And he took and put the testimony into the ark, and put the staves in the ark, and put the mercy-seat above on the ark.
Moses does here exactly what God told him on the mountain. Every detail is a picture, and the order carries the meaning: the testimony (the two stone tablets of the law) goes inside, and the mercy seat covers it.
Nothing here is Moses' own idea. One writer counts the phrase that runs through the chapter:
It is beautiful to consider the faithful devotion of Moses as a servant in God's house. He obeyed the word of his Master, so that the house (the tabernacle) should rightly represent the God who in grace dwelt there. Exodus 39 and 40 are worth reading on this. There it is clear that Moses took great care to see that every detail matched the commandment of the Lord. Eight times in chapter 40 the phrase is repeated, "As the Lord commanded Moses."
God began His plans for the tabernacle with this chest:
In Exodus 25 God starts with the Ark — this was the first object to be made, the centre of the whole tabernacle system. In the Ark Moses, as instructed by God, placed the tables of the testimony (Exodus 40:20; Deuteronomy 10:5). How safe they were! That Ark kept the words of the covenant-keeping God safe through all the failures and sorrows of God's earthly people!
The same writer goes on to the materials themselves:
The Ark was made of acacia wood that does not decay. This pictures His holy, sinless Manhood. The Ark was also overlaid "within and without with pure gold." That sets out the divine glory of His every inward desire, and His every word and action.
The stone tablets Moses puts in are the second set:
Do you know what happened afterwards, when Moses brought down the tables of stone the second time? He put them into the ark. Why? Because there was never any man but Christ who kept the law. If it is a question of the first man's responsibility, failure is clear at once; all is gone. So Moses breaks the first tables of stone at the base of the mountain. But in that ark the second tables of stone were placed, and there they remain to this day.
Another writer draws out what the intact tablets announce:
The second tables were covered up in that ark which spoke of Christ. He magnified the law and made it honourable. He established its every smallest detail, to the glory of God and the everlasting blessing of His people. So the broken fragments of the first tables told the sad and humbling tale of Israel's utter failure and ruin. The second tables, shut up whole in the ark, set out the glorious truth that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Moses fits carrying poles because the ark is not staying put:
God commanded them to make poles to carry the ark by. These were symbols of travelling. They show us the way our Lord goes with His people through all their wanderings in the wilderness: "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Until they crossed the Jordan, God commanded them to leave the poles in their rings. But when they reach their goal in the promised land they take the poles out (1 Kings 8:8), for now they were to wander no more.
Moses lays the lid over the law last. That order is the point:
The highest of all these vessels is the ark. It was the seat of divine Majesty in Israel; and as all know — and it is most significant — the mercy-seat was, more than anything else, that throne of God. It is the mercy-seat which afterwards we see with blood sprinkled on it and before it — the mercy-seat which hid the law that destroys all man's claims, yet kept it in the place of highest honour, though hidden from human view. Was this nothing? Was there not comfort here for any heart that trusts God? He took such a seat as this, and gave it such a name, in relationship with a guilty people on the earth.
The term is not confined to the Old Testament. The Greek word behind "mercy seat" reappears in the New:
Do we have the thought of the Mercy Seat in the New Testament? Yes, for we read, "Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat" [Greek hilasterion] (Hebrews 9:5). "Whom God put forward as a propitiation [Greek hilasterion] by his blood, to be received by faith" (Romans 3:25). "He is the propitiation [Greek hilasmos] for our sins" (1 John 2:2). So the New Testament shows clearly that mercy seat and propitiation are one and the same word. The Old and New Testaments clasp hands.
- Commanded. Moses invents nothing. Eight times the chapter repeats, "As the Lord commanded Moses."
- Inside. The law goes into the ark because only One ever kept it — the second tablets stay whole where the first ones shattered.
- Covered. The mercy seat above hides the law from view while keeping it in the highest place of honour.
- Carried. The poles stay in the rings: the throne travels with a wandering people until they are home.
- Fulfilled. "Mercy seat" and "propitiation" are the same word, so the lid Moses laid down points straight to Christ.
And he brought the ark into the tabernacle, and hung up the veil of separation, and covered the ark of the testimony; as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Moses has finished the work, and the tent now stands. The ark goes in first, and then Moses hangs the veil to hide it from every eye — doing exactly what God told him.
The ark is the first piece of furniture named, and it stands apart from everything else in the tent.
