EXODUS 30
We next have the “altar for the burning of incense”. The order in which these types are presented is full of instruction. God begins with the ark and the mercy-seat, and He moves outward until the gate of the court is reached in chapter 27: 16. Then we have the holy garments and the consecration of the priesthood in chapters 28 and 29. It is God coming out in the revelation of Himself, and of His wondrous thoughts, but all in view of man going in, and the incense altar is clearly connected with the latter. So that the golden altar forms an appropriate conclusion to the series of types which commence at chapter 25: 1.
It may be remarked that each distinct section of this part of the book is introduced by the words, “And Jehovah spoke to Moses”. There are seven consecutive sections which begin thus from chapter 25: 1 to 31: 17, leading, like other consecutive types of Scripture, to the sabbath — the rest of God.
God has set up a wondrous system of grace and glory in connection with which He dwells amongst men, and in which He can be served according to His pleasure. And it pleases God that the whole system, and the service connected with it, should be characterized by dependent and confiding affections. The incense altar is suggestive of this; it speaks of priestly intercession. “Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense” (Psalm 141: 2). Everything that is for God’s pleasure is sustained in this spirit; it gives character to the prayers, the service, the praises, the worship of the holy priesthood. It finds its full and perfect expression in Christ — the priestly Head — glorified at the right hand of God. He “intercedes for us” (Romans 8: 34); He always lives to intercede for those who approach by Him to God (Hebrews 7: 25). But what characterizes Him necessarily characterizes the whole sanctified company who are “all of one” with Him.
We see in type the divine system in Exodus 25 - Exodus 29. The next thing is to see what characterizes it and how it is sustained, and Exodus 30 gives us this. Christ sustains everything relative to the divine system, and to the service of God, by His intercession. The horns of the brazen altar speak of His power man-ward, and in relation to all that He had to meet here, but the horns of the golden altar speak of His intercessory power with God. “Of itself shall be its horns”. All that He is personally gives Him power with God. John 17 is one of the most wonderful [p. 253] chapters in Scripture; we see, in principle, the golden altar there. Think of the power of that intercession! We are privileged to stand by and hear it, that we may know the character of His intercession, for any service which we take up at the golden altar must take character from His.
The golden altar speaks really of what He does at the right hand of God, and of a service in which the saints — the priestly company — can take part. “Part with me” in John 13 would probably include part with Him in this. The fact that Aaron only is spoken of in this chapter as burning incense shows that the service of Christ is specially in view here. But the fact that it says elsewhere, “They shall put incense before thy nostrils” (Deuteronomy 33: 10), shows that others have part in it also. See also 1 Chronicles 6: 49, where the sons are linked with Aaron. Revelation 8: 3, 4 refers to a day still future, but it speaks of Christ as giving efficacy “to the prayers of all saints at the golden altar which was before the throne”.
The “border of gold” links the altar with the ark and the table of shew-bread. The ark presents Christ as the One by whom all the will of God is established; the table speaks of the saints as sustained before God in accord with His holy thoughts; while the altar suggests how everything in the divine system is sustained in the power of priestly intercession.
We have already noticed, in considering the candlestick, the intimate connection between the dressing and lighting of the lamps and the burning of fragrant incense on the golden altar. The maintenance of the light could never be dissociated from the service of the altar. The ministry of Christ in the power of the Spirit can only be maintained, and the saints kept [p. 254] in the light of it, by priestly intercession — “a continual incense before Jehovah throughout your generations”.
“I exhort therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings be made for all men”, etc. (1 Timothy 2: 1). That is priestly service at the golden altar, and it connects itself with the fact that the altar was “square”; it has a universal bearing; we are to pray for “all men”, and “all the saints” (Ephesians 6: 18). Restricted liberty in prayer often arises from making oneself so much the subject. Do you ever consider how much your prayers are in relation to yourself? It is quite true that you have your own exercises and needs, and have the privilege of bringing all to God, but that is more like the Israelite praying in his own tent. It is another thing to offer incense as a priest at the golden altar. We think there of Christ’s interests and service, and of exercises connected with the testimony, and this gives prayer an entirely different character. As one’s heart moves on that line there is great expansion and liberty; the Spirit of Christ is free.
Think of the incense that went up from Epaphras, “always combating earnestly for you in prayers, to the end that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. For I bear him witness that he labours much for you, and them in Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis” (Colossians 4: 12, 13). He had the saints in his heart in reference to all the will of God. Anna was a prophetess, but she carried on priestly service also; she “did not depart from the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers”.
