Exodus 30:8

Exodus 30:8

This altar of incense had a very distinct meaning, and there are large lessons to be drawn from it.

I. The incense is a lovely, significant, and instructive symbol of prayer. (1) It teaches that prayer is the ascent of a man's soul to God. (2) That the prayer which ascends must be the prayer that comes from a fire. (3) The kindled incense gave forth fragrant odours. When we present our poor prayers, they rise up acceptable to God in curling wreaths of fragrance that He delights in and that He accepts.

II. Notice the position of the altar of incense in relation to the rest of the sanctuary. It stood in the holy place, midway between the outer court, where the whole assembly of worshippers were in the habit of meeting, and the holiest of all, where the high-priest alone went once a year. Whoever approached the altar of incense had to pass by the altar of sacrifice, and whoever was on his way to the holiest of all had to pass by the altar of incense. These things teach us these plain lessons: (1) That all prayer must be preceded by the perfect sacrifice, and that our prayers must be offered on the footing of the perfect sacrifice which Christ Himself has offered. (2) That there is no true fellowship and communion of spirit with God except on condition of habitual prayer, and they that are strangers to the one are strangers to the other.

III. The offering was perpetual. Morning and evening the incense was piled up and blown into a flame, and all the day and night it smouldered quietly on the altar; that is to say, special seasons and continual devotion, morning and evening kindled, heaped up, and all the day and night glowing.

IV. Once a year Aaron had to offer a sacrifice of expiation for this altar that bore the perpetual incense. Even our prayers are full of imperfections and sins, which need cleansing and forgiveness by the great High-priest.

A. Maclaren, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. v., p. 234

Reference: Exodus 30:11-16 . Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii., No. 1581