Exodus 30

Within the tabernacle, in the holy place, and immediately before the veil which concealed the most holy, was placed the Altar of Incense. It was one cubit both in length and breadth and two cubits in height, and like all other altars had horns. It was made of shittim wood, and wholly overlaid with gold, and there was a golden wreath around the top, and golden rings at the sides “for the staves to bear it withal.” On this altar Aaron was to burn incense in the morning and in the evening, when he dressed the lamps. The incense was of a peculiar mixture and preparation, consisting chiefly of fragrant spices. At ch. 39:38 it is called the “golden” altar, because it was overlaid with gold; and the “inner” altar, because it was within the sanctuary. C G. B.

The altar of incense stood in a much closer relation to the holy of holies than either the golden candlestick or the table with the shew-bread. It was placed “before the veil that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy-seat that is over the testimony,” language not used in regard to any other part of the furniture of the holy place; and both in the visions of Isaiah and of John an altar which can hardly be any other than the altar of incense—which in John indeed certainly is so—has its place assigned to it in heaven, “before the throne,” and “before God.” Although, therefore, the altar of incense stood outside the second veil, it is in thought at least fully as much within it as without it. Milligan.

The incense was offered every morning and evening, at first by Aaron and his sons, and afterward by the priests officiating in weekly course, and by the high-priest on great occasions. The priest took some of the sacred fire off the altar of burnt-offering in his censer, and threw the incense upon it: then, entering the holy place, he emptied the censer upon the altar, prayed, and performed the other duties of his office. Meanwhile the people prayed outside; and thus was typified the intercession of Christ in heaven, making his people’s prayers on earth acceptable. P. S.

Incense is an emblem of prayer; because as incense when kindled sends its smoke upward, so true prayer always mounts to God’s ear; and because as incense is fragrant, so true prayer is always acceptable to God; and again because as incense needs fire to kindle it, so true prayer cannot be kindled upon the heart’s altar except by the power of God’s Spirit, who at Pentecost came down in the shape of tongues of fire. So the Psalmist cries, “Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.” The incense altar, then, was a figure of those prayers which are ever ascending to God from his true Church. E. M. G.—All reconciliation with God by means of sacrifice, all light of knowledge, all surrender of the earthly active life to the Lord, would still leave a sensible void in the life and service of the people of God, without the incense of prayer rising out of the sanctuary—out of the hearts of the congregation of God. While the priest offered the sacrifice of incense in the sanctuary, the smoke ascended toward heaven through the curtain (as there was no opening) before the eyes of the people, who were praying in the fore-court. Its ascent was both an exhortation to them to pray, and an assurance their prayers would be heard. Gert

The lamps were dressed or lighted at the same time that the incense was burned, to teach us that the reading of the Scriptures (which are our light and lamp) is a part of our daily work, and should ordinarily accompany our prayers and praises. When we speak to God we must hear what God says to us, and thus the communion is complete. The devotions of sanctified souls are well-pleasing to God, of a sweet-smelling savor; the prayers of saints are compared to sweet odors (Rev. 5: 8), but it is the incense which Christ adds to them that makes them acceptable (Rev. 8: 3), and his blood that atones for the guilt which cleaves to our best services. And if the heart and life be not holy, even incense is an abomination (Is. 1: 13), and he that offers it is as if he blessed an idol (Is. 66: 3). H.

It is the diffusion of sweet odors that is characteristic of incense; and when it was burned upon the golden altar the object was to fill the whole apartment with its fragrance. Bähr has shown that the words used to signify a savor all connect themselves with the idea of breath or spirit, and that among Oriental nations the leading conception of a sweet smell is the breathing forth of the inmost soul or life of that by which it is produced. Proceeding on this hint, we are guided to a larger view of the symbolism of incense than that which limits it to prayer. It is the breathing forth of the life of the true Israelite, taken as a whole—that breathing forth of it which diffuses fragrance on every side, which passes even toward the veil and the immediate presence of God, and which is grateful to him of whose enlightening and quickening Spirit it is the fruit. When, therefore, the sanctuary of God was kept continually filled with fragrance, Israel beheld in this the sweet savor not of prayer and praise alone, but of that godly life to which as a priestly nation they were called. Milligan.

