(55) The Altar of Incense

Directly ahead of us in the Tabernacle is the altar of incense just outside the entrance to the Holy of Holies. It is 1 ½ feet square and 3 feet high. It was also made of acacia wood and overlaid with gold. The priests burned incense on the altar every morning and evening, the same time that the daily burnt offerings were made.

This offering of incense was a visible representation of two vital aspects of relationship with God: prayer and worship. The incense was burned continually throughout the day and night as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. It was made of an equal part of four precious spices.



The Altar of Incense points forward to Jesus in two respects. First, it looks froward to Jesus’ high priestly work of interceding for believers in prayer. In the New Testament we see Jesus declaring to Peter that Satan is trying to destroy him but that He would pray for him (Luke 22:32). In John 17 we see Jesus praying for us that we would also be protected from the attacks of Satan (Jn. 17:15). And so, Paul can boldly say that believers are protected from any condemnation with the Father because Jesus stands as our intercessor, petitioning for us. Or, as John puts it, Jesus is our advocate, our defense attorney in the court of Heaven.

Who is the one who will condemn? Christ is the one who died (and more than that, he was raised), who is at the right hand of God, and who also is interceding for us. (Romans 8:34 NET)

But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous One. (1 John 2:1 NET)

Do you realize that as a believer, the only thing that can keep you from intimate fellowship with the God of glory is your own disinterest and refusal to approach Him? Someone might object to that bold statement and assert that our sin keeps us from fellowship with God. This is true, but at the instant we confess our sin, God is “faithful and just to forgive our sin (1 Jn. 1:9)” and our fellowship is renewed. And so we come back to the issue of refusal. Our fellowship is only broken when we refuse to confess our sins.

And so, with Jesus as our intercessor and advocate in Heaven, we can come to the Father with our petitions with complete confidence that God will grant our requests when we ack in keeping with the name of Jesus.

Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (John 14:13 ESV)

This is a powerful statement, but we must understand what it means to pray in the name of Jesus. To pray in Jesus’ name is not simply a statement tagged on the end of our prayer. To pray in the name of Jesus is to pray in keeping with His character, His desires, His will. In his book, The Path of Prayer, Samuel Chadwick explains.

To pray in the name of Christ is to pray as one who is at one with Christ, whose mind is the mind of Christ, whose desires are the desires of Christ, and whose purpose is one with that of Christ . . . Prayers offered in the name of Christ are scrutinized and sanctified by His nature, His purpose, and His will. Prayer is endorsed by the name when it is in harmony with the character, mind, desire, and purpose of the name.

This understanding of praying in Jesus’ name is supported by John’s own understanding of Jesus’ statement as He explains the conditions for answered prayer in His first epistle.

And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. (1 John 5:14-15 ESV)

We have an intercessor and advocate in Heaven, Jesus, the righteous one, who is at the right hand of the Father. When we come to God in Him, through Him, according to His heart’s desires, in unity with Him, our prayers are granted.

One last point of comparison between the Altar of Incense and the ministry of Jesus is important.. The altar of incense was a continual recognition of God as the focus of worship. The rising smoke would remind the priest that all praise belongs to God. The sweet aroma would remind him of the goodness and kindness of God and the sweetness of relationship with God. The incense was burned as an act of recognition that God is the source of life, help and hope. It reflected the truth that all genuine worship is directed toward giving God glory.

And we see this flawlessly portrayed by Jesus. The story of His life was, “I do not seek my own glory (Jn 8:50)” Jesus lived His life, continually, to direct all worship to the Father. What’s your life about? Seeking recognition, position, praise, approval? Or giving it to God alone? To know Jesus up close and personal is to continually pour out your life in worship, declaring and demonstrating the glory of God alone for the glory of God alone.

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Next: (56) The Ark of the Covenant