THE GOLDEN ALTAR
This was made of shittim wood overlaid with gold, having a crown round about it, four horns on the four corners, and rings and staves for carrying it, Ex. 30. 1-5. It was to stand before the veil, and Aaron was to burn sweet incense upon it every morning and every evening. Nothing but incense was ever to be burned on this altar. On its horns certain sin offering blood was to be put, but not burnt; while the incense that was burnt was to be only that which God directed Moses to prepare, Ex. 30:34, 3534And the Lord said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be a like weight: 35And thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy: (Exodus 30:34‑35).
The four spices, stacte, onycha, galbanum and frankincense, were to be mixed in equal parts and salted. A part was to be beaten small and laid up before the testimony.
“The body" (substance) "is of Christ." Christ is the true incense, and is not seen in this figure as partaker of flesh and blood, as the fragrant spices tell rather of those characteristics and graces which, in Him, were always morally beautiful to the eye and heart of God. No words can measure these, nor can we assign by any scripture a particular grace to each spice. As is usual, the number is four to represent completely on earth, just as four gospels narrate His life in full. The chief sacrifices are four; the solid materials for the building of the tabernacle are four, three are metal, gold, silver, copper, and one is wood. So three of the sacrifices have blood, and the meal offering has not. John is very distinct from Matthew, Mark and Luke, the four coverings of the building are three from animals, badger, ram and goat, and one is of fine twined linen. The full story of Gentile power is seen in a bear, a lion, a leopard, and a fourth beast diverse from them without a name.
We may surely regard the fourfold spice as a complete expression of all that was worthy and excellent in Him, who is the chiefest among ten thousand, and altogether lovely. It is not now the question of his ability to make propitiation by blood-shedding, that is not seen either in the vessel, or in the offering. The wood and the gold show Him as man and divine, but this latter rather as suiting God's own nature in glory. In the incense itself there is a clear correspondence with this, no life-blood, but the sweetness of the graces in Him which were ever grateful to God.
Then this incense was burnt, giving out its cloud from the fire, as the priest ministered, and the cloud rising to God. It is the person of our Lord Jesus submitted in death to the consuming judgment of a righteous throne. But from Him, being of whom incense tells, what results? A cloud. But a cloud in scripture stands as the expression of the glory of God. When the tabernacle was set up, a cloud covered it and the glory of Jehovah filled it, Ex. 40:34, 3534Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 35And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. (Exodus 40:34‑35). When Solomon dedicated the temple, "the cloud filled the house of Jehovah, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of Jehovah had filled the house of Jehovah," 1 Kings 8:10, 1110And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, 11So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord. (1 Kings 8:10‑11). Again, "the glory of Jehovah appeared in the cloud," Ex. 16:1010And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. (Exodus 16:10). Again, "and a cloud received Him out of their sight," Acts 1:99And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. (Acts 1:9). While we read also that He was "received up in glory," 1 Tim. 3:1616And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. (1 Timothy 3:16) (not into.)
When then the incense was burnt, the resulting cloud calls our attention to another aspect of the cross, not the atonement so much as the glory brought to God by the obedience to death of such a sufferer. Never was such a tribute paid to justice before, nor ever can be again; never was the majesty of our God so honored as when the Lord of Glory bowed voluntarily under the wrath that was our due. It was not the drinking of the cup alone, but it was the submission of the Son of His love, who knew no sin, to the judgment of sin, that constituted a homage which all creation together was too poor to yield.
What a cloud! What justice! What glory! What love!
For us, to-day, as priests, there is the special favor of offering by Him (the golden altar), sacrifices of praise confessing His name. It is worship in its strict value. It is remembering our Lord Jesus in this grandest character before our God. It is on the ground of all we have seen at the brazen altar that we are brought in to express to our God and Father what sense we have of the beauty of the Lord rising from the cross. It is not so much what we get as what God Himself received from Calvary. Not the meeting of need, whether our need as guilty, or God's need in righteousness (though all was there), but the suiting of divine nature by One who knew what "became Him," and who alone was able to accomplish it.
One thought more—it all sprang out of God's own heart, in its purposes from eternity, for the Lamb was foreordained before the foundation of the world. So that we joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The glory all returns to Him. He sent His Son. Who died, glorifying God when "made sin;" showing what a gain to God and to His universe the permission of sin to come into existence was; and bringing us the sinners in His own comeliness to God, so conscious of it that all we can do is bless the Blesser, the Father, and the Christ out of the fullness with which our souls overflow. "The Father seeketh such to worship Him.”
Reader, have you ever spent one single half hour at the golden altar, just, and only, telling God how delighted you are with Him and His Christ?
Remember, you cannot do this if you try. But if, in quiet faith before God's testimony to His Son, you drink in the sense of what Christ is to God, then you will go and do it, for out of the fullness of your heart your mouth will speak. That is God's only way of securing what He "seeks.”