The brazen Altar in the court was a type of Christ dying on earth; the golden Altar in the Sanctuary was a type of Christ interceding in heaven, in virtue of his satisfaction. This altar was before the mercy-seat; for Christ always appears in the presence of God for us; he is our Advocate with the Father, and his intercession is unto God of a sweet-smelling savor. This altar had a crown fixed to it; for Christ intercedes as a King, Father, I will (John 17: 24). H.—The coals on which the incense was burned on the golden altar were to be taken from the brazen altar. This taught the Israelite from whence the efficacy and acceptableness of their prayers and praises was derived. Bush.

That the altar of incense from its position stood in a close relation to the mercy-seat or propitiatory on the one hand, and by the live coals that ever burned in its golden vials stood in an equally close relation to the altar of burnt-offering on the other, tells us that all acceptable prayer must have its foundation in the manifested grace of a redeeming God, must draw its breath of life from that work of propitiation which he has in his own person accomplished for the sinful. And since injunctions so strict were given for having the earthly sanctuary made peculiarly to bear the character of a house of prayer, most culpably deaf must we be to the voice of instruction that issues from it, if we do not hear it speaking to us with such a voice as this: Pray without ceasing; the spirit of devotion is the element of your spiritual being, the indispensable condition of health and fruitfulness; all from first to last must be sanctified by prayer; and if this be neglected, nothing in the work and service of God can be expected to go well with you. P. F.

30:10. Aaron shall make atonement upon the horns of it once in a year. This was to be upon what was called the great Day of Atonement, of which a full account is given (Lev. 16:1-28). The ordinance was peculiarly striking, as it intimated that all the services performed at it were imperfect, that the altar itself had contracted a degree of impurity from the sinfulness of those who ministered there, and that even the very odors of the daily incense needed to be sweetened by a fresh infusion of the savor of the blood of sprinkling. Bush.—Even the prayer of the children of God is not in itself pure and acceptable in his sight; but this their service needed to rest on the atonement of the Mediator of the New Testament. The more any one lives an inner life, the more does he perceive how sin defiles and corrupts the most religious acts. He would, therefore, have no confidence in the acceptableness of his prayers without an ever fresh appropriation to himself of the merits of the atonement. Geri.

Ex. 25:40. From this solemn and very particular charge to Moses—Look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount, it appears plainly that to receive instructions relative to the tabernacle and all its furniture was one part of his employment while on the mount forty days with God. As God designed that this building and all that belonged to it should be patterns or representations of good things to come, it was necessary that Moses should receive a specification of the whole, according to which he might direct the different artificers in their constructing the work. A. C.—The reason why so minute and elaborate details are given in these chapters seems to be to show to us that Moses carried out exactly, rigidly, and minutely every order that he received. J. C.—Moses would thus show the great care which he and his workmen took to make everything exactly according to the pattern showed him in the mount. Having before given us the original, he here gives us the copy, that we may compare them, and observe how exactly they agree. Thus he teaches us to have respect to all God’s commandments, even to every iota and little of them. H.

The tabernacle service was throughout a system of instituted worship, which derived all its authority from the express appointment of Jehovah. On this account it was manifestly proper that every item of the apparatus should be fashioned according to the model set before Moses on the mount. It is to be observed, therefore, that this order was given to him repeatedly, and with very peculiar force and emphasis; and his strict adherence to it is in the last chapter in this book noticed no less than eight times, once after the mention of every separate piece of furniture that was made. In the New Testament also his compliance with the command is repeatedly adverted to, and the very order itself expressly quoted (Acts 7:4; Heb. 8:5). What then was the reason of such minute particularity? Undoubtedly because the whole was intended to be of a typical character, shadowing the leading features of the Gospel dispensation. Bush.

