The following is Pastor Nate’s teaching transcription from Calvary Monterey’s 6/8/21 Tuesday Night Service. We apologize for any transcription inaccuracies.
"You shall make an altar on which to burn incense." (Exodus 30:1)
Now, in our last study of Exodus, we looked at the consecration of the priests into their priestly role, Aaron and his sons, but also the general priests as well. So you had the high priests, but the general priests who were serving there or would serve there in the temple or tabernacle precincts. And really, this was a break in the action God had been describing to Moses on Mount Sinai what the tabernacle precincts would look like, starting with the Ark of the Covenant and then expanding outward, looking at the table of showbread, and the golden lamp stand, and the fabric and framing of the tabernacle itself, and the altar outside of the tabernacle, the sacrificial altar, and the framing of the fence around the courtyard. All of this was described in intricate detail. Then we had a break where, in chapter 28, garments of the priests were described and then in the chapter 29, the consecration of the priests was described. So now here, we jump back into looking at one of the elements that would actually be inside of the tabernacle itself, this altar on which, in verse one it says, they would burn incense.
Now, just as a reminder to you as we sort of frame out this chapter together, God's desire is that the people of Israel would operate in a priestly capacity before the Lord. Exodus 19, verse six says, "You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." This was God's desire for the people of Israel. They would be a nation, so to speak, of God-seekers, a nation in relationship with God. And the official priests would serve as sort of exemplar, so to speak, of everyone in the nation. They were to be living out their relationship with God in very visible, tangible, physical kinds of ways. But all of Israel was called to live a life of prayer and devotion and godliness before the Lord.
Now, of course, those who were not called to, because of their ancestry, the Levitical Aaronic priesthood, those from other tribes in other words, they were not ever called to be priests, literally who would offer sacrifices and go into the holy place, but they were called to live a priestly kind of like before God.
Now, of course for us in the New Testament era, we know that we are called to a priestly life before the Lord. First Peter two, verse five and nine, teaches us that God's vision for his church is that we would be a priesthood before the Lord, not just individual people who some of them ascend into a priestly kind of relationship before God. No, there's no hierarchy in Christ. We come before the Lord as sinners, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from our sin and we then, by his blood, gain bold access to our father in heaven. So all of us are called to live a life of priestliness before God. In other words, seeking him, praying to him, representing him to the people around us. We're all called to this kind of life.
So as we look at what the priests were in chapter 28 and 29 and what they do here in chapter 30 and 31, we should learn lessons in our lives today on what God expects, desires, wishes, longs for, wills for our lives to be today. In other words, a question that we should ask is if they were called to be a kingdom of priests and if we are called as a holy priesthood, a nation of priests today as the church, what did those priests do that might help inform what we ought to be doing today?
The Altar of Incense
1a “You shall make an altar on which to burn incense.
The first thing that's mentioned here in this chapter is this altar of incense. This altar of incense. Now, one question that we might ask is, why wasn't this altar mentioned before? Like I told you, when God described the elements of the tabernacle to Moses, he started with the center piece in the central and deepest room of the tabernacle, the Holy of Holies, and the centerpiece was the Ark of the Covenant. Everything that would be inside the Ark of the Covenant, the lid, the mercy seat on top of the Ark of the Covenant. And then he began to describe the elements outward from the Ark of the Covenant. But he blows right past, apparently, the altar of incense. The altar of incense was the first piece of furniture just on the other side of the curtain that separated the big room in the tabernacle from the little room, the Holy of Holies. So it really was a piece of furniture that was closest to the Ark of the Covenant, but God skipped over it in his first pass of describing to Moses the different elements inside of the Ark.
It might have been skipped because God knew that the altar of incense was very closely tied to the duties and responsibilities of the priests and so he wanted to wait until he described the priest garments, and ministry, and ordination before then talking about the altar of incense. But it also might have been skipped because none of the items in this chapter were needed to ordain the priests. In other words, at their ordination ceremony, some of the elements that have already been described were needed, necessary, but the altar of incense really had nothing to do with their ordination. So perhaps it was skipped over for that particular reason.
But the clear reality is that the altar of incense serves as an incredible picture for us of the life of prayer. Psalm 141, verse two, says, "Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, oh God, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice." Luke one, verse 10, tells us that the whole multitude of the people, the time that Zechariah went in and received his vision, the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. They would go offer this incense to God multiple times each day. And when they did, and that incense arose inside of the holy place and wafted into the Holy of Holies, it was emblematic in their minds of prayer so on the outside they prayed.