The first piece of furniture mentioned is the ark (v. 3), to be placed inside the tabernacle, because it speaks of Christ as the One who upholds the throne of God. So it had a place of real separation. It had to be kept apart even from the table, the lampstand and the incense altar, because those three involve something believers take part in, while the throne of God is far above any share by a creature. It speaks of God alone, in complete authority. The veil then was to be a partition between the ark and all that was in the outer sanctuary.
The ark carries that name because the stone tablets of the law were placed inside it. Commentators see in this a deliberate change from the first giving of the law at Sinai, where the tablets were held out in the open and broken.
On the second occasion what a difference! God called the lawgiver into His presence, and there He was pleased to give a mingling of mercy along with law. He deliberately made a covenant of this combined character. It was not law alone, and not grace alone, but rather the mingling of grace along with law. It would have been completely impossible for God to carry on His dealings with Israel, or even to bring them into the land, without this mingling of grace and mercy with law. So this time God still entrusted the law to man. But He shut it up in the ark. He did not display it with all its terrors before people's eyes. He enclosed it, as we know, in the testimony.
The same curtain that divided the rooms also covered the ark when the camp moved. One writer ties that double use to Hebrews 10:20, where the ESV reads "the curtain, that is, through His flesh."
When it comes to the coverings, the ark was unique. The veil that divided the holiest place from the holy place was laid right on top of it. When the tabernacle stood still, the veil separated the ark from everything else. When the camp moved, the veil covered the ark completely. Hebrews 10:20 fixes its meaning for us: "the veil, that is to say, His flesh." Veiled in flesh, the true "Ark" moved among men.
Three curtains hung between the open air and the ark. They did not all say the same thing.
The first entrance curtain, the wide Gate of the Court, seemed to say "Come" to everyone. The second entrance curtain, the Door of the Holy Place, seemed to say "Come" to any priest who had washed his hands and feet at the basin. But the third entrance curtain, the Veil of the Holiest of All, seemed to say "Not yet." By that Veil, which shut men out, the Holy Spirit taught them "that the Way into the Holiest of All was not yet revealed."
The veil was torn in the end. One writer draws a careful line about what that did and did not mean.
"Torn" and "removed" are different things. If the veil is Christ's flesh, that is not removed, and we do not want it removed. Through Him we draw near to God — but He had to die for that to be possible. Look at the beautiful veil, and see what it implies!
The verse ends with "as the LORD had commanded Moses." That phrase runs through the whole account of the building.
Yet it is beautiful to see the faithful devotion of Moses as a servant in God's house. He was a servant obeying his Master's word, so that the house (the tabernacle) would rightly represent the God who in grace lived there. It is worth reading Exodus 39 and 40 on this. There you can see that Moses took great care that every detail matched the Lord's command... Eight times in chapter 40 this phrase is repeated: "As the Lord commanded Moses."
- Covered — the throne. The ark goes in first and stands alone. It marks an authority no creature shares.
- Covered — the law. God shut the law inside the ark instead of displaying it. That let mercy mingle with law in His dealings with Israel.
- Covered — by the veil. The curtain divided the ark off and also covered it for travel. It pictures the flesh in which the true Ark moved among men.
- Covered — for now. The gate said "Come," the door said "Come," the veil said "Not yet." The veil was later torn — but torn is not the same as taken away.
- Covered — by command. None of this was Moses' idea. The phrase "as the Lord commanded Moses" sounds eight times in this chapter.
And he put the table in the tent of meeting, on the side of the tabernacle northward, outside the veil,
Moses has just carried the ark into the innermost room and hung the veil to shut it in. Now he sets the table in the outer room, on the north side. Its place, its materials, and the bread on it all carry meaning.
The table did not stand in the innermost room with the ark.
This was to stand outside the veil in the holy place, where day by day it was under the eye of the priests. Again here we see a picture of Christ — but as the one supporting the showbread, or "bread of the Presence," which became food for the priests.
The veil ran between the two rooms, and three pieces of furniture were set in front of it.
The veil separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place; these three items of furniture were in front of the veil.
Commentators read the table's materials as a picture of the two natures of Christ.
The table is made of the same material as the ark: acacia wood overlaid with pure gold. The meaning is therefore the same — the wood standing for what is human, and the gold for what is divine. It is Christ, then; Christ in His human and divine natures joined in His one person. This is the beauty of everything connected with the tabernacle. It is Christ everywhere, Christ in Himself or in some of His varied perfections and glories.
