incense INCENSE incense

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1 CHAPTER IX: PRAYER Prayer is the chief exercise of our faith and the lifeline that ties us to heaven. It is the life blood of spirituality for the local church. The church that earnestly travails in prayer is the one that will accomplish great things for the kingdom of God. Prayer is both a duty and a privilege; it is where we fight against the kingdom of darkness and where the great spiritual battles are won. In the darkest times throughout the history of God's people we can read about how God raised up a deliverer but seldom do we read the names of those anonymous men and women who prayed that deliverance into being. Prayer is a more selfless and noble work because it is mostly an anonymous work, often done in secret only before the eyes of Him who will never forget your service nor fail to reward it. But prayer can be tedious, difficult, time consuming and a real burden to our carnal flesh, which is why God provides aids to quicken our spirit and to encourage us to prayer. The chief of these is the encouragement of the Word of God. When man is told he should pray because God hears and answers prayer its one thing. When he learns from the Word of God that God hears and answers prayer, he has learned something that will stay with him and that he can quote even when Satan comes and whispers in his ear that "God doesn't hear your prayers." and that will answer all the accusations of his conscience, or the devil, or the world. In this way, the Word of God keeps on producing the fruit of good prayer in a Christian's life. Page 1 of 7

2 There are so many good things written on prayer that I feel it would almost be superfluous to say anything more on the subject, but will include a very brief encouragement to pray. "Lord, I cry unto thee: make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee. Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice." (Psalms 141:1-2) Two things are mentioned here that were taken directly from the Old Testament tabernacle (and later temple) service; incense, and the evening sacrifice. These two linked together in such a way that there cannot be one without the other. INCENSE: In the first verse of Exodus 30 we read about the altar of incense upon which Aaron (and later his descendants) were to burn sweet incense. The incense was a type or symbol of prayer. For an example of this look at Luke 1:9-10 where a descendant of Aaron, Zacharias the future father of John the Baptist, is doing his service at the temple."according to the custom of the priest's office his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the time of incense."remember Psalms 141:2 "Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense..."this scriptural imagery is entirely to encourage our faith. As a visible symbol of what prayer is and does we are allowed a glimpse into heaven itself to see that, yes our prayers do actually ascend to the throne of God just as a cloud of perfumed incense swirled around it's earthly representation in the temple. Let us now look at the two sides of prayer, the heavenly side and the earthly side, to see exactly what happens in heaven and on earth when we pray.in Revelation 5:8 we are afforded the clearest sight of the ultimate destination of our prayers in heaven. "And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and the four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps AND GOLDEN VIALS FULL OF ODOURS (INCENSE) WHICH ARE THE PRAYERS OF THE SAINTS. "It would be easy to miss the point here that each of the saints of God has a golden vial or incense censer before the Lord and all it takes to fill it up with the sweet perfume that pleases him is for us to spend a little time in prayer. The Golden vials here are the same as the censer in Leviticus 16:12-13, "And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the alter before the Lord, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil: And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not." Page 2 of 7

3 It was a bowl shaped vessel that contained burning coals upon which a handful of incense was thrown, producing a thick cloud of perfumed smoke-a sweet savor unto the Lord, and a visible symbol that showed that our prayers actually do ascend up to God in the same way that the incense did in the service. This is somewhat reminiscent of the way in which God appeared to Moses in a thick cloud in Exodus 19 and 20 and should remind us that God is to be found in the thick cloud of incense- prayer. What a privilege to be allowed to look beyond the veil and behold the very throne room of heaven. Having seen into heaven itself and caught a glimpse of how the prayers of God's people ascend up before Him, could we ever doubt again whether or not our prayers are heard? Could we ever again let the old enemy hinder us by suggesting that God doesn't hear us? I have already said quite enough to leave no one with an excuse for a lukewarm prayer life but to go even beyond that let us see the effects of prayer here on the earth. "There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band. A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway. He saw a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are COME UP for a memorial before God." (Acts 10:1-4) The prayers of a man who was not even saved yet are heard, and come up before God, how then could Christians ever doubt that their prayers are heard? This should encourage us all to fill up those incense censers with our prayers because they are certain to come up before God. Again we observe the imagery in that his prayers and alms have come up before God; come up, do not the very words conjure up an image of the incense wafting upward in swirls before the throne of God just as the incense did in th e temple? On earth, this man prayed and gave alms and these works done in good faith came up as a memorial before God. A memorial in the Old Testament is something that was done to call attention to oneself before God, to bring your plight to his attention and call you to his remembrance. For example, in Numbers 4 where we meet with the concept of a memorial for the first time it is shown how the people of Israel were to blow a trumpet before the Lord to be heard by him in a time of great need, such as when their enemies threatened to attack or a time of celebration as in the time of the festivals of Israel. The trumpet was a type or symbol of praise which is how the Bible instructs us to come into God's presence ( Psalms 95:2, 100:4) "And if ye go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then ye shall blow an alarm with the trumpets; and ye shall be remembered before the Lord your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies. Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings, that they may be to you for a memorial before your God: I am the Lord your God." (Numbers 10:9-10) Who does not see prayer and praise, two things which go together anyway, in this particular imagery? And who cannot see that the entire purpose of such imagery is the encouraging and uplifting of our faith? What, do you think God needs us to blow a horn loudly in order to hear us? That he cannot hear our slightest groan but only our loudest shout? As if God were hard of hearing or limited in what he can hear. No, of course the ceremony of blowing the trumpets is for our edification, and encouragement, not to attract God's attention, which we already have anyway. Page 3 of 7