Revelation five, verse eight, speaks of Jesus taking the scroll and the 24 elders falling down before him, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints, it says in Revelation five, verse eight. So it's fairly safe for us to say that the altar of incense is emblematic of prayer, of the life of prayer. And we're going to learn a little bit, looking at this altar of incense, about a life of prayer. What is God looking for? This is a major part of our priestly duty, that we would be prayerful people before God. Before looking at the details of prayer, we should just make that statement, prayer is a major component of our priesthood before God. Prayer is a major component of our priesthood before God.
And sadly enough, this is an element of the Christian life that many believers simply neglect, deciding for themselves that prayer is too difficult, too challenging, hard for them to understand how to make progress in and so they just neglect it, give up on it and say, "Well, prayer is not for me. It's something I've tried, but I've seen no success. I don't know how to do it. I'm frustrated in it. I don't know what to pray for or about and so I just really don't pray." Even many pastors who are meant to be exemplary Christians do not spend much time in prayer, but we need to be a praying people. This is central to what it means to be the priesthood of believers, to be people that take advantage of the access that we have to God, to cry out to him. This is a major component of the priesthood that God has given to us.
So the challenge that I would give to you before we look at the details of altar of incense, amongst many other things in this chapter, is to say to you, are you willing to do something hard? If prayer does not come naturally, if prayer is difficult, if you don't know how to do it, are you willing to learn? Are you willing to be challenged? Are you willing to grow? Are you willing to push yourself? Are you willing to learn so that you can get to the point where you are a person who habitually prays, who cries out to God?
I know many who have said that their pattern is just to pray spontaneously, whenever they feel like it just throughout the day. But the Bible seems to speak often of times, moments where a believer consecrates themselves to seek the face of God and to cry out to him, not just rhythmically throughout the flow of life, which is good, but habitually and regularly before God. I'd encourage you to learn how to pray that way.
1b You shall make it of acacia wood. 2 A cubit shall be its length, and a cubit its breadth. It shall be square, and two cubits shall be its height. Its horns shall be of one piece with it. 3 You shall overlay it with pure gold, its top and around its sides and its horns. And you shall make a molding of gold around it. 4 And you shall make two golden rings for it. Under its molding on two opposite sides of it you shall make them, and they shall be holders for poles with which to carry it. 5 You shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. 6 And you shall put it in front of the veil that is above the ark of the testimony, in front of the mercy seat that is above the testimony, where I will meet with you.
All right, let's read the description of this altar of incense though. At the end of verse one it says, "You shall make it of acacia wood, a cubit shall be its length and a cubit its breadth. It shall be square and two cubits shall be its height. Its horns shall be of one piece with it. You shall overlay it with pure gold, its top and around its side and its horns. And you shall make a molding of gold around it and you shall make two golden rings for it under its molding, on two opposites sides of it you shall make them, and they shall be holders for polls with which to carry it. You shall make the polls," verse five, "of acacia wood and overlay them with gold and you shall put it in front of the veil that is above the ark of the testimony, in front of the mercy seat that is above the testimony, where I will meet with you."
Now, a few things about this description. First of all, we have to note that it's made of the same material that the other elements inside of the tabernacle are made of, the other furniture. You have acacia wood overlaid with gold. I should also point out that it's very small. It's almost like a smaller version of the bronze altar on the outside of the tabernacle, this time made with gold, three feet high and one and a half feet squared at the top. I'd add horns like the burnt offering altar on the outside. And then like everything else, it had golden wings attached so that they could insert polls into it, cover it and then carry it before the people without touching it since it was a consecrated and holy element that they were not supposed to touch directly.
And Moses is told by God that he is to put this altar of incense, verse six, in front of the veil. Now, it's actually interesting if you read the book of Hebrews, the author of Hebrews describes how the old covenant has expired, it's been fulfilled in Jesus, and he talks about how it's fading away, it's passing away. But when he recounts the tabernacle, his listing of the elements or the furniture in the tabernacle's fascinating because he puts the altar of incense, not on the outside of the Holy of Holies, but on the inside of the Holy of Holies with the Ark of the Covenant. And clearly in the Old Testament, that's not where it went.