In the next verse Moses sets the bread in order on this table. There were twelve loaves.
The loaves of showbread represented the twelve tribes of Israel, complete with no one missing. They had frankincense put on them, so they would be pleasing to God. This presents the Lord Jesus as a man alive in the presence of God. He is equal with God. Here He is seen as the One able to support and maintain believers in a way that pleases God.
A rim with a gold crown ran around the edge of the table.
It is very clear that the purpose of this border was to hold the loaves in their place. Take the ornamental crown of gold as a picture of the divine glory of Christ. Then the lesson is this: Israel is kept secure in its position before God through Christ, by all that He is as divine. But this symbol takes in more than Israel's position — in principle, the position of every believer. There in the holy place, always before the eye of God, covered with the pleasant fragrance of the frankincense, he is seen in Christ. This is the perfect presentation of the believer to God. In other words, it is our acceptance in the Beloved.
The bread was not only displayed. The priests ate it.
The showbread, then, belongs to the priests. As we have seen again and again, the priests stand for the people of God, who are all priests (1 Peter 2:5; Revelation 1:6). The showbread is also called the presence-bread. As the food of the priests, it speaks of Christ as the food of His people — no longer on earth, but now glorified, and as minister of the heavenly sanctuary. We have seen that the table holding the twelve loaves speaks of Christ, as does the ark. This is how communion is maintained, and in it we are identified with Him. His place decides our place before God.
A table exists to feed people, and one writer presses the point onto how little we use it.
All believers are priests. Christ is the Food of all God's people. How little we value this wealth of heavenly sustenance! We are often content to live in spiritual poverty, when we might live in spiritual plenty.
The table went into the tent third, after the ark and the veil.
The order for arranging the sacred vessels differs from the directions given on the mountain. It also differs from the order in which they were made. Once the tabernacle is set up, the ark of the testimony goes into its place first. That is what marked the tabernacle out as God's sanctuary, since the ark was His throne on the earth. Then the veil covered the ark and shut it off from view. This formed the holy of holies. Next the table of showbread was brought into the holy place, the room next to the most holy, and the bread was set in order on it.
This chapter repeats one line about Moses again and again.
And what is the praise the Spirit of God gives? It is that everything was done in obedience — "as the LORD had commanded Moses." Eight times the chapter repeats that everything was done according to the instructions he had received. Suppose obedience is missing. Then no service offered can be acceptable to God, whatever real devotion and zeal there may be.
- Commanded. Eight times in this chapter one standard measures the work: Moses did as the LORD had commanded.
- Placed. The ark went in first, then the veil, then the table — the order runs outward from God's throne.
- Christ. Wood and gold, as in the ark: His humanity and His deity in one person, here as the One who bears the bread.
- Carried. Twelve loaves, no tribe missing, held secure by the golden rim — every believer seen in Christ before God.
- Fed. The priests ate the bread, and all believers are priests; the table is set, and too many of us live poor beside it.
and arranged the bread in order upon it before Jehovah; as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Exodus 40 closes the book: Moses raises the tent God designed and puts each piece of furniture where God said. So why does verse 23 pause over bread laid on a golden table, and add that Moses did it as he was told?
Up to this point the tabernacle had existed only as parts. Now the parts are joined and each one is put where it belongs in relation to the rest.
The work goes on, and the tabernacle is set up (Exodus 40). All the separate materials are set in order — the house of God takes its proper form; the holy places and the courts, the homes of the ark, the table, the lampstand, and the altars, are all arranged in their fitting relations to each other, the Glory enters the house, and the Cloud covers it.
The Hebrew names behind this bread describe both where it sat and how it was laid out.
This was pictured in Israel by the SHOWBREAD, the twelve loaves placed on the table in the holy place, new every Sabbath day: it was holy and was eaten by the priests only. Leviticus 24:5-9. It is literally 'face bread' or 'presence bread'; Exodus 25:30; and 'bread of arrangement' or 'ordering', as in the margin of 1 Chronicles 9:32; and in the New Testament 'bread of presentation'. Matthew 12:4; Hebrews 9:2.
The loaves were not God's dinner. Their ingredients carry the meaning, and commentators read them as a portrait of Christ set before God and then handed on as food.
It is needless to say that those twelve loaves are a type of "the man Christ Jesus." The "fine flour" they were made of marks His perfect manhood, while the "frankincense" points out the complete devotion of that manhood to God. If God has His priests serving in the holy place, He will certainly have a table for them, and a well-supplied table too. Christ is the table and Christ is the bread on it.
