Exo 30:1-10 Exo 30:34-38 Exo 37:25-29
A. Its Construction
1. 18″ x 18″ x 36″
2. acacia wood overlaid with gold
3. a horn at each of the four corners similar to the brazen altar
4. a gold molding around the top
5. rings for the carrying poles
6. carrying poles of acacia wood overlaid with gold
B. Its Use
1. Set up immediately in front of the veil
2. incense to be burned morning and evening
3. to be used only for burning incense
4. purified yearly on the Day of Atonement
5. “fired” with coals from the brazen altar – Lev 16:12-13 and Num 16:46
6. ritual – see Smith’s Bible Dictionary
C. The Incense
1. made of fragrant spices
a. stacte
sap or gum resin, collected perhaps from a balsam; also thought to be a form of myrrh or cinnamon
b. onycha
probably from the operculum of a gastropod (conch); the part attached to the foot of the mollusk that closes the shell
c. galbanum
gum resin from the stem of a plant, perhaps parsley family or fennel
d. frankincense
gum resin from a flowering shrub native to Arabia
e. seasoned with salt
2. a sacred formula
a. not secret but reserved for holy use
3. preparation assigned to Eleazar, son of high priest Aaron, along with lamp and anointing oils Num 4:16
D. Its Significance
1. The coals
a. intimately connected with sacrifice
2. The incense Rev. 8:1-4
[Of what was the incense of the Tabernacle symbolic? In seeking an answer to this question, it should be remembered that it was compounded of the most precious spices, that in its normal condition it was most holy (Ex. xxx. 34-30), but at the same time inefficacious for its peculiar uses until consumed by fire from the altar of burnt-offering; thus consumed, however, it was that without which the High Priest could not enter the Holy of Holies to offer the blood of the Atonement (Lev. xvi. 12-14), and with which every morning and evening was sanctified (Ex. xxx. 7-9). What can it symbolize but the excellencies of the God-man, most holy in their normal condition, but made effluent (to flow out) and efficacious for atonement and sanctification only by fire from the Altar of Sacrifice? E. R. Craven] J. P. Lange on Revelation 8:3
a. given to the angel in large quantity
b. accompanied the prayers of the saints
3. inseparable from worship
a. perpetually Exo 30:8 (see Ryken, Biblical Imagery)
b. continues in heaven (?) Rev. 8:1-4
c. two-fold symbolism
i. the prayers of the saints
ii. the intercession of Christ in his mediatorial office
“a priest forever” Heb 7:17
that which makes their prayers sweet-smelling (pleasing/acceptable to God)
“And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints went up out of the hand of the angel before God.” The imperfections that were cleaving to the prayers of the saints were removed, symbolically, by the fragrant smoke, to make their intercessions, petitions, and praises ascend to God’s throne.” Hendriksen, NTC on Rev. 8