So it's interesting that in the New Testament, according to the book of Hebrews, it's included with the Ark of the Covenant. This likely has something to do with the nature of the incense itself and its destination. Where are our prayers going? Well, they might originate on this side of the presence of God from our vantage point, but they're meant to go behind the curtain aren't they? They're meant to go all the way into the presence of the Lord. So perhaps the author to the Hebrews had that concept in his mind, that, "Hey, that incense altar might be on the outside, on other side of the veil, but the incense itself is passing through it and around it and getting itself into the presence of God." This helps us understand a little bit about the life of prayer. We're called to be a people who, as we intercede, as we pray, we're trying to connect to the God of heaven.
The tabernacle itself, of course, was emblematic of the reality in heaven, the throne of God, the angels all around God's throne, the Ark of the Covenant had that kind of imagery attached to it. So the idea of the incense going into that room communicates to us the idea of our prayers arising into the presence of God's throne room so that God could hear the cry of his people. And of course, it's only by the blood of Jesus that we're given that kind of opportunity before God.
I should also point out before reading further that God says, or repeats, in verse six a phrase that we've seen over and over again. He says, "This is where I will meet with you. This is the purpose the tabernacle." So again, we're reminded that God's desire is to meet with his people.
7 And Aaron shall burn fragrant incense on it. Every morning when he dresses the lamps he shall burn it, 8 and when Aaron sets up the lamps at twilight, he shall burn it, a regular incense offering before the Lord throughout your generations. 9 You shall not offer unauthorized incense on it, or a burnt offering, or a grain offering, and you shall not pour a drink offering on it. 10 Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once a year. With the blood of the sin offering of atonement he shall make atonement for it once in the year throughout your generations. It is most holy to the Lord.”
He goes on to say though in verse seven, "And Aaron shall burn fragrant incense on it. Every morning when he dresses the lamps, he shall burn it. And when Aaron sets up the lamps at twilight, he shall burn it. A regular incense offering before the Lord throughout your generations. You shall not offer unauthorized incense on it or a burnt offering or a grain offering and you shall pour out a drink offering on it. Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonement. He shall make atonement for it once in the year throughout your generations. It is most holy to the Lord."
Now, a few things that we can learn about prayer from this description of the altar. First of all, we can notice the regularity with which they offered the incense. It says there in verse seven and eight that they would offer it regularly once in the morning and once in the evening every single day. They were consistently offering this incense before God. I alluded to it a little bit earlier, but it was... You might remember the moment of, I think the evening time of offering incense when Zechariah, his name was called to offer prayers before the Lord and he went into the temple and offered his prayer and the angel appeared to him and announced to him that his wife Elizabeth would have a child in her old age and that they would name him John and he would come in the spirit and power of Elijah and be the forerunner of the Christ. And of course you'll remember that Zechariah did not believe the promise that was given to him. But that's the idea, the morning and evening of this incense before God was regular before the Lord.
I think this helps us, again, understand the regularity with which God is looking for us to offer our prayers to him. You see, what is something that is regular? Well, in a sense, when prayer is regular, what it means is that you're going to experience every rhythm you can possibly experience in prayer. Some people, their prayer lives are not regular, so when do they pray? Well, they pray in times of catastrophe perhaps. Maybe they pray in times of extreme celebration or joy, really good news come into lives and so they say a prayer to God of thanks. But when you pray regularly, what happens is you're bringing all those different types of prayer to God. So you're praying when you're bored, you're praying when not much is going on, you're praying when you're depressed, you're praying when you're hungry, you're praying when you're poor, you're praying when you're rich, you're praying when you're seeing lots of fruit come out of your life, you're praying when you're seeing baroness coming out of your life, you're praying when things are good, you're praying when things are bad. When you pray regularly, you then will pray through every single stage and season of life as you know it.
This is important because we just don't know what season of life we will be in tomorrow. You don't know what kind of news will come into your life, you don't know what kind of decision will be handed down to, you don't know wat kind of catastrophe our world will enter into. And for all of these things, you must be grounded in a life of prayer. Prayer is meant to be a regular occurrence and experience.
Paul said in first Thessalonians five, verse 17, that we are to pray without ceasing. We are to pray without ceasing. That's a memory verse that I'm sure you can handle. We're to pray without ceasing. What does that mean? That means that we're to be regular in it and then we're to be constant in it. And here, these people, they modeled that. God gave them a commission to offer this incense in the morning and in the evening.