Verse 10 is, I believe, the only direct allusion to the day of atonement which can be found in Exodus. It is therefore peculiarly significant. “The blood of the sin-offering of atonement” was sprinkled once upon and seven times before the mercy-seat, and then it was put on the horns of the golden altar and sprinkled seven times upon the altar itself. The blood upon the mercy-seat speaks of God being glorified in His holy nature, and in all His attributes, as to sin, so that He can act in supreme mercy to all. The blood sprinkled seven times before the mercy-seat indicates the ground on which the reconciliation of all things — whether the things on the earth or the things in the heavens — will be effected. But the blood sprinkled on the golden altar shows that God’s thought was to have a heavenly priesthood to approach Him in the holy place. The approach of an earthly people is at the brazen altar, and is in the acceptance of the burnt-offering. But the approach of Aaron and his sons — typically the heavenly company — is at the golden altar, and is in all the value of the blood of the sin-offering as that which secures them a place within. The blood of the sin-offering on the mercy-seat meets the glory of God as to the whole question of sin so as to become the vindication of His righteousness in view both of the heavenly blessing into which the assembly is brought, and the earthly blessing which will be known by Israel when the true Aaron comes out. But it is to be noted that the blood of the sin-offering on the day of atonement does not go outside the holy place; it is all within, whether on the mercy-seat or on the golden altar. It speaks of the approach of a heavenly company, who are privileged to draw near within before the earthly company is blessed without. This is confirmed by the fact that there is no golden altar in Ezekiel’s temple, nor any [p. 256] mention of service within. But the altar of burnt-offering is very large, and the service connected with it is dwelt upon with much detail. The priests “minister in the gates of the inner court, and towards the house”, but it is not said that they enter. Indeed the only thing mentioned as being within, so far as I know, is the altar of wood of which the man with the measuring reed said, “This is the table which is before Jehovah” (Ezekiel 41: 22). I have wondered whether this might be a testimony to Israel that a nearer place than theirs was occupied by men of another family, for there is no intimation that they rendered any service there. The true and distinctive blessing of the present time is taken up within by Aaron and His sons. That is, we are privileged to go in with Christ to the holy place, and — now that all the mind of God is made known — even to the sanctuary, the holiest of all. Alas! have not many of us to confess that we do not honour God by rising to the greatness of our calling? How many are content to know that their sins are all carried away, and that they are under God’s favour as men on earth! But this is what an earthly people will know and enjoy. Our calling is to things which are within — a spiritual and heavenly order of blessing — sanctuary privilege in association with a risen and heavenly Christ.
How wonderful to think that we can be presented before the Fulness of the Godhead “holy and unblameable and irreproachable”! Does not this give a very blessed sense of complete detachment from everything that belonged to us as “alive in the world”? It is not only that our sins are carried away by the scapegoat, but we have been removed from the ground and position where sins attached to us; that is, the ground [p. 257] of men living in the world. Israel will be on that ground; they will not be risen with Christ, nor have heavenly blessings within. They will be men on earth, and as such will need and value the Scapegoat, and they will take up their relations with God at the brazen altar on the ground of the Burnt-offering for acceptance. But the blood of the Sin-offering is within. Christ has so completely glorified God in the removal from before Him of the man after the flesh that God can give us a wholly new footing in His presence as risen with Christ. He can set us before Him in new creation blessedness in Christ where “the old things have passed away; behold all things have become new: and all things are of the God who has reconciled us to himself by Christ” (2 Corinthians 5: 17, 18).
It is fitting that this marvellous assemblage of holy types should conclude by introducing the sin-offering of the day of atonement as the ground of approach at the golden altar. It gives the privilege of a heavenly company. Not that we have here “the image itself of the things”; we have “a shadow of the coming good things”, but we have to add the light of the heavenly from the New Testament. Ephesians 2 gives us the full height of the heavenly position, and it is in the light of that we who were Gentiles in the flesh “are become nigh by the blood of the Christ”, and both Jew and Gentile are reconciled to God in one body by the cross, and through Christ “we have both access by one Spirit to the Father”.
The second section (verses 11 to 16) is important as bringing in “the sum of the children of Israel”. In the first section all was voluntary; “of every one whose heart prompteth him, ye shall take my heave-offering”. God put this in the foreground, as it were,
[p. 258] but He does not leave things altogether to that. He could not be content that there should be so much as “one” amongst His people without a memorial before Him in the tent of meeting. He would only have His people numbered as a ransomed people; only as such could they be in relation to the tabernacle, or have a memorial there. In this there are no distinctions. Divine grace and faithfulness, acting through redemption, have connected all the people of God with the tabernacle — with the divine system. Every Israelite was privileged to say, “I have a memorial there before Jehovah”. Now the question is, Where has divine grace and faithfulness given me a memorial? Is it in this sect or that? Or is it in the glorious divine system of which the tabernacle is the type?
