Exodus 30:9 - Forerunner Commentary

Exodus 30:9

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Exodus 30:9-10
Excerpted from: Approaching God Through Christ (Part 6)

In verse 9 we get the instruction that the altar of incense was to be used only for incense. No other type of offering was to be made on it, and not any other type of incense was to be used on it either. God was very strict about this particular piece in the tabernacle. It was used only for this one very important purpose, because He said back in verse 6 that this place, meaning the altar of incense, is where I will meet with you, the priests. God did not want there to be any confusion about what was happening here. The incense, symbolizing our prayers given at the altar of incense, symbolized a very singular, necessary, unpolluted, and undistracted act—prayer. It is not to be confused with anything else. We are not supposed to mix it with any foreign type of prayer. This is only supposed to be godly prayer. No other kind of incense was allowed on it. We are not supposed to mix it with eastern ways of "meditation." We are not supposed to use Hindu trances in approaching God our prayers. This is supposed to be exactly the kind of prayer that He proscribes for us to do. So, do not mix it up with anything else. This is your communication with the God of the universe.

Of course, He mentions that there is not to be any other kind of offering on this altar, either burnt, meal, or drink. The reason for this is because He wanted this particular altar to signify only one thing—prayer. He did not want it confused with altar of sacrifice outside the tabernacle, because they stand for two different things. As a matter of fact, they stand for two different works of Christ.

The burnt offering, the grain offering, and the drink offering were all dealt with at the altar of sacrifice outside. These stood for the work of Christ did as a human in giving of Himself totally, both in life and death for all of us. That was outside the tabernacle. That was a particular work He wants us to consider when seeing the altar of sacrifice.

But when we come inside the tabernacle, we begin to see a transition from the physical to the spiritual, all moving forward as we pass each one of these things—from the altar of sacrifice, to the laver, to the door, to the table of showbread, and the golden candlestick, and now the altar of incense. We are moving along in time, and also moving in terms of spirituality toward God the Father. We do not want to confuse the two. When we get to the altar of incense, we are talking about a work of Christ that He did after His resurrection and ascension to heaven—which He continues to do for us as our High Priest. So, we cannot confuse the two things. The sacrifice that He did in His earthly life, which we are very thankful for, and which is very efficacious for us even now, but it is something that has already been done. But this altar of incense inside the tabernacle is a continuing offering of us, and Jesus Christ and His work that He does in our behalf. So, God wanted to make sure that right from the beginning we did not mix the two up, because if we are going to learn from them, we have to keep them separate.

Every year on the Day of Atonement, the high priest had to consecrate this altar once again. What would happen on the Day of Atonement is that they would kill the bull and the goat for a sin offering, and he would take some of the blood of each animal, and he would come in, and he would use his finger to paint the horns of the altar of incense seven times. The blood would also drip from his finger. The seven times shows that it was completely consecrated. It was not just sprinkled once, but seven times. So, this act of Jesus Christ as our High Priest and Mediator was an offering that was complete, perfect, and holy.

But, we are a part of this. We are the ones who offer the incense. We are the ones who are praying, and we are the ones who are sinners, so it is being constantly consecrated by the blood of Christ. And so, that is why it is done once a year at the Day of Atonement.
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Exodus 30:7-10
Excerpted from: Holiness of God (Part 3)

It was on that little altar that the incense was burned that represents your prayers. The instructions were clear. The altar is declared to be most holy. When they offered strange fire, they were acting in clear defiance of God. It was an act of blatant rebellion, an inexcusable profanation of a most holy thing; an act of treason, a sin of arrogance.

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