I've known some Christians who have had this practice, early in the morning they spend time in prayer and then at some other point, later in the day, they have a second moment where they sit down, they close their eyes, they perhaps open up or get out their prayer list and they spend another little length of time in prayer before God. I've known some Christians who have called this their daily office where they have little moments, five minutes throughout the day, where they just stop and they spend time in prayer before the Lord with sincerity of heart, not in mindless or rogue repetition, just, "I've got to do my five prayers a day," kind of thing, but really earnestly before their God, covered by the blood of Jesus, crying out to him, "Let us be regular in prayer."
But another thing that we learn here in verse nine tells us that they were commanded not to offer unauthorized incense on this incense altar. They weren't also supposed to offer a burnt offering or a grain offering or a drink offering. It was not that kind of altar. There was an atonement that was made for this altar once a year to take some of the blood of the atonement sacrifice on the outside of the tabernacle and they'd put it on the later, but that was just once a year and it wasn't a sacrifice offered on that altar. It's just a blood cleansing, or claiming, or consecrating that altar.
But on the altar itself, no sacrifices would be offered and even foreign incense was not supposed to be offered. The only incense that they were supposed to offer was the incense that God had designed. He had carved out, named the ingredients for this incense. So this helps us understand that strange incense or strange fire, most actually see some of the priests disobey this when we get to Leviticus chapter 10, but it was not to be offered before God.
So how does this help us in thinking about our life of prayer? Well, prayer is meant to be according to God's will. Prayer is meant to be according to God's will. We're to be minding the Scripture, thinking about the things that God is interested in and then bringing those things before the Lord as they touch our lives. So you think about your family, your relationships, your network, your career, you think about these things in your life and draw the word of God into them and ask the question, what would God's heart be for these different elements of my life? And then you attempt to pray according to the purpose, the will, the plan that God has revealed within his word.
And then, of course, the idea that this altar was atoned for by the blood each year helps us recall afresh that all of this offering of the incense on this altar, it was enabled by the blood of the sacrificial lamb. And all of that blood was pointing forward to Jesus, so this helps us understand that prayer, not only is it supposed to be regular, not only is it supposed to be done according to God's will, but as believers we rejoice, don't we, that it is made possible by the blood of Jesus. Amen.
This is such an important truth for Christians to latch onto because it's very easy for us to fall back into the line of thinking that says, "It is my performance that gains me an audience with God." Or perhaps we might even delude ourselves into thinking, "It's the blood of Jesus that gives me an audience with God, but it's my performance that gets me the requests that the Jesus-enabled audience has given to me." In other words, if I'm good enough, then God owes me and he must respond in the positive in the prayers that I've prayed to him. But we've got to continue to recall that it is the blood of Jesus that enables our lives of prayer. We should not be people who pray boldly because we think we've lived a successful and good life. We should pray boldly because the blood of Jesus. We should not pray boldly because of our performance, but we should pray boldly because of the performance of Jesus. So we've got to recall that prayer is made possible by the blood of Christ. So pray. Be a person who prays.
The Census Tax
11 The Lord said to Moses, 12 “When you take the census of the people of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for his life to the Lord when you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them. 13 Each one who is numbered in the census shall give this: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as an offering to the Lord. 14 Everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the Lord’s offering. 15 The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when you give the Lord’s offering to make atonement for your lives. 16 You shall take the atonement money from the people of Israel and shall give it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may bring the people of Israel to remembrance before the Lord, so as to make atonement for your lives.”
But let's go on into verse 11 and see a real mysterious part of this chapter because now God is going to talk to Moses about this thing called the census tax, so let's read it together. The Lord said to Moses, "When you take the censes of the people of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for his life to the Lord when you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them. Each one who is numbered in the censes shall give this, half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary, the shekel is 20 gerahs, half a shekel is an offering to the Lord. Everyone who is numbered in the census from 20 years old and upward shall give the Lord's offering. The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than a half shekel. When you give the Lord's offering to make atonement for your lives, you shall take the atonement money from the people of Israel and shall give it for the service of the tent of meeting that it may bring the people of Israel to remembrance before the Lord so as to make atonement for your lives."
All right, so this is the census tax that God describes to Moses here in verse 11 to 16. Now, the reason why this is a challenging, or at the very least interesting passage, is because it is very difficult to ascertain when they were supposed to take a census. There's not a lot of clarity is to when a census was to occur. We had already seen earlier in the book of Exodus, in chapter 13, that the firstborn belonged to God, but God had already established a process of when a son was born first in the family, how that son could then be redeemed back into the family and how God accepted the Levites as a replacement for all the future generations of firstborns that would come along. This appears to be something different than that. This is not God's claim on the firstborns only, but in a sense, his claim on the whole nation, all the people of Israel whenever they took this census.
