And Aaron shall burn thereon fragrant incense every morning, when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn the incense.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And when Aaron lighteth the lamps between the two evenings, he shall burn the incense -- a continual incense before Jehovah throughout your generations.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Ye shall offer up no strange incense thereon, nor burnt-offering, nor oblation; neither shall ye pour drink-offering thereon.
The golden altar stood just inside the sanctuary, and this verse guards it: four things must never be offered there. Why would God refuse offerings He Himself had commanded elsewhere, and what makes incense "unauthorized"?
Older translations call unauthorized incense "strange incense," and that is the phrase these writers use. The incense had a recipe, and God refused anything outside it.
First, there must be no strange incense. The incense offered had to be mixed to God's own formula, and He would accept no other... Looking at it as a picture, we are taught that nothing but the fragrance of Christ is acceptable to God in worship. Everything offered apart from Christ is "strange," and God cannot accept it.
People still bring what moves them instead of what God has named. That is why this warning still matters.
Someone might prefer the smell of something else. In the same way, people are often deeply moved by lovely ornaments, robes and stained glass windows, or by beautiful music. They feel a hushed awe and wonder, and they think they have been carried into true worship. But such things can mislead us completely. We should stop and realize that thoughts stirred this way are not centered on the beauty of the person of the Lord Jesus. God knows what true worship is, and human feelings and opinions have no place. God showed what He thought of this when Nadab and Abihu, Aaron's sons, offered strange fire (Lev. 10:1-2). Fire consumed them on the spot. The incense speaks of the fragrances of the Lord Jesus: nothing can take its place before God.
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Nadab and Abihu brought strange fire, not strange incense. One writer keeps the two faults apart:
There is a warning not to offer strange incense. In Leviticus (10:1-3) a further warning is given against strange fire. Strange incense is the worship we call ritualistic: a mere outward form, which puts a man in the place of leader in worship. Strange fire is an emotional worship of the soul, which lacks the Holy Spirit, who alone gives power to worship.
Edward Dennett traces where the fire itself had to come from, and why the priests were kept from wine:
It must be God's fire — fire lit from heaven, from before the Lord (Lev. 9:24), and no other... Natural warmth and natural emotion, however they are produced, would be "strange" fire in this sense. That is surely why the priests were forbidden to drink wine or strong drink when they went into the tabernacle. The effects of wine imitate those the Spirit of God produces.
The burnt offering, grain offering and drink offering were not wrong. They belonged at the other altar, the bronze one. Bringing them here would mix up two things God kept apart.
No burnt offering, no grain offering and no drink offering must be offered on this altar. That would mix up the golden altar with the bronze altar, and so forget our true place as priests. It would be the same mistake now if, when we gather for worship, we took our place at the cross instead of inside the torn veil. Many souls fall into this error without realizing it.
God settled every question of guilt outside. The golden altar is where praise rises.
The golden altar is the symbol of priestly worship. Pardon, personal acceptance and sanctification are not the question here. God settled all those important questions outside His house. Praise, thanksgiving, adoration and worship rise to God from the golden altar without ceasing... When the holy fire of God tested the sweet incense "beaten small," it found nothing there but the rich fragrance of the preciousness of Christ.
Two things must be true of worship at once.
Our worship, to be pure, must have these two qualities: Christ must be the material of it, and the Spirit alone must kindle the flame. This is true worship. Only when our souls are truly happy as we dwell on Christ and His precious atonement, led there by the Holy Spirit, can we worship "in spirit and in truth."
- Prescribed — God fixed the formula for the incense. Worship is not a matter of human preference.
- Strange — God will not accept anything offered apart from Christ, however beautiful it feels.
- Two failures — strange incense is empty outward form, led by a man. Strange fire is emotion without the Spirit.
- Two altars — burnt, grain and drink offerings belonged at the bronze altar. Bringing them here mixes up the cross with the worshipper's place inside the veil.
- One fragrance — God's fire tested the incense and found only the preciousness of Christ. Christ is the material of worship, and the Spirit is its flame.
