Our Creator God, Elohim, loves color, fragrance, and variety. Like any artist, He has particular choices about the supplies He uses. We considered the dimensions and materials used to build the Altar of Incense. And in our last meeting, we covered who was appointed to tend the altar and when. Now, we will investigate the incense God chose and what it represented.

Here is our base text: Exodus 30:34-35.

And the Lord said to Moses: Take sweet spices, stacte, and onycha and galbanum, and pure frankincense with these sweet spices; there shall be equal amounts of each. 35 You shall make of these an incense, a compound according to the art of the perfumer, salted, pure, and holy.

Three of the ingredients He calls ‘sweet spices.’ They are Stacte, Onycha, and Galbanum. These names are not familiar to most of us. So, first, let’s look at their source.

Stacte: Stacte was a fragrant sap of gum from a tree. The word itself means to drop or to distill. Stacte needed crushing for use.

Onycha: A ground shellfish taken from the Red Sea. Its fragrance comes from the things it ate. They crushed it fine for use.

Galbanum: A sap or gum that came from a plant or shrub. It was a bitter gum used to drive away insects. Crushing was necessary for use. 

Frankincense is not a sweet spice, but it was part of the incense. It is white and comes from the sap of a tree. It speaks of purity and righteousness.

The last ingredient is salt. Salt is a seasoning and a preservative. But when they put it in the Tabernacle sacrifices and incense, it represented God’s covenant with His people. 

Leviticus 2:13 And every offering of your grain offering you shall season with salt; you shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your grain offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt.

This covenant carries over to the New Testament. In the Sermon on the Mount, Yeshua told His disciples, “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.” Matthew 5:13

Salt is a sign of covenant, but it is also a sign of devotion and loyalty. To be in salt covenant with Yeshua means we are willing to do what He commands as His disciples. If we are unwilling to stay true to the covenant, we are of little use.

Note that the sweet spices were all crushed or ground fine. Yeshua endured the humiliation of crushing. Philippians 2:8 says, And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

God calls us to live lives of humility, fully submitted to follow our Lord. And when we pray, we need to remember Who we are standing in front of and the price He paid for us. We can come with boldness, yes, but humility must be in our hearts before our King. 

God gave Aaron, the High Priest, one other specific command about the Altar of Incense. We find this command in Exodus 30:10.

And Aaron shall make atonement upon its horns once a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonement; once a year he shall make atonement upon it throughout your generations. It is most holy to the Lord.

Once a year, Aaron placed the blood of atonement on the horns of the altar of incense. The Altar of Incense was not where atonement took place. But the priests remembered and enjoyed the blessing of atonement there all year. The perfect sacrifice of Yeshua ensures that Yahweh hears our prayers. 

Proverbs 15:29 The Lord is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous. 

2 Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Romans 5:18 Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.

Aaron took coals from the Brazen Altar—the Altar of Sacrifice, to ignite the incense. Prayer does not atone or make amends for our sins—only the sacrifice of Yeshua, His blood washes us clean. 

Gold was the only metal used in the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. The censer Aaron carried held the coals and the incense. 

And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. 3 Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. 4 And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand. Revelation 8:2-4

Number 16 tells the story of Korah and some of his tribe who came before Moses and Aaron with bronze censers. Yahweh judged them and had the bronze censers hammered into a covering for the Brazen Altar. The Holy Place and the Holy of Holies were places of holiness. Sin, nor anything representing sin could enter or be a part. 

Next Monday, September 25, 2023, will be the Day of Atonement/Yom Kippur. The Jews use the days between Rosh HaShanah/Feast of Trumpets and Yom Kippur as a time of repentance and making amends. 

Yom Kippur is also called the Day of Face-to-Face for this reason. In the days when the Tabernacle was in use or the Temple, the High Priest would meet face-to-face with Yahweh, in the Holy of Holies. He went in carrying the blood of sacrifice for the sins of Israel. It was the only day out of the year that he could go into the Holy of Holies. The people stood outside praying for God to receive the sacrifice. Would He forgive them for their sin?

We may not think it is a sacred day, but our opinions don’t count. It is sacred to God. It is the only day out of the year that He commands a 24-hour fast and a Sabbath. Leviticus 23:26-28, 31-32

Twice a day, year-round, the ministering priest carried a censer full and laid it on the altar. The priest lit the incense in the morning from the altar of sacrifice. It glowed and glimmered all day. And in the evening, the priest relit the incense. It released its fragrance all night. 

Petition and Intercession are often the focus of prayer. Still, the Altar of Incense was an altar of thanksgiving and praise. The priests, so caught up in contemplating Yahweh, were filled with worship to their great God. 

This Yom Kippur, take time to focus on God’s goodness. Take time to pray for our Jewish brothers and sisters that they come to a saving knowledge of the Messiah. We can also pray for our unsaved loved ones and others who do not know Yeshua. And as Daniel prayed in Daniel 9, we can spend time repenting for our nation and for the unconfessed sins we have in our lives. 

P.S. As you all know, we began this study of the Tabernacle on January 12, 2023. We followed the instructions and happenings as written in the Bible. Abba encouraged me to slow down here and there to catch all the details He wanted covered. It amazes me that we are considering the Day of Atonement right on time. I didn’t plan it this way, but He did. 

Keep trusting in Him, my friends. He is leading us and leading our nation in ways we do not see. But in time, we will see it and stand in awe of His sovereignty and His goodness. 

Shalom ♥