So one part of the reason why it's confusing is because we don't know when they were supposed to take this census, how often they were supposed to take it, but another element that throws an interesting wrinkle into this is because, even in this passage, God talks about the shekel being given so that they could avoid the plaque when they took a census, and that reminds us of the moment in second Samuel chapter 24. I actually just read this this morning in my own morning quiet time, where David took a census and even Joab, his commander, his cousin who was the commander of his army, who was as fleshly and dense as it comes, even Joab knew you're not supposed to do this, you're going to get in trouble with God if you do this, and he started to talk David out of it, but David would not be deterred. And after that census, God pronounced a judgment upon the people of Israel because of David's sin in taking that census.
Now, it's likely that the census that David took was of his warriors, so he's counting his army, and wanting to know how strong are we militarily. So it was almost probably almost an expression of self-trust and there seems to have been no census tax that David demanded that people pay in order to redeem themselves. So this passage is fascinating for those reasons. And it's just not forbidding a census, it's just giving Moses directions on how to appropriately take a census if he takes one.
Now, when they took one to count of people, they'd be age 20 and up, and when they gave this shekel or this half shekel, they'd be protected from a plague. So a couple of concepts here that perhaps stand out to us. One would be the concept in looking at second Samuel, 24, the concept of realizing that who we are, we belong to God and we're not to trust in our own strength, we're not to trust in the arm of the flesh, but we're to trust in the living God. And it does seem that in David's census, he was getting to the point where he was confident now in what he had built up and with the military might that they had, and that might have decreased his heart of prayer before God, dependence upon God.
But another thing that sort of stands out here is that everybody in Israel that was counted, they were all to pay the same tax. There are other offerings and sacrifices that would be given to God that had sort of a tiered system. If you're wealthy, you offered this. If you're middle class, you offered this. And if you're poor, you offer this. And of course something like the tithe would be respective of whatever your income and your situation was. But here, everyone, he actually mentions verse 15, the rich and the poor, they all offer the same thing. They all pay the same atonement tax. Sort of saying we belong to God, we're atoning for ourselves with this money. This reminds us, of course, that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and that all of us are in need of redemption and so the price is the same for all of us, the blood of Jesus. Regardless of our sin, regardless of our guilt, the price is the same for everyone.
I think, in a sense, this tax would have somehow been a reminder to future generations, because the silver, God tells Moses, went into actually constructing the temple furnishings. So forever there in the Temple, or the tabernacle, you'd see these furnishings that previous generations had paid. They belonged to God and so they devoted themselves to him.
The Bronze Basin
17 The Lord said to Moses, 18 “You shall also make a basin of bronze, with its stand of bronze, for washing. You shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it, 19 with which Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet. 20 When they go into the tent of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister, to burn a food offering to the Lord, they shall wash with water, so that they may not die. 21 They shall wash their hands and their feet, so that they may not die. It shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his offspring throughout their generations.”
Now, in verse 17 we get the bronze basin. It says, "The Lord said to Moses, 'You shall also make a basin of bronze with its stand of bronze for washing. You shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar and you shall put water in it with which Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet. When they go into the tent of meeting or when they come near the altar to minister, to burn a food offering to the Lord, they shall wash with water so that they may not die. They shall wash their hands and feet so that they may not die. It shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and his offspring throughout their generations.'"
So here, you have this little basin of bronze that stood between the massive bronze altar where the sacrifices were offered outside the tabernacle, and the door of the tabernacle you had the smaller basin of bronze, and it was meant to help the priests clean up a little bit. You can only imagine the dirt that would be on their feet as they served barefoot there in the temple or tabernacle precincts and you can only imagine the blood on their hands as they officiated over all of these different sacrifices. So this provided a way for them to ceremonially cleanse themselves on their hands and feet, he says there in verse 19, before they went into the tabernacle to pray, to cry out to the Lord to offer the incense and do the other elements that they would do inside of the holy place.
This helps us remember a couple of things. It helps us remember, first of all, that God is looking for a clean people. He wants us to be a pure people, to purify ourselves. This is part of what sanctification is, we come to Christ and we now are called to be continually growing in him. But it also helps us see that it's possible to even be defiled while serving the Lord. These priests could be unclean, they needed to go through the process of being cleansed again so that they could continue on in their ministry before God.