The true symbol must be divinely framed and constituted. Even Moses was not left to his own taste and discretion, in fashioning a single cord or loop or tassel of the tabernacle and its furniture—the symbolic palace of Jehovah, and typical at once of Christ the Prophet, Priest and King, present and ruling in his spiritual kingdom. The authority of God alone can constitute a Gospel symbol. And the claim to set up a symbol in gospel worship which Jehovah has not set up in his word, is really a claim to speak as the messenger of Jehovah, and to come with authority to actualize a Divine pattern revealed to him who sets it up. S. R.

The second article of furniture in the court of the tabernacle was the laver, always spoken of in connection with its foot. It stood beyond the brazen altar, and between it and the tabernacle. No mention is made of the shape or size of the laver, but passages where it is spoken of attach such importance to the “foot” (or base) as to make it probable that the water with which the feet and hands were washed was contained in a hollow at the base. Milligan.—38 : 8.

Mirrors of the serving-women who served at the door of the tent of meeting. The expression in the original is used of the stated services of the priests in their sacred vocation, and is here transferred to a class of females who appear from early times to have devoted themselves to regular attendance on the worship of God. Latterly, and probably not till the post-Babylonian times, the service of the women in question appears to have consisted much in exercises of fasting and prayer. Such a woman in the Gospel age was Anna (Luke 2 : 37), and it is interesting to know that she had her prototypes at the very commencement of the tabernacle-worship, in the women who gave a becoming example of devotedness in the consecration of their metallic mirrors to the higher ends of God’s worship. There can be no reasonable doubt that it was of or from the metal of these glasses that the laver was formed. P. F.

30 : 19-21. Washing is frequently referred to in the Old Testament as expressive of that higher moral purification which, as time went on, was more and more felt to be the true preparation for appearing before God. The washing was to enable the priests to obtain that symbolical purity, without which it was impossible for any one to make a near approach to a holy God, and which, therefore, could not but be especially demanded of those priests who were to enter his sanctuary or to minister at his altar. Milligan.—This was an emblematised washing; and as the hands and the feet are particularly mentioned, it must refer to the purity of their whole conduct. Their hands, all their works; their feet, all their goings, must be washed, must be holiness unto the Lord. A. C.—And this washing was designed to teach them purity in all their ministrations, and to possess them with a reverence of God’s holiness and a dread of the pollutions of sin. They must not only wash and be made clean when they were first consecrated, but they must wash and be kept clean whenever they went in to minister. He only shall stand in God’s holy place that has clean hands and a pure heart (Ps. 24 : 3, 4). And it was to teach us who are daily to attend upon God, daily to renew our repentance for sin and our believing application of the blood of Christ to our souls for remission; for in many things we daily offend and contract pollution. H.

That merely the hands and the feet were to be washed at the laver, arose simply from these being the organs immediately employed in the service; the hands being engaged in presenting the sacred oblations, and the feet in treading ground that was hallowed. The action, in accordance with the whole spirit of the Mosaic institutions, was symbolical of inward purity; it bespoke the freedom from pollution which should characterize those who would present an acceptable service to Jehovah. The Psalmist clearly indicates the meaning of the rite, and shows also how, according to the spirit of the ordinance, he held it to be not less applicable to himself than to the priests, when he says, “I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass thine altar, O Lord.” In like manner, when describing the true worshipper in Ps. 24, he says, “He that hath clean hands and a pure heart.” Such an one is the true priest in God’s house, whether he have the outward calling of a priest or not; he alone serves Him in spirit and in truth. P. F.