The number is read as a picture of the nation Moses served, and of more besides:
The bread that was set on the golden table consisted of twelve loaves — clearly matching the twelve tribes of Israel, but this surely in connection with Christ, for He is always the object of God's counsels. It is God displaying Himself in Christ; but those who had this connection with Christ were Israel.
The loaves did not appear and vanish. They stayed in the sanctuary, in God's sight, and that position is where the comfort of the verse lies.
There in the holy place, always before the eye of God, covered with the pleasing fragrance of the frankincense, he is seen in Christ. It is indeed the perfect presentation of the believer to God. In other words, it is our acceptance in the Beloved.
What God had taken pleasure in was not thrown away at the end of the week. It passed to the men who served in that room.
And week by week, as they brought the new showbread, the priests were allowed to eat what had been during the week "on the pure table before the LORD", and so God had fellowship with the priests at that "pure table", and they received for their nourishment that "most holy" food which had satisfied Him. How it all reminds us of Him who is always both the delight of His Father and the life and sustenance of His people.
The weekly renewal is taken as a lesson about how often this is meant to happen:
Is this fellowship only occasional? Not at all. Fresh bread was to be arranged on the table every Sabbath day (v. 8). So our fellowship with God and with His saints is to be continual, never allowed to become stale.
The closing clause of the verse is not filler. It appears again and again in this chapter, and one writer treats it as the standard by which all service is measured.
And what is the praise He gives? It is that everything was done in obedience — "as the LORD commanded Moses." Eight times it is repeated that everything was done according to the instructions he had received. (vv. 16, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 32.) … If obedience is missing, whatever there may be of real devotedness and zeal, no service offered can be acceptable to God.
- Presence. The loaves are "face bread" — bread of arrangement, kept in God's sight, not bread God needed from man.
- Christ. Fine flour marks His perfect manhood, frankincense His full devotion to God; Christ is both the table and the bread on it.
- Acceptance. Twelve loaves matched the twelve tribes; before the eye of God the believer is likewise seen in Christ — accepted in the Beloved.
- Fellowship. What satisfied God became the priests' food, and fresh loaves every week keep that fellowship from going stale.
- Obedience. Eight times this chapter says the work was done as commanded; zeal without obedience is service God cannot accept.
And he put the candlestick in the tent of meeting, opposite to the table, on the side of the tabernacle southward.
Moses sets the lampstand in the holy place, on the south side, straight across from the table. The room had no window, so two questions matter: what does this golden stand picture, and why did God fix its place?
No daylight reached the holy place. Everything a priest could see there, he saw by the lamps Moses lit on this stand.
The Holy Place was full of light. There was no room in it for darkness, which is a vivid picture of death and its fitting companion. All the light came from the seven lamps of gold. One lamp stood on top of each of the seven branches of the golden lampstand.
That light had a boundary.
The lampstand gave its light inside the holy place; the only light that was inside. I do not think the lampstand pictures testimony in the world. It is rather light in the circle where the priests serve. It is light in relation to the holy things of God, and it is there for the saints of God, not exactly for the world.
Unlike the ark, this piece had no acacia wood in it at all.
Pure gold brings to our minds God Himself. Gold shows God's righteousness. This lampstand was made completely of pure gold: there was no acacia wood in it like the ark. So what does this tell us? The lampstand speaks of the Lord Jesus Himself, One who is God, not as a man in this world but as alive in the presence of God.
The stand itself is not the flame. It holds the flame up.
The lampstand is distinct from the light, for it is really the light-bearer, and speaks of Christ as the Sustainer of all testimony for God. Light is the very nature of God: "God is light" (1 John 1:5).
Nothing in the stand could shine on its own. Israel had to supply beaten olive oil, and commentators consistently read the oil as the Spirit of God.
The lampstand is the glorified, risen Christ, and the light is the Holy Spirit who makes these known.
Verse 25 adds that Moses lit the lamps, but they did not stay lit by themselves. Someone had to tend them.
Aaron and his sons were responsible to care for it, trimming the wicks, and so on. So it is priestly work to see that the Spirit of God has His full, unhindered freedom to make the light of testimony shine bright. Trimming the wicks speaks of judging the flesh, so that the Spirit is free to do His positive work of shining out testimony. We are never given a vacation from godly exercise.
The place matters. From the south side, the light reached every piece in the room.