I cannot even begin to recount all the times that just trying to serve Jesus that in my life there have been moments I've had to afresh, go to the Lord, confess a sin or a heart attitude that was not in a right direction, ask for the Lord's cleansing, his washing in my life. And we praise the Lord that this cleansing is possible, that we can confess our sins to the Lord, as first John tells us, and that he is faithful and just to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. So we're called to pursue the Lord in this way so that he might cleanse our lives practically from sin throughout our lives.
Now, one thing that I don't want to fail to mention about this bronze basin before we move on in the passage is that we'll learn in Chapter 38, and perhaps we'll talk a little bit more about it once we get there, but once we get to those sections of Exodus we're really going to fly through them because they're very repetitive from the things that we've already studied, but what we learn there is that this basin was actually made of brass mirrors that the women who served there had donated to the tabernacle.
Now, that's just some interesting concept in and of itself because of course, they didn't have mirrors like we do today. Their mirrors consisted of polished bronze. So they would polish, they could see their reflection, and then many women donated these to the tabernacle. They were then turned into this basin where the water was held so that they could be cleansed. What an incredible picture that is. First of all, the picture of saying, "That thing with which I looked at myself, that thing with which I set my gaze upon my own image has now been turned into something that will help cleanse me so that these priests can pursue the image of God so they could be thinking about God." That might be a little bit of a shift that has that happen in us from time to time, don't you think? That shift from self-focused to focusing on the Lord.
But the other element of this that's so fascinating is that the word of God is held out in the New Testament as being like a mirror that reveals who we are and that washes us or that cleanses us. So perhaps this bronze basin made of old bronze mirrors has within it the idea of the cleansing nature, the illuminative nature of God's word. You get into it and it shows you who you are, but it doesn't just leave you decimated like the law would. But because there's grace it helps cleanse you and wash you. The washing of water of the word, as Paul said in Ephesians chapter 5. So this bronze basin would help them become cleaner for the work that God had called them to.
The Anointing Oil
22 The Lord said to Moses, 23 “Take the finest spices: of liquid myrrh 500 shekels, and of sweet-smelling cinnamon half as much, that is, 250, and 250 of aromatic cane, 24 and 500 of cassia, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and a hin of olive oil. 25 And you shall make of these a sacred anointing oil blended as by the perfumer; it shall be a holy anointing oil. 26 With it you shall anoint the tent of meeting and the ark of the testimony, 27 and the table and all its utensils, and the lampstand and its utensils, and the altar of incense, 28 and the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils and the basin and its stand. 29 You shall consecrate them, that they may be most holy. Whatever touches them will become holy. 30 You shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests. 31 And you shall say to the people of Israel, ‘This shall be my holy anointing oil throughout your generations. 32 It shall not be poured on the body of an ordinary person, and you shall make no other like it in composition. It is holy, and it shall be holy to you. 33 Whoever compounds any like it or whoever puts any of it on an outsider shall be cut off from his people.’ ”
Now, verse 22, we move on to the anointing oil and then the incense to close out this chapter. It says in verse 22, "The Lord said to Moses, 'Take the finest spices of liquid myrrh, 500 shekels and of sweet-smelling cinnamon half as much, that is 250 and 250 aromatic cane, and 500 of acacia according to the shekel of the sanctuary and a hin of olive oil, and you shall make of these a sacred anointing oil blended as by the perfumer. It shall be a holy anointing oil. With it, you shall anoint the tent of and the ark of the testimony, and the table and all its utensils, and the lamp stand and its utensils, and the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the basin and its stand. You shall consecrate them, that they would be most holy. Whatever touches them will become holy. You shall anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them that they may serve me as priest. And you shall say to the people of Israel this shall be my holy anointing oil throughout your generations. It shall not be poured on the body of an ordinary person and you shall make no other like it in composition. It is holy and it shall be holy to you. Whoever compounds any like it, whoever puts any of it on an outsider shall be cut off from his people.'"
So here we have the anointing oil. This was something that God would use to consecrate these different elements and, as we read through it, it's placed on everything as an emblem of consecration set apart, onto God, set apart by the spirit of God. The ingredients are mentioned in detail. You've got myrrh, cinnamon, cane, acacia, olive oil mixed to make this beautiful and fragrant blend. It was a holy anointing oil he says there in verse 25 and, like I said, used everywhere throughout the tabernacle. Of course, this helps us see, to a degree at least, the reality that, yeah, you'd have these different instruments there, but then they'd have to be anointed by God. They had to be set apart by the Lord. And I think it's not too big of a stretch for us to say that God, he wants to set us apart by his blood, consecrate us by the blood, but then also wants to anoint us with his holy spirit. He wants to enable us, and empower us, and gift us, and we'll see a little bit of that when we get to chapter 31.