And Aaron shall make atonement for its horns once in the year with the blood of the sin-offering of atonement shall he make atonement for it, once in the year, throughout your generations it is most holy to Jehovah.
The golden altar was where the priest drew near to God with incense. Yet once a year Aaron had to put blood on its horns. Why did the place of worship itself need atonement? And what does that say about the way we come to God now?
The atonement here is for the altar. One writer traces the reason back to the priest who served there.
Once a year atonement was to be made on the horns of the altar with the blood of the sin offering of atonements (v. 10). The account of this is found in Leviticus 16. The reason for it was the imperfection of the priesthood. The true place of the priest was before the golden altar. Being what he was, he defiled the very place where he approached God (compare Lev. 4:7). So the blood of atonement had to be applied again and again.
Aaron brought this blood in from the yearly sacrifice for the whole nation.
However, once a year Aaron was to put blood on the horns of this altar. This was the blood of the sin offering shed on the great day of atonement (Lev. 16). Aaron brought that blood in and sprinkled it before and on the mercy seat, then on the horns of the golden altar and on the altar (vv. 18-19). So atonement was made on the altar (Ex. 30:10). In this way there was a continual reminder that worship rests on the value of the blood of Christ shed on Calvary.
Applying blood to the horns was how atonement was made under the law, and Israel valued the practice enough that losing it counted as punishment.
To understand this it is necessary to remember that, according to the law of Moses, in order to make atonement for individuals or for the nation, the blood of the sacrifice had to be put on the horns of the altar, as we find in Lev. 4:7: "The priest shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of incense before the Lord, which is in the tent of meeting."
Exodus sets the instructions for the priesthood between the two altars. Blood on the golden altar ties the second altar to the first.
Strictly speaking, then, in the bronze altar we have Christ in the value of His sacrifice, and in the golden altar we have Christ in the value of His intercession. This will give my reader a still clearer sense of why the priestly office comes between the two altars. As we might expect, the two are closely connected, for Christ's intercession is founded on His sacrifice… All rests on the immovable foundation of SHED BLOOD.
The verse ends by calling the altar most holy. That title links the seriousness of sin with the praise offered there.
It is instructive and beautiful to see that verse 10 looks ahead to the day of atonement, when the blood was carried inside. The reconciliation made by that blood made the golden altar most holy to the Lord. It again shows us the intense holiness that goes with dealing with sin. Yet here its effect is to bring God the worship of hearts that are not only thankful, but adoring.
Here the picture and its fulfilment part ways.
This is instructive from its typical contrast. One sacrifice now avails forever. By His one offering Christ has perfected forever those who are sanctified. So they enjoy perpetual access, without interruption, even into the holiest place of all.
What Aaron did each year was temporary, and the blood he carried was not his own.
When Aaron entered the Holiest of all in the tabernacle in the wilderness it was on a temporary basis, and only once a year did it take place. The expression "by His own blood" is significant… Speaking of the offerings required on that day, it says "with blood of others." Those offerings had no permanence. How beautiful to contrast these with "His own blood," by which He has entered in "once," never to be repeated.
Commentators differ here. Reading the Hebrew closely, one writer holds that no atonement was made on this altar; the altar was what the atonement was made about.
But it seems to me that kip-per (to make atonement) must mostly be taken on its own, in the sense of reconciling or appeasing. The word "al" only gives the object about which the kip-per takes place… Now "al" must have different senses here — no atonement was made on the altar of incense.
- Blood first. The altar of incense was where the priest drew near to God. Even that spot needed blood once a year, because the priest defiled it.
- Blood carried in. The blood was not new. It came from the sin offering of the day of atonement — sprinkled on the mercy seat, then on the horns of the golden altar.
- Blood beneath intercession. The bronze altar shows Christ in the value of His sacrifice. The golden altar shows Christ in the value of His intercession. Intercession rests on sacrifice.
- Blood behind worship. That blood made the altar "most holy to the LORD." The holiness of dealing with sin turns into adoring praise.
- Blood once for all. Aaron repeated the work every year with the blood of others. Christ entered once by His own blood, never to repeat it. So access is now unbroken.