The lampstand was to light the whole holy place. It is also mentioned alongside each piece of furniture in the room. It was set "opposite the table" (Ex. 40:24-25), which would then be completely lit by it. It is also spoken of in connection with the burning of the incense on the golden altar (Ex. 30:7-8). So each piece of furniture stood out clearly in the lampstand's light, and by that light service could be done at each one.
What was true of the bread is true of us.
Note, the showbread is shone upon. It does not make the light. God provides the light to shine upon it. "When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth," John 16:13. What is needed is that we open ourselves to His blessed working. We do that by taking, without reserve, the full position in grace which God gives.
Moses did not arrange the room by taste. The closing phrase of verse 25 is the refrain of the whole chapter.
Verses 1 to 15 give God's instructions to Moses, and verse 16 tells us that Moses did simply as the Lord commanded. The details of the raising up of the tabernacle are then repeated in verses 18 to 33. The fact that these things are repeated so often shows their importance in the eyes of God, so it is well if we meditate on all these details.
That obedience is what opened the way for God to move in.
The Lord God Himself had directed this tabernacle to be made. He had shown every part of it, in patterns, to Moses; and everything now matched those patterns exactly... Then, keeping it all in His sovereign hand, the Lord commands Moses to put it together and raise it up in its sanctuary form. Moses does so, still in the spirit of obedience. And the Lord, in the symbols of the cloud and the glory, takes possession of it as His dwelling place.
- Source. The holy place had no window; every ray came from the seven lamps Moses lit on this stand.
- Substance. Solid gold with no wood speaks of Christ as God, alive in God's presence — the bearer of the light, not the light itself.
- Supply. The light is the Holy Spirit, who shows the beauty of the risen Christ; the wicks need trimming so it keeps shining bright.
- Scope. Facing the table, the light fell on the bread and on the golden altar. It served the priests inside, not the world outside.
- Submission. Moses placed it where God said, and God then took the finished tent for Himself in the cloud and the glory.
And he lighted the lamps before Jehovah; as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Moses has finished putting up the tabernacle. Now he sets each piece in place: the table, the bread, the lampstand, and then the lamps. No ordinary Israelite would ever enter that tent. Two questions press on this short verse. Who was the light for? And why does the same clause about Moses keep coming back?
The lamps burned inside a closed room. That one fact settles who the light was for:
Seven lamps rested on the seven branches of the beautiful lampstand. Inside the Holy Place they shed their light on the lampstand itself. Those outside never saw the light of the lamps strike the varied features of the lampstand. The priests who served inside the Holy Place did walk in the light of the lamps. But the shining was aimed at God Himself. The lamps shone for God's pleasure. The light had to keep burning "before Jehovah continually."
One writer links the seven lamps here to a scene in the last book of the Bible:
The number of its lamps was seven, and these were "lighted before Jehovah" (Ex. 40:25). We cannot fail to recall the words of the book of Revelation: "seven torches of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God" (Rev. 4:5).
(Older translations read Exodus 40:25 as "he lighted the lamps," and Revelation's "torches" as "lamps." That is why the two verses sound so alike.)
The lamps sat on a stand of pure gold. Where their light fell decides what the picture teaches:
This is not a picture of the Lord Jesus as the Light of the world. The reason is that this lamp lights the Holy Place during the night. Its light did not shine in the world. First of all, the light of the lamps was to light up the lampstand itself. The people had to bring oil to the priests. That oil was the fuel for the bowls, which kept the lamps burning. This oil refers to the Holy Spirit. So we have a figure of the Lord Jesus in the midst of His people, gathered to His name out from the world. The Holy Spirit works in our hearts to tell us of His glory.
The stand carried buds, blossoms and fruit, and the light picked out every one:
The pure light of the lamps brought out all these features as it fell upon the beautiful lampstand. There was not a single feature on the lampstand that did not bring out something of Christ.
The lamps needed oil. The stand took its shape under the hammer. One writer joins the two:
The "pure oil" represents the grace of the Holy Spirit. That grace rests on the work of Christ, as the lampstand of "beaten gold" shows. The "olive" was pressed to yield the "oil," and the gold was "beaten" to form the lampstand. In other words, the grace and light of the Spirit rest on the death of Christ. The priesthood of Christ keeps them clear and powerful. The golden lamp spread its light through the sanctuary during the dreary hours of night. Darkness lay over the nation, and everyone slept. In all this we have a vivid picture of God's faithfulness to His people, whatever their outward condition.