But the real big warning comes in the last couple of verses of that paragraph about no ordinary person could have this oil put upon them, there's no other oil like it that's meant to be made, and if they tried to copy it they'd actually be cut off, or banished, ostracized from their people. So this was to be reserved for this use, tabernacle use only, and there could be no knock-offs of this tabernacle oil anywhere else in Israel.
The Incense
34 The Lord said to Moses, “Take sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum, sweet spices with pure frankincense (of each shall there be an equal part), 35 and make an incense blended as by the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy. 36 You shall beat some of it very small, and put part of it before the testimony in the tent of meeting where I shall meet with you. It shall be most holy for you. 37 And the incense that you shall make according to its composition, you shall not make for yourselves. It shall be for you holy to the Lord. 38 Whoever makes any like it to use as perfume shall be cut off from his people.”
The Lord then said to Moses in verse 34, "'Take sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum, sweet spices with pure frankincense, of each shall there be an equal part, and make an incense blended as by the perfumers, seasoned with salt, pure and holy. You shall beat it some it very small and put part of it before the testimony and the tent of meeting where I shall meet with you. It shall be most holy for you. And the incense that you shall make according to its composition you shall not make for yourselves. It shall for you holy to the Lord. Whoever makes any like it to use as perfume shall be cut off from his people.'" So again, very similar to the anointing oil. The incense had specific ingredients and it was also not to be copied. It was to be seasoned with salt, he say, and this was likely to add a white smoke to the burning of the incense, which would make it very dramatic and perhaps even offer a shielding as it went to the Holy of Holies, into the presence of God. Perhaps a shielding between God and the worshiper, this white smoke. Sort of an added element or an added wall between God and the worshiper because God is holy. He's shrouded in mystery and holiness.
Exodus 31
Now, in chapter 31, which is very brief, and so we'll take a moment to look at it, God tells Moses, again, this is Moses receiving all of these directions for the tabernacle, He tells Moses who will help him build all of these things. You can only imagine being Moses at this point up there in Mount Sinai thinking to yourself, "This sounds like a beautiful structure. I have no idea how to do these things myself." Well, God's going to give him directions on who to invite into this task.
The Craftsmen
1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, 4 to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, 5 in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft. 6 And behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. And I have given to all able men ability, that they may make all that I have commanded you: 7 the tent of meeting, and the ark of the testimony, and the mercy seat that is on it, and all the furnishings of the tent, 8 the table and its utensils, and the pure lampstand with all its utensils, and the altar of incense, 9 and the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the basin and its stand, 10 and the finely worked garments, the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons, for their service as priests, 11 and the anointing oil and the fragrant incense for the Holy Place. According to all that I have commanded you, they shall do.”
The Lord said to Moses, "See, I've called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur of the tribe of Judah, and I've filled him with spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge in all craftsmanship to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver and bronze, and cutting stones for setting and carving wood to work in every craft. And behold I've appointed with him, Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan, and I've given to all able men ability that they may make all that I have commanded you, the tent of meeting, and the Ark of the Testimony and the mercy seat that is on it and all the furnishings of the tent, the table and its utensils, and the ark, and the pure lamp stand with all its utensils, and the altar of incense and altar of burnt offering with all its utensils and the basin and its stand and the finely worked garments, the holy garments of Aaron, the priest, and the garments for his sons for their service as priests. And the anointing oil and the fragrant incense for the holy place according all that I have commanded you they shall do."
So basically these two men would lead other workers who would build and construct all of the elements that God had explained to Moses. Now, this is beautiful because it helps us see, first of all, God raises up the laborers. Jesus told us to pray to the Lord of the harvest because the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few, so what do we do? We cry out to the God of the harvest and we ask that he would raise up the laborers. Here, God has given to Moses a plan and now he steps backs and says, "And I've provided people for this plan." This is greatly encouraging to me because I live in a time where sometimes I look around and I wonder who from the next generation will arise that God is going use? Who will answer the call? But God has said that this is his plan, to take the gospel to all nations, so I know that he's going to put it on the heart of individuals to say yes to his purpose and to his plan. He will raise up laborers for the harvest if we cry out to him.
