Its Exclusive Use

Ye shall offer no strange incense thereon, nor burnt sacrifice, nor meat offering; neither shall ye pour drink offering thereon. (Ver. 9.) Thus, the altar of incense is kept perfectly distinct from the altar of burnt offering. And we do well to remember this in drawing nigh to God.
No strange incense was permitted, any more than strange fire. Jesus pleads no other excellency than his own as the ground of the acceptance of our prayers and praises.
The believer’s priestly access to God is a progressive thing. We go from strength to strength. The question of sin being settled, at the sin offering consumed without the camp. Acceptance in person and as to nature, and the joy of God’s salvation, is realized at the brazen altar.
Here, at the golden altar, the soul draws nigh to God in full assurance of faith, having the heart sprinkled and the body washed, —pardoned through the death of Christ, and accepted in his resurrection, and holding fast the profession of the hope without wavering, and in spirit entering within the wail.
In the sin offering consuming without the camp, we see Jesus delivered for our offenses.
At the brazen altar, we see him raised again for our justification.
At the golden altar, he is presented as ascended, and ever before God in all the preciousness of his person, character, and ways.
In the first, we have Christ dying; in the second, Christ rising; in the third, Christ ascended, and ever living to make intercession for us.
As guilty sinners, the sin offering without the camp met us as we were, and where we were.
As pardoned sinners, we find acceptance at the brazen altar, through the accepted sacrifice of a crucified and risen Savior.
At the golden altar, we have fellowship with God, and nearness of access to him, in all the preciousness of the life and person of Jesus, as he was and as he is. “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much’ more, being reconciled, we shall be saved’ by his life.” (Romans 5:10.)