And what kind of memorial is it? Ten gerahs of silver. It speaks of the redemption rights of Christ, and of their being owned by all the people of God. This is, in a word, christian responsibility — that we should own, and answer to, the rights of Christ acquired through redemption. If people profess to be in relation to God — are “numbered” in that way — without owning those rights, there will be a plague. He cannot sanction it. As ransomed I belong to Christ to have a memorial before God in His system. Ransom suggests that Christ has freed His saints from the bondage of the world system in order that He might set them in relation to the divine system.
Every Christian is under obligation to own where his memorial is before God. He is divinely claimed for “the service of the tent of meeting”. To own the redemption rights of Christ, and be true to them, is our ten gerahs; ten — as we all know — is the number of responsibility. Believers think of ransom on the [p. 259] side of what it has freed them from more than they do on the side of what it frees them for. The fact is that by ransom and redemption Christ has acquired rights over us, and He is entitled to the recognition of those rights by us in a practical way. If we do not do so we shall suffer from some sort of plague. The present divisions and scattering of the people of God, and all those things which are the result of the will of man working in connection with divine things, are truly a “plague”.
I suspect that when David purposed to number the people he was thinking of his own glory, and did not consider their moral state as before God. Joab probably discerned this, for he was a shrewd, though an unspiritual, man.
Then the third section (verses 17 - 21) refers to the laver. It emphasizes the abiding necessity — “an everlasting statute ... throughout their generations” — for practical purity on the part of those who take up holy service. Aaron and his sons were to wash their hands and their feet when they went into the tent of meeting, or when they came near to the altar to serve. There must be clean hands and feet on the part of those who approach.
The fact that the laver was made of copper would suggest a moral purity in keeping with the altar. Nothing can be allowed in the service or walk of the holy priesthood that is inconsistent with the death of Christ. At the laver we get the application of the death of Christ in detail by the word for the purification of service and walk. James calls upon some to “Cleanse your hands”, and in Psalm 24 it is the one who has clean (or blameless) hands who ascends into the mount of Jehovah and stands in His [p. 260] holy place. Paul says that the men are to “pray in every place, lifting up pious hands” (1 Timothy 2: 8). “Pious hands” are hands that have touched everything in the pathway here with reference to God. They have brought God into their things, and can therefore be in simplicity of confidence before Him.
Then the feet must be washed. John 13 shows how necessary this is if we are to have part with Christ. We get careless sometimes and neglect the laver, and the hands become unsuited to the handling of holy things, and the feet are not in keeping with
“the unsullied way
Which His own hand hath dressed”. (79:6)
Then priestly service ceases. How solemn! It says twice over in this short section, “that they may not die”. We might well fear the allowance of any soil on hand or foot that would bring in death morally upon the service of God. How it necessitates constant exercise! Paul says to the Corinthians, “Let us purify ourselves from every pollution of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in God’s fear” (2 Corinthians 7: 1). Whatever might move in one’s spirit that is not in accord with divine holiness necessitates washing. When Paul says, “Let a man prove himself, and thus eat of the bread, and drink of the cup”, I think it involves that he takes account of the state of his hands and feet, and washes at the laver before he comes near. “Washed as to our body with pure water” (Hebrews 10: 22) may be a reference to the laver, but most likely to the washing of Aaron and his sons at their consecration.
The fact that the laver was made “of the mirrors of the crowds of women who crowded before the entrance of the tent of meeting” shows that when [p. 261] the women got interested in the tent of meeting they did not want their mirrors any longer for purposes of vanity. So that the very material of the laver spoke of surrender, and a willingness to part with what might make something of self, in order that conditions of holy purity might be maintained.
In the laver we have a type of the removal of what is unsuitable; it is negative in character; but the anointing oil in the next section brings in what is positive. Every part of the tabernacle system was to come under the anointing, and also Aaron and his sons. It speaks of the Spirit of Christ as that which is to give character to everything under the eye of God. The Spirit of the Man of God’s pleasure is to be everywhere.
The “best spices” represent all those features of grace which were so perfectly blended and harmonized in the Spirit of Christ. “Liquid myrrh” comes first, and is in large quantity — five hundred shekels; it speaks of suffering love. Then “sweet cinnamon” and “sweet myrtle” — of each two hundred and fifty shekels; I do not attempt to define the significance of each, but sweetness is their predominant characteristic. “And of cassia five hundred”. Nothing is of greater interest to the spiritual mind than to trace the different features of the Spirit of Christ as we may see them throughout Scripture. We may discern them in Old Testament saints, for the Spirit of Christ was in them; and we may see them prophetically revealed in rich abundance in the Psalms and the Prophets. Then what a study for the heart to ponder the varied excellencies of grace and faithfulness which were disclosed in Him as come in flesh! See the character of what He enjoined! And be assured [p. 262] that He enjoined nothing that was not perfectly exemplified in Himself. What must the Spirit be in which all can be carried out? In considering all this we may get some idea of the import of those sweet and fragrant spices all blended in “the holy anointing oil”.
