The Altar of Incense and Incense Offering are next on God’s list of instructions for Moses.
“You shall make an altar on which to offer incense” (Exodus 30.1).
The morning and evening sacrifices and the offering of incense showed the devotion of Israel to God. The fact that they were offered every day showed forth their devotion as constant and uninterrupted.
The burnt consecrated and sanctified the community’s whole life and action in both body and soul to the Lord. Meanwhile, the incense offering embodied its prayer as the surrender of the spiritual man to God.
The morning and evening sacrifices consecrated and sanctified the entire life of the people to the Lord.
The incense offering embodied the daily prayer life of the people. The Psalm writer knew this to be true.
Let my prayer be counted as incense before you
and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice. (Psalm 141:2)
The Book of Revelation illustrates how important prayer is to our relationship with God.
When he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints (Revelation 5:8).
A meeting with God regularly, morning and evening, is obviously valued as one of God’s requirements for His people.
Let’s think of some ways that will encourage us to engage in a practice that follows their example.
(1) Meeting with God: When we look at the Tabernacle, and in particular the altar of incense, we are reminded of the great lengths that God went to meet with people.
Each day, we have a chance to come into the presence of God and should give ourselves that gift.
(2) Our Offering to God: A hero of the faith said the one thing that God doesn’t have in the universe is the heart of human beings.
When we meet with God in worship and prayer, we are giving Him our hearts. God is worthy of this heart-connection and so are we.
(3) A Spiritual Anchor: The world is filled with distractions and noise, but the practice of meeting with God in times of stillness and reflection allows us to center our minds and our hearts on God.
As dawn breaks and dusk descends, we can continue a cycle of connecting with God’s grace and our need for His presence.
(4) A Transformational Journey: As we think about morning and evening prayer, it reminds us that our faith is not just an intellectual pursuit, but rather a journey of the heart.
Paul told us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice that’s holy and acceptable to God. He said that this is our reasonable service of worship (Romans 12:1). Morning and evening prayer is a part of that process.
The Census Offering
Amid instructions about the various aspects of the Tabernacle, there is a discussion of what to do about a census.
The precise reason for taking the census is not given. Perhaps it’s to obtain a register of citizens with public duty in the Lord’s service or for the army.
The Lord spoke to Moses, “When you take a census of the Israelites to register them, at registration all of them shall give a ransom for their lives to the Lord,
“So that no plague may come upon them for being registered (Exodus 30.11-12).
An offering is given during this census for a ransom or atonement for the people. Ransom means to deliver or to redeem by a substitute.
This offering, like the other offerings, reminded God’s people of the sacrifice that was made to set them free from slavery in Egypt.
“You shall take the atonement money from the Israelites and shall designate it for the service of the tent of meeting; before the Lord it will be a reminder to the Israelites of the ransom given for your lives” (Exodus 30.16).
Just as the various offerings in the Tabernacle reminded the people of Israel of God’s grace, we do well to remember His gift of love and grace to us.
We thank God that Jesus’ death on the cross shattered the chains of sin and separation from God and bestowed on us an opportunity to be connected with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
I listened to a podcast today, where a man told of a childhood experience. His father was abusive, and the child was terrified as he heard his mother being beaten outside his bedroom door.
He cried out to God, and God gave this child a sense of His presence that assured him that he could overcome the difficulties of his family life.
Most of us, I hope, have not had an experience like this man, but we do have a chance to meet daily with God and be united with Him, being confident that He will hold us close during the terrors of this world.
None of us are finished products. We all have to navigate trials of faith and surrender.
As one pastor said quite appropriately, “I pray not because I’m good, but because God is good and I need Him to work in my life to straighten out incomplete and broken places of my life.”
We have a chance to meet with God morning and evening, quite frankly, throughout all times of the day, so that He can do in us what we can’t do for ourselves.
YouTube Video
Rudy Ross and I discuss this passage on YouTube today. It is on the Bob Spradling channel.
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