Moses set the lampstand facing the table, and its light brought the whole room into view:
The lampstand gave light throughout the whole holy place. Yet it is also named with each separate article in the room. It was set "over against the table" (Ex. 40:24-25), which would then be completely lit by it... So each piece of furniture stood out in the light of the lampstand, and service could go on at each one by that light.
The verse ends the way its neighbours do. One writer counts that refrain and makes it the point of the chapter:
What is the praise He gives? It is that everything was done in obedience — "as the Lord commanded Moses." Eight times over we read that everything followed the instructions he had received (vv. 16, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 32)... There was never a time of greater energy and activity. Never did larger crowds gather, claiming to worship. But measure all this by the test in the words, "as the Lord commanded Moses," and you find that man's will, and not the Lord's, is often the main spring of it all.
- Commanded — eight times this chapter adds "as the LORD had commanded Moses." God commends obedience, not energy, in the work of His house.
- Kindled — the light came from oil the people brought. That oil pictures the Holy Spirit, resting on Christ's work and kept burning by His priesthood.
- Inward — the lamps shone inside a closed room, not out at the world; the shining was for God's pleasure.
- Christ-ward — the light fell first on the golden stand, picking out every bud, blossom and fruit. Each one told of Christ.
- Serviceable — because the lamps burned, each piece of furniture stood out, and service could go on at each one.
And he put the golden altar in the tent of meeting before the veil.
The altar joined two materials, acacia wood and gold — the same pair as the ark and the table. Commentators read those materials as a picture of the One through whom people come to God:
The altar itself, apart from its use, was a figure of the person of Christ — Christ as both God and man, God manifest in flesh. Connected with the altar, this is important teaching. It shows that there is no access to God except through Christ. He is the foundation both of our approach and our worship. At the altar the priest, the worshipper, saw nothing but the gold. God too saw only the gold, which suited Him, suited His own nature.
The altar stood on the outer side of the curtain. Even so, it faced the ark behind it.
Then the altar of incense; this was to be before the veil, that is, by the ark of the testimony, "where I will meet with you," He says. Aaron was to burn incense on this every morning, and so in the evening. It was outside for use, but it belonged inside, and it was most holy. When he trimmed the lamps, and when he lit the lamps, he was to offer on it. This had nothing to do with burnt offering, but was a matter of priestly approach.
There were two altars, and where they stood teaches an order. One met the eye on the way in. Only those already brought inside could reach this one.
The bronze altar was outside, in the court of the tabernacle. It was the first thing that met the eye of anyone coming out of the camp to the entrance of the court. So it taught that the question of sin must be settled before anyone could enter. The altar of incense was inside, in the holy place, and only the priests could come to it… Once the claims of the bronze altar were met, nothing could shut the worshipper out from the golden altar. His title was perfect.
Incense on its own gives little scent. Fire had to burn it, and that detail carries the weight of the picture.
It was the action of fire that brought out its sweet fragrance. This explains its meaning. The fire is a type of the searching judgment of God, of His holiness at work in judgment. Our blessed Lord passed through this when He was on the cross. But the only effect of the holy fire upon Him was to bring out a "cloud" of sweet perfume… The incense was to be perpetual, and this shows that the fragrance is always rising before the throne.
Commentators differ on whether the incense stands for the prayers of God's people. One keeps it on Christ alone:
Is it not the fragrant grace of Christ's presence, which God alone could appreciate in Him, and in Him only? It all went up to God. Elsewhere it was His grace rising up in intercession, making the prayers of saints acceptable to God… This interesting type shows the fragrance of Christ's personal grace to God. It can in no way point to the prayers of saints, whatever His grace may also be in making them acceptable.
Another writer ties that daily fragrance to how God receives our prayers now:
Every day the sweet smell of the incense — speaking of the perfections of Christ — filled the sanctuary. This type shows that our prayers and our worship both come before God based on the acceptableness of Christ.
Aaron burned the incense at the same moment he tended the lamps. One writer draws a practical rule from that pairing.
Three things cannot be separated: the priestly care of Christ, the showing of God in the power of the Spirit, and the worship of His people. So if believers are not shining as lights in the world, they cannot burn incense at the golden altar. They are powerless for worship. Walk and worship are related.
The verse ends the way nearly every line of this chapter ends, and the repetition is itself the lesson.
