse, including the shedding of blood. But the incense is very fine. It is a sweeter and finer way of expressing Christ.
Christ as the offerings satisfies all the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory. He also satisfies the hunger of the priests. The offerings satisfy both God and the priests. Then the satisfied priests go into the tabernacle with the blood to offer the incense. The incense is also Christ, but in a finer form. This incense, spiritually speaking, is the prayer from within us as the very sweetness of Christ. Our prayer must be the expression of the sweetness of Christ. It must be Christ uttered and expressed in a finer and sweeter way.