“Thou shalt also make a table of shittim wood: two cubits shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, and make thereto a crown of gold round about. And thou shalt make unto it a border of a handbreadth round about, and thou shalt make a golden crown to the border thereof round about. And thou shalt make for it four rings of gold, and put the rings in the four corners that are on the four feet thereof...And thou shalt make the dishes thereof, and spoons thereof, and covers thereof, and bowls thereof, to cover withal: of pure gold shalt thou make them. And thou shalt set upon the table showbread before me always. And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same. And six branches shall come out of the sides of it; three branches of the candlestick out of the one side, and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side...Their knops and their branches shall be of the same: all of it shall be one beaten work of pure gold. And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof: and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light over against it. And the tongs thereof, and the snuffdishes thereof, shall be of pure gold. Of a talent of pure gold shall he make it, with all these vessels” (Exo. 25:23-26, 29-32, 36-39).
Following these verses we must read from Exodus 37: “And he made the table of shittim wood...And he made the candlestick of pure gold...And he made the incense altar of shittim wood” (vv. 10, 17, 25).
Now let us read Leviticus 24:1-9: “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamps to burn continually. Without the veil of the testimony, in the tabernacle of the congregation, shall Aaron order it from the evening unto the morning before the LORD continually: it shall be a statute for ever in your generations. He shall order the lamps upon the pure candlestick before the LORD continually. And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake. And thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the LORD. And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto the LORD. Every sabbath he shall set it in order before the LORD continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. And it shall be Aaron’s and his sons’; and they shall eat it in the holy place: for it is most holy unto him of the offerings of the LORD made by fire by a perpetual statute.”
We must continue to see more about the priesthood. We know that the tabernacle consists of the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. Surrounding the outside of the tabernacle is the outer court. The ark, which typifies Christ, is in the Holy of Holies. On the ark there is the mercy seat sprinkled with the blood for atonement. It is here that God meets with man.
When man meets God at the mercy seat, he must take with him two things: the blood and the incense. Man must get the blood from the outer court and burn the incense within the Holy Place. By these two things, the blood and the incense, he is qualified and permitted to contact God. We know that the blood in typology signifies the blood of Jesus, through which we are redeemed. And the incense signifies the sweet odor of the resurrected Christ.
So the blood is for redemption, and the incense is for acceptance. It is by the blood that we are redeemed, and it is in this sweet incense of Christ that we are accepted. By these two things we can contact God in a bold way. We get the blood from the outer altar, and we burn the incense at the inner altar. It is by these, the blood and the incense, that we are accepted by God, and it is also by these that we contact, meet, and have fellowship with God. So, as we have seen, the incense altar is the center of the tabernacle.