Then take the exhortations in the Epistles! To how many do they present themselves as a higher kind of law — an unattainable ideal! But how attractive do they all become when we discern in them the sweet fragrance of the Spirit of Christ! And that which expresses itself thus is the very Spirit which we have if we are of Christ. If we are of Christ and have His Spirit there is power to pursue that line, and no other line is in keeping with the anointing which we have received. The assembly is at the present time the anointed vessel. “All the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ” (1 Corinthians 12: 12). The time will come when the sweet fragrance of the Spirit of Christ will be everywhere in the reconciled universe. No selfishness left, no hatred, variance, emulation, no back-biting! Every one and everything in the universe of bliss will come under the anointing. What pleasure for God! What peace and love and unity throughout the whole vast scene pervaded by the perfume of the holy anointing!
“Upon man’s flesh shall it not be poured”. The holy anointing cannot be connected with man in the flesh. It is the Spirit of another Man — even of the Man who is at God’s right hand. It is not given to add something to man after the flesh to improve him, but on the ground that that man is wholly set aside.
Then there is a solemn warning against compounding any like it. I am afraid that there is a great deal which is simply an imitation of the Spirit of Christ — [p. 263] man in the flesh restrained and cultivated, and led to adopt manners and deportment which look very like the fruit of the Spirit of Christ. We may even as believers be in danger of the same kind of thing in a modified way, but I trust there is with us a desire to be genuine, and not to be merely imitating in the flesh that which can only be real under the eye of God as in the Spirit of Christ.
The “incense”, which occupies the next section, is most important, for I understand it to typify how the Spirit of Christ expresses itself God-ward. It is an intercessory Spirit — a Spirit of prayer — that which was to be burned on the golden altar, “a continual incense before Jehovah throughout your generations”. I think that whatever is of the Spirit of Christ in saints will express itself first God-ward in prayer.
It is a wonderful thing to have the Spirit of Christ. It is just what marks off the saint from every other kind of person in the world. Let us be more than ever concerned that the Spirit of Christ should be in evidence, and first of all in secret with God. I feel sure there would be great expansion in holy and affectionate exercises God-ward if we laid ourselves out more to promote the freedom of the Spirit of Christ. It is very blessed to remember that there are spiritual affections in saints — they have the Spirit of Christ — but often those affections, and the desires proper to them, get trammelled and fettered; things are allowed which check their free flow and activity. And the first thing to be hindered generally is the free outgoing of the Spirit of Christ God-ward in prayer. The soul cannot then go on in the true power of the divine anointing, nor is there ability to give practical effect to that which we know to be the will of God.
[p. 264] What a delight to God to have the fragrance of that incense before Him! Saints appreciating all that is fragrant to God in the Spirit of Christ, so that they express in heart-breathings before Him desires and aspirations which are all on that line! The prayers of the saints are delightful to God because they voice the exercises, desires, and true dependence and confidence which mark the Spirit of Christ. I do not attempt to attach a specific meaning to each of the “fragrant drugs” of which the incense was compounded, but the fact that there were four seems to suggest the completeness with which spiritual exercises in relation to the interests of Christ are developed before God in the dependent affections of His saints.
Individually it may be taken up in detail. The scripture speaks of some of it being beaten “to powder”. Some feature of Christ impresses and attracts your heart; you long to be in the grace and power of it; your desires as to it are breathed out before God in holy confidence. Do you not think it is fragrant to Him? It is the Spirit of Christ in you which thus in secret with God discloses itself, seeking from the only Source the grace and power which will enable you to express that which your heart cherishes. That is your grain of the “powder”. But many hearts are taking up in similar exercise other grains, so that there is an answer “before the testimony” to all that the testimony means.
It is blessed to think of the Spirit of Christ in the saints coming out in the very nature and character of their prayers. True prayer is “most holy”, for it is the expression to God of His own will and purpose as having become by the Spirit of Christ the desire of [p. 265] His saints. The first effect of a true appreciation of the moral glory of the Lord Jesus is that His graces and perfections become fragrant before God in our prayers. The very thing in which God delights comes back to Him in the affectionate desires and prayers of His saints. See a striking passage as to incense “among the nations” in Malachi 1: 11.
Then the incense was to be “salted, pure, holy”. I think this speaks of true and godly exercise which would preserve us from formality and unreality. It is ever necessary to have salt in ourselves (Mark 9: 50), and in our prayers, and with all our offerings. It signifies a sincere and upright desire to be in the reality of things with God, and to be true to the ground which we take with Him. It is “the salt of the covenant of thy God” (Leviticus 2: 13).
The answer to this comes out in the next section, where we find spiritual ability conferred to construct the tabernacle. That is, there is ability by the Spirit of God to give effect to that which is made known to us, and this for the pleasure and glory of God.