Now, the beautiful thing about these men is that not only were they able, it seems that they had ability and then God compounded their ability by filling them with his spirit. So he gave them the ability that they needed and he made the work powerful by anointing them with his spirit. And I do think there's something beautiful here about our work, the work of our hands, the things that we consider monotonous or not all that important, being filled with the spirit of God, that they are spiritual in nature because we're building, constructing, we're subduing the earth, just as God has asked us to do. So God gives to these men this ability.
Now, it's fascinating, God gives them ability, and what is it? Well, it's artistic ability. It's the ability to construct, and build, and design. It's very artistic in nature. This is beautiful because not everyone is called to be a pastor, a teacher, or take the gospel to another nation directly. Some have beautiful artistic gifts that can be cultivated and devoted to God and his purposes. We can write for the Lord, we can be artists for the Lord, we can create music or design buildings for the Lord, we can be doctors for the Lord, we can do landscape for the Lord, we can do all of these things in his name wanting to do our best because we're trying to serve the Lord. There might even be a little something here that points us forward the ultimate day when we would receive spiritual gifts because these men, Bezalel and Oholiab, they were both empowered by the Spirit and gifted by the Spirit of God, appointed by the Lord.
Now, these two men, their names indicate that they were men of high character. Bezalel, his name means in the shadow of the God, and Oholiab means tent of the father, or the divine father is my tent. So these guys were chosen by God for the work and God equipped them for the work that he called them to do. You need to know that about the Lord, if he calls you to a work, he will equip you for that work, he will enable you to get that job done.
The Sabbath
12 And the Lord said to Moses, 13 “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. 14 You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 15 Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. 16 Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. 17 It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’ ”
Now, to close out our chapter in verse 12 to 18, God reminds them as they're about to go build all of this, God reminds Moses of the Sabbath. The Lord said to Moses, "You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, 'Above all, you shall keep my Sabbaths for this is a sign between me and throughout your generations that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. You shall keep the Sabbath because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death or whoever does any work on it, that soul shall because cut off from among his people. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest wholly to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. Therefore, the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations as a covenant forever. It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and Earth and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.'" And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two Tablets of Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.
So here, to close out this section, in the context of telling Moses that Bezalel and Oholiab would construct the tabernacle and the garments and the spices, the anointing oil and incense, God tells Moses, "Hey, remind them though that the paramount command is that they keep the Sabbath." In times past, there were other emblems that stood out as signs of the covenant that God had made with this people, circumcision for Abraham for instance, but here God is saying the Sabbath, the keeping of the Sabbath, that will be emblematic of you being my people, to be a marker of your identity. And the Lord made some points here about this Sabbath. He told Moses here that the purpose of the Sabbath was to help the people understand that it was God who sanctifies them. He says this in verse 13, "that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you." So the Sabbath would help them understand that God is working in our lives. This is a day for us to remind ourselves that our whole life in society as a people is to be centered around God.
The second thing is that God wanted them to know that the penalty for violating the Sabbath, he repeated it a few times throughout this passenger, it would be death. That might seem harsh in our modern times and by our modern standards, but it helped the people of Israel understand the seriousness of this day before God and its purposes, that it was an extremely day that God wanted them to keep.
And finally, this Sabbath observance was meant to help them gain a sense of identity, we're different. We do something every Saturday that is different from the nations around us. We are in a covenantal relationship before God. This was part of the liturgy, if you will, this regular flow of life that was meant to teach these people a lesson. For them, every Saturday would come around, every Friday night would come around and they'd behave in a certain way and it was meant to just sort of put into the fabric of their every week lives, we belong to God. It's sort of like on Sundays when our church gathers together, I stand before the congregation and I open up my bible. We're going to hear a message when I open up the bible but the act of opening up the bible, reading from the Scripture is a message in and of itself. It's a message that, "Oh, I'm a person who every week I come to this place, we gather together, the bible is open and read, I'm the kind of person who believes that God is the authoritative voice in my life, and that the bible is the way they he has spoken to humanity."
18 And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.
No matter what else comes in the form of the sermon, that is the first message, God, his words are more important than mine, and I'm centering my life around his word. Well, the day of the Sabbath was very similar for the people of Israel. It was part of their liturgy every week to help them remember who they were in God. And after God delivered all of these instructions to Moses, he gave Moses the two tablets that had the 10 commandments written with the finger of God and then Moses came down the mountain and in our next study, we'll learn what he found when he did. God bless you, church. Have a wonderful week.