Secret Ingredient in The Smoke

The Real Temple of God (part 4): The Golden Altar of Incense
2 – 4a “For a tent was constructed, the first one, in which were the lampstand, the table, and the bread of the Presence; this is called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain was a tent called the Holy of Holies. In it stood the golden altar of incense.”

Golden Altar of Incense (Exodus 30:1 – 10)
Symbolism of form
The Altar of Incense was similar to both the altar of the burnt offering, and the table used for the shewbread – it was covered in gold, arrayed with horns, and equipped with rings for carriers. It’s purpose was to hold hot coals with which to burn incense. The fire was to burn perpetually before the Lord, as a sweet smell to Him.

The rings and carriers
The altar was equipped with rings. Gold plated poles went through these rings for carrying the altar from place to place. This is because of the necessity for the tabernacle to be mobile. As a punishment for making and worshipping a golden calf, the children of Israel wandered around the desert, carrying the tabernacle and all of its implements, for 40 years before being allowed into the promised land. Compare this to Matthew 8:18 – 22, “Now when Jesus saw a crowd around Him, He gave orders to depart to the other side. And a certain scribe came and said to Him, ‘Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.’ And another of the disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Follow Me; and allow the dead to bury their own dead.’ ” Notice how the journey through the desert illustrated truths that Jesus would preach 3,000 years later. It should be noted that the parallels are not exact, but are rather a series of illustrations combined into a single series of events:

- After being delivered from Egypt to the other side of the Red Sea, the Israelites professed everlasting loyalty to our God. Then, when given their first chance to show their faith, they broke down, and made their own god. The scribe in Matthew 8, after being sent to the other side of the road, expressed a desire to follow Jesus, but at his first chance to follow Him, he opted to stay behind.
- God forced the Israelites to wander in the desert as punishment for their sin; Christ’s ministry started in the desert, where He was preparing to save Israel from their sin.
- Because of the messianic imagery found in the tabernacle and its implements, carrying the tabernacle through the desert became a depiction of Christ Himself, wandering through the desert, with “nowhere to lay His head.”
- Just as Christ showed the scribe that he could not truly follow Him unless he was willing to proceed without his father (who was likely not a follower of Jesus), the children of Israel who entered the promised land did so without their fathers who participated in the worship of the golden calf.
- Just as following Jesus would have meant letting the scribe’s father die among unbelievers, while the scribe would be traveling into paradise, the Israelites whom God finally allowed into the promised land had to allow their unfaithful parents to die before God would lead them into the promised land.

Therefore, the rings and the carriers for the Altar of Incense were representative of Christ’s earthly ministry, and the sacrifice necessary on our part to follow and remain faithful to Him.

The Incense and the Coals
Coming from the table of shewbread, the incense represents our substitute sacrifice, Jesus. This makes sense, as the resulting smoke is a sweet smell to our Lord. However, Revelation 5:8 describes bowls of incense that represent the prayers of the saints. So, what does the incense really represent, our prayers or our savior?

Suppose the incense represents the prayers of the saints. Which prayers might those be? Well, the key word here is “saints”. What makes one a saint? It’s the fact that he has said the sinner’s prayer, a prayer of repentance. Such prayers are indeed sweet smelling to God. In Heaven, the incense doesn’t have to be burned for God to smell it. However, on earth, it gets burned on the altar, and it’s the smoke that God smells. Therefore, in the earthly illustration of the tabernacle, we might say that the incense is not our prayers per se, but is Christ, and it’s the smoke that represents the prayers of the saints, because it’s the smoke that actually gets smelled (whereas in Heaven, the incense itself is producing the smell). But, what is the mechanism that takes Christ’s sacrifice, and results in this sweet smell of repentance? That would be the coals.

The incense, combined with the coals, produce the smoke. In other words, Christ, combined with… something, produces the sweet smell of repentance. What could that something be? Read Isaiah 6:1 – 7. Verses 5 – 7 specifically read, “Then I said, ‘Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.’ Then one of the seraphim flew to me, with a burning coal in his hand which he had taken from the altar with tongs. And he touched my mouth with it and said, ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your is forgiven.’” Look what Isaiah did. He confessed his sin to the LORD. A piece of coal then touched his mouth and he was forgiven. It is not the act of the coal that resulted in Isaiah’s forgiveness, but his repentant heart. The coal was a graphic illustration of Isaiah’s repentance. Since the coal came from the altar, we can conclude that the coal in the altar represents repentance in general.

If the coals represent repentance, then repentance is the mechanism that results in the sweet smell of repentance. Does that make sense, or is it redundant? Actually, it makes sense. Think of it this way. God loves when we repent of sin. But, without that sacrifice, there wouldn’t be much for God to rejoice in, because offering up a life of iniquity doesn’t pay for sin, even over an eternity. We’d still be lost. It is because of that substitute that God can rejoice when we repent. It is the combination of His sacrifice and our repentance that causes that sweet smell to God. Now, He knew that He would be the sacrifice in the form of Jesus. Therefore, from God’s point of view, the secret ingredient in that smoke that causes God to rejoice upon smelling it, is not the sacrifice, but our repentance.

Source: Israel Tour Bible Studies