Everything had to be made according to the pattern God had shown Moses on the mountain… In the last two chapters of Exodus, which report how the tabernacle was set up, we read the phrase "as Jehovah had commanded Moses." This phrase occurs 14 times in these two chapters alone.
- Altar. Wood overlaid with gold: Christ as God and man. He is the only foundation of approach, and the only thing God's eye rested on there.
- Fire. What drew the fragrance out was judgment falling on Him; the cross is what makes the perfume.
- Fragrance. The incense was perpetual, so that sweetness is always rising before the throne — and God accepts our prayers and worship in it.
- Access. Sin settled at the outer altar; then nothing can shut the worshipper out from the golden one.
- Walk. Believers who are not shining as lights in the world cannot burn incense at this altar: walk and worship go together.
And he burnt on it fragrant incense; as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Moses has just set the golden altar in place inside the tent, and the first cloud of incense now rises in the Holy Place. Why does God care about a scent that no one outside the tent would ever smell? And why does this chapter keep repeating the words "as the LORD had commanded Moses"?
One writer sets this altar against the bronze altar, which stood out in the open courtyard:
Its position inside the Holy Place was in contrast with that of the bronze altar, in the open court. Israel's eye could not see the one, while the other was always open to view. As the bronze altar and its sacrifice together pictured Christ and His cross, so the golden altar and its incense together pictured Christ and His intercession. Only the light of the lampstand made it visible. Christ suffered on earth; He intercedes in heaven. Everyone can know about His cross as a matter of history. But we can know His intercession only as far as the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God, helps us understand it.
Even the altar's materials carry meaning:
The golden altar itself speaks of Christ as the Sustainer of our worship, His perfect Manhood indicated in the acacia wood, His eternal deity in the gold. The border at the top is called "a crown" in the King James Version (Exodus 30:3), and rightly so… It reminds us of the Lord Jesus at present "crowned with glory and honor" (Hebrews 2:9), worthy of the profound worship of all His own.
Incense gives off little on its own. Fire has to touch it, and this fire came from one place only:
The action of the fire brought out its sweet fragrance, and the fire used for this was taken from the bronze altar. So the same fire that consumed the sacrifice brought out the fragrance of the incense… The fire pictures the searching judgment of God — His holiness applied in judgment. Our blessed Lord passed through this when He was on the cross. But the only effect of that holy fire on Him was to bring out a "cloud" of sweet perfume… The sacrifice shows the power of His work; the incense shows how acceptable His person is.
Hebrew has two words for burning, and this verse uses only one of them:
Aaron had to burn incense on this altar every morning and evening when he lit the lamps on the lampstand… There are two words in Hebrew, used in our Bible for 'to burn'. One means to consume, like the sin offering. The other word means 'to cause to ascend'. It is this latter word that is used here. There would have been all the time a smell of sweet perfume in the Holy Place.
Because it never stopped, morning and evening, it pictures something still going on now:
The burning of the incense is at the golden altar; it is intercession. Incense was to go up regularly, continuously, as the lamps were to be kept burning, constantly in use.
All of this shapes how a person approaches God:
The first is the golden altar, from which the fragrant incense rises up to God — a double picture of Him who is altar and incense both. By Him, as worshippers, we draw near to God. In the fragrance of what He is, our prayers and praises find acceptance.
Another writer draws a line between the incense and our prayers:
Surely the incense has nothing to do with the prayers of the saints. Is it not the fragrant grace of Christ's presence, which God alone could value in Him, and in Him only? It all went up to God. Elsewhere it was His grace rising up in intercession, making the prayers of the saints acceptable to God.
The closing words of the verse are not a formality. They are God's verdict on the whole chapter, and they land eight times.
The praise God gives Moses is this: everything was done in obedience — "as the LORD had commanded Moses." Eight times we are told that he did everything according to the instructions he had received… As Samuel said to Saul, "To obey is better than sacrifice." If obedience is missing, then whatever real devotion and zeal there may be, no service offered can be acceptable to God.
- Fire — the coals came from the place of sacrifice, and God's judgment falling on Christ brought out only fragrance.
- Fragrance — the incense is the preciousness of who Christ is, and God alone can fully value it.
- Ascent — the word for burning means "cause to ascend", and it went up morning and evening without a break: a picture of unending intercession.
- Command — the chapter ends as this verse ends, with obedience; zeal without it is not accepted service.
- Acceptance — out of sight in the Holy Place, He is both altar and incense, and His fragrance makes our prayers and praises welcome.