4 The Old Testament saint would see the sons of Aaron blowing the trumpets and would remember that the Bible says that God would (not might) remember them. This would encourage and uplift his faith and he would not defile Israel's solemn assembly with his unbelief. In this way does God's Word give our faith something to stand on. We have said that there are two things taken from the Old Testament temple service that symbolize biblical truth about prayer. One was incense and the other was the evening sacrifice. THE EVENING SACRIFICE "Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice." (Psalms 141:2) We have already shown at length that the incense signified prayer; what of the evening sacrifice? I have elsewhere written about the morning and evening oblations found in Colossians 29:38-42 and that is what the Psalmist is referring to here. These two sacrifices of a lamb were symbolic of Christ and served to turn the people's thoughts heavenward to the hope of the messiah. The main point being that prayer, acceptable and encouraged, even commanded, is not acceptable without the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. So when the Psalmist constructs a parallel using incense and the evening sacrifice he is incorporating the two main aspects of prayer as shown in the tabernacle service, to pray (incense) and to pray in Jesus' name (the evening sacrifice). This means to come before God not presuming upon our own merit or religious works, but only in the attitude of gratefulness that on the cross the sacrifice of Jesus is what paid for our sins and thereby procured for us the right to come before God at all. This is the meaning of all this elaborate symbolism concerning the altar of incense-to show that our prayers must be sanctified by the blood of the sacrifice. This is also what it means to pray in Jesus' name, When we pray in Jesus' name we are acknowledging that we know we have no right to presumptuously come into the presence of the holy one because in and of ourselves we are unworthy sinners. Page 4 of 7

5 We are at the same time affirming that we trust God that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us of ALL sin (1 John1:7) and that by believing in Christ's power to cleanse us and make us righteous we can come into the very presence of God; and not timidly either but boldly (Hebrews 10:19) in other words, in faith! God wants us to so trust Jesus that we enter boldly by faith what we should fear and avoid by nature. To return to where this little study began let us go back to Exodus 30 where the incense was first ordered to be used on the altar. The altar that was used for the burning of incense was between the ark of the testimony and the veil, and was sanctified by the sprinkling of the blood of the animal sacrifice which indicates both to the people of that day and also to us that our prayers are acceptable only because of the sacrifice (the sacrifice being a symbol of Christ).In other words, the prayers of God's people are not in themselves acceptable but only because they are offered with the sacrifice which sanctifies them, which is of course the sacrifice of Christ on the cross of Calvary. THE PURPOSE OF THE IMAGERY The scriptural imagery, often elaborate and mysterious, veils scriptural truths that are not readily apparent but when we look beyond the surface we find them to be edifying to our faith, increasing our wonder at the ways of God. The question then becomes, why is all this symbolism necessary? Why couldn't God just have spoken out the plain truth that he hears us when we pray? To begin with, he did, many times in both Old and New would be to lift up his own ego. Testaments and still you are more often a prayer sluggard than a prayer warrior. Also the symbolism of the Old Testament gives us much to ponder and in the very struggle to come to an understanding of it we find that we have spent much time meditating on the Word of God, which cannot help but develop in us a greater faith. In addition, the deep truths about prayer are not for the unsanctified, the prideful intellectual or the know it all whose only use of such precious knowledge Page 5 of 7

6 When God condescends to lift the veil in order to further our understanding of his ways we must never forget that this is a privilege not something we can demand as a right. Moreover, another reason why he teaches us through such obscure types and images is, I suspect, that there is something in the psychological makeup of man that God knows will respond in faith to such symbolism. The best example I can think of to illustrate this is the prophet Jonah, when he prayed to God in the great fish's belly. Jonah was in the most desperate of circumstances and we could hardly blame him if in that situation he gave up. I wouldn't want my faith to be put to such a test. In his prayer, the prophet was actually quoting or paraphrasing from Solomon's dedication prayer when the temple was first built. "Hearken, therefore unto the supplications of thy servant, and of thy people, Israel, which they shall make TOWARD THIS PLACE; hear thou from thy dwelling place, even from heaven; and when thou hearest, forgive." (2 Chronicles 6:21) Solomon goes on to repeat the petition of forgiveness four more times always stating that if they pray TOWARD THIS PLACE, God will forgive them. It was this very imagery, which inspired Jonah to lift up his eyes, and hope in what must have been the most hopeless situation a mortal ever found himself. Listen to how the wayward prophet prays in Jonah 2:4 "Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again TOWARD THY HOLY TEMPLE." Again in verse 7, "When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thy holy temple." Why was it important for the prophet to look towards the temple in Jerusalem? Because in that place the symbolic acting out of Jesus' future death for the sins of the world occured. Who does not see that the prophet, in a completely hopeless situation, thought about Solomon's prayer which he had doubtless heard or read in 2 Chronicles 6, and was thus inspired to an almost unbelievable level of faith, for what does he end up praying? "But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord." How are you going to do that in the fish's belly Jonah? Do you actually expect to see once more the temple in Jerusalem? How could you have faith that you would ever see the temple again? Because he trusted that God's promise of forgiveness for all who look toward the temple was true, and if all who looked toward just the symbol of the cross of Jesus were assured of forgiveness how much more all who now look to the actual fulfillment of what the temple sacrifices symbolized? Page 6 of 7

7 We are humbled by the greatness of the prophet's faith and wonder not at all that for all his shortcomings such a man preached the greatest revival in history. In this way, we see how to improve and strengthen our faith by God's Word. So fill up then, that incense censer which is before the very throne of God. Meditate on God's promise to be gracious and forgive and hear you when you pray. Page 7 of 7