Thus, too, there is no entering into the upper sanctuary without a previous washing in the laver of regeneration. The renewing and purifying influences of the Holy Spirit not only at the outset but through the whole course of the Christian life, are most significantly shadowed forth by this feature of the ancient economy. As the altar on which the victims were offered was a symbol of justification, so the laver, with its cleansing fountain, was a symbol of sanctification; and among the moral truths so impressively taught by the sensible emblems of the Mosaic ritual, none was perhaps more pertinently or palpably set forth than the strict connection between the atoning blood of Christ and the sanctifying efficacy of the Holy Spirit in this mutual relation of these articles standing in the outer court. The same truth is taught in the New Testament, where we are told that Christ came both by water and by blood, the one to atone and the other to purify. Bush.

The position of the laver shows that regeneration follows pardon. First we come to the altar of sacrifice, the blood of Christ for forgiveness, then to the washing of regeneration by the Holy Ghost. This is the Divine order. The natural desire is to reverse this order, to be made “good” or clean before we come to Christ. B.—The altar stands nearer to the sinner than the laver. The Spirit leads him with heart unrenewed to the cross of Christ. There he receives forgiveness. There he is clothed in the spotless righteousness of Christ. And then, but not till then, the Spirit sprinkles him with the water of regeneration. So writes Paul, “Ye are all the children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” And so John declares, “As many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God.” Christ is made of God unto the believer first righteousness and then sanctification. “Say not,” observes Leighton, “Unless I find some measure of sanctification what right have I to apply him as my righteousness? This inverts the order and disappoints thee of both. Thou must first, without finding yea or seeking anything in thyself but misery and guiltiness, lay hold on him as thy righteousness; or else thou shalt never find him thy sanctification. Simply as a guilty sinner thou must flee to him for shelter; and then, being come in, thou shalt be furnished out of his fulness with grace for grace.”

Those who washed in the water of the laver were priests. But this laver with its cleansing water symbolized the Spirit and the truth of God in all their sanctifying influences as connected with the Christian Church. In this Church God’s Spirit is given, and God’s truth revealed to every true member. They all have access to this spiritual laver for the cleansing of their souls, for in the Christian Church all the Lord’s people are priests. And to them the way of access into the holy place—the place of God’s immediate presence—lies open at all times. To them Divine illumination is vouchsafed. They eat of the bread which cometh down from heaven, and never hunger. “They are abundantly satisfied with the plenteousness of God’s house.” R. Newton.

In concluding our consideration of the laver, it may be added that the symbol is of so natural a kind and so fitly adapted for purposes of spiritual instruction, that it has been in a sense retained and raised to still higher significance in the Christian Church. For in the rite of baptism, whatever may be the precise mode of administration adopted, there can be no doubt that the cleansing nature of the element is the natural basis of the ordinance, and that from which it derives its appropriate character as the formal initiation into a Christian state. P. F.

Directions are here given for the composition of the holy anointing oil and the incense that were to be used in the service of the tabernacle; with these God was to be honored, and therefore he would appoint the making of them: for nothing comes to God but what comes from him. H.

The holy anointing oil was pure olive oil, mixed with fragrant herbs, myrrh, cinnamon, sweet calamus, and cassia. With this the ark, the tabernacle, the table and candlestick, the two altars and their furniture, were to be anointed to make them holy. With this Aaron and his sons were anointed. It was not to be imitated, nor was it to be used in anointing any one else, on pain of excommunication. C. G. B.—In its composition it is exquisite both in expensiveness and odor; by its very excellence and costliness the Israelites may learn that no ordinary thing is represented by it. There was set before this rude people a splendor in sacred symbols which might affect their senses, so as to uplift them by steps to the knowledge of spiritual things. Without controversy this oil mixed with precious perfumes was a type of the Holy Spirit; for the metaphor of anointing is everywhere met with when the prophets would commend the power, the effects, and the gifts of the Spirit. God, by anointing kings, testified that he would endow them with the spirit of prudence, fortitude, clemency, and justice. The tabernacle was sprinkled with oil, that the Israelites might learn that all the exercises of piety profited nothing without the secret operation of the Spirit. Nay, something more was shown forth—viz., that the efficacy and grace of the Spirit existed and reigned in the truth of the shadows itself; and that whatever good was derived from them was applied by the gift of the same Spirit for the use of believers. Calv.—And what is to be compared with the preciousness of these Divine influences? Upon whomsoever they are poured forth they impart light to the understanding, pliancy to the will, purity to the affections, tenderness to the conscience, and holiness to the entire man. They are the true riches of the soul, and the sealing title to an eternal inheritance. Wherever enjoyed they constitute the subject of them, “a new creature,” and so far sanctify every offering which he presents, that “God smells a sweet savor from it,” and is well pleased. And not only so. As every vessel that was anointed with the holy ointment imparted a sanctity to everything with which it came in contact, so every true Christian communicates to others, as far as his influence extends, the same Divine principles which he has imbibed. Bush.—The holy anointing oil, compounded of its rare, costly, and fragrant ingredients, evidently represents the positive graces of the Christian character, which will exhale from the renewed life of those who have come to God by the way of the altar and the laver without, and the golden altar within. Its composition was such as to indicate most expressively the variety and excellence of the Holy Spirit’s working. While separation and cleansing signified putting off the old investiture and putting on the new, anointing meant the consecration of the new man by the effusion of the Holy Spirit’s grace. J. M. G.

The Incense, like the anointing oil, was compounded of four aromatic ingredients. Both were kept in the Sanctuary. B.—37 : 39. The preparing of the incense, and with it the holy anointing oil, God taught Bezalel also; so that though he was not before acquainted with it, yet he made up these things according to the work of the apothecary, as dexterously and exactly as if he had been bred up to the trade. Where God gives wisdom and grace, it will make the man of God perfect, thoroughly furnished to every good work. H.

The incense for the altar was formed of four kinds of sweet spices—stacte, onychia, galbanum, and pure frankincense—of which the latter alone is known with certainty. The composition was made with the view of yielding the most fragrant and refreshing odor. The people were expressly forbidden to use it on any occasion, and the priests were restricted to it alone for burning on the altar, that there might be associated with it a feeling of the deepest sacredness. It possessed the threefold characteristic of “salted, pure, holy;” that is, having in it a mixture of salt, the symbol of uncorruptness, but otherwise unmixed or unadulterated, and set apart to a sacred use. And the ordinance connected with it was, that when the officiating priest went in to light the lamps in the evening and again when he dressed the lamps in the morning, he was to place on this golden altar a pot of the prescribed incense with live coals taken from the altar without, that there might be “a perpetual incense” ascending before the Lord in this apartment of his house. P. F.

Ex., Lev. 24 : 5-9.

This bread consisted of twelve loaves according to the number of the tribes, which were laid on the table in the holy place on a Sabbath and renewed the following Sabbath, those which were removed being assigned to the priests who were required to eat them in a holy place. Case.—The loaves had their peculiar table opposite the candlestick on the north side in the holy place. This was no ordinary symbol of God’s favor, when he descended familiarly to the people, as if he were their messmate. The loaves were called “the bread of faces,” or “bread of the presence,” because they were placed before the eyes of God; and thus he made known his special favor, as if coming to banquet with them. He commanded them to be twelve in number with reference to the twelve tribes, as if he would admit to his table the food offered by each of them. Colv.

7. To the bread for a memorial.** When the bread was removed, and given to the priests, this frankincense was burned upon the golden altar; and this was for a memorial instead of the bread, an offering made by fire. As the handful of the meal-offering which was burned upon the altar is called the memorial thereof, thus a little was accepted as an humble acknowledgment, and all the loaves were consigned to the priests. All God’s spiritual Israel, typified by the twelve loaves, are made through Christ a sweet savor to him, and their prayers are said to come up before God for a memorial (Acts 10 : 4). The word is borrowed from the ceremonial law. H.