January 11, 2005

Reading through the Bible in one Year:   Genesis 24:15-25:11; Matthew 8:14-34

Weekly Memory Verse: 1 Peter 3:18

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

Exodus 30 (NASB95)
¹ “Moreover, you shall make an altar as a place for burning incense; you shall make it of acacia wood. ² “Its length shall be a cubit, and its width a cubit, it shall be square, and its height shall be two cubits; its horns shall be of one piece with it. ³ “You shall overlay it with pure gold, its top and its sides all around, and its horns; and you shall make a gold molding all around for it. ⁴ “You shall make two gold rings for it under its molding; you shall make them on its two side walls—on opposite sides—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 “You shall put this altar in front of the veil that is near the ark of the testimony, in front of the mercy seat that is over the ark of the testimony, where I will meet with you. ⁷ “Aaron shall burn fragrant incense on it; he shall burn it every morning when he trims the lamps. ⁸ “When Aaron trims the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense. There shall be perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations. ⁹ “You shall not offer any strange incense on this altar, or burnt offering or meal offering; and you shall not pour out a drink offering on it. ¹⁰ “Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once a year; he shall make atonement on it with the blood of the sin offering of atonement once a year throughout your generations. It is most holy to the Lord.” ¹¹ The Lord also spoke to Moses, saying, ¹² “When you take a census of the sons of Israel to number them, then each one of them shall give a ransom for himself to the Lord, when you number them, so that there will be no plague among them when you number them. ¹³ “This is what everyone who is numbered shall give: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as a contribution to the Lord. ¹⁴ “Everyone who is numbered, from twenty years old and over, shall give the contribution to the Lord. ¹⁵ “The rich shall not pay more and the poor shall not pay less than the half shekel, when you give the contribution to the Lord to make atonement for yourselves. ¹⁶ “You shall take the atonement money from the sons of Israel and shall give it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may be a memorial for the sons of Israel before the Lord, to make atonement for yourselves.” ¹⁷ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁸ “You shall also make a laver of bronze, with its base of bronze, for washing; and you shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it. ¹⁹ “Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet from it; ²⁰ when they enter the tent of meeting, they shall wash with water, so that they will not die; or when they approach the altar to minister, by offering up in smoke a fire sacrifice to the Lord. ²¹ “So they shall wash their hands and their feet, so that they will not die; and it shall be a perpetual statute for them, for Aaron and his descendants throughout their generations.” ²² Moreover, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²³ “Take also for yourself the finest of spices: of flowing myrrh five hundred shekels, and of fragrant cinnamon half as much, two hundred and fifty, and of fragrant cane two hundred and fifty, ²⁴ and of cassia five hundred, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and of olive oil a hin. ²⁵ “You shall make of these a holy anointing oil, a perfume mixture, the work of a 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 and all its utensils, and the laver and its stand. ²⁹ “You shall also consecrate them, that they may be most holy; whatever touches them shall be holy. ³⁰ “You shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister as priests to Me. ³¹ “You shall speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘This shall be a holy anointing oil to Me throughout your generations. ³² ‘It shall not be poured on anyone’s body, nor shall you make any like it in the same proportions; it is holy, and it shall be holy to you. ³³ ‘Whoever shall mix any like it or whoever puts any of it on a layman shall be cut off from his people.’ ” ³⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Take for yourself spices, stacte and onycha and galbanum, spices with pure frankincense; there shall be an equal part of each. ³⁵ “With it you shall make incense, a perfume, the work of a perfumer, salted, pure, and holy. ³⁶ “You shall beat some of it very fine, and put part of it before the testimony in the tent of meeting where I will meet with you; it shall be most holy to you. ³⁷ “The incense which you shall make, you shall not make in the same proportions for yourselves; it shall be holy to you for the Lord. ³⁸ “Whoever shall make any like it, to use as perfume, shall be cut off from his people.”^[1]

One thing that stood out to me on the first reading of this passage is the similarity between Jesus as a toddler receiving gold, frankincense and myrrh.  This passage speaks of all three of those items, the gold used in the altar of incense, the myyrh used in the anointing oil and the frankincense used in the incense that is most holy.  This similarity between the gifts of the three kings and the building of the tabernacle is too similar to ignore. 

Hebrews 9:3-4 (NASB95)
³ Behind the second veil there was a tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies, ⁴ having a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden jar holding the manna, and Aaron’s rod which budded, and the tables of the covenant;

Psalm 141:2 (NASB95)
² May my prayer be counted as incense before You; The lifting up of my hands as the evening offering.

Luke 1:10 (NASB95)
¹⁰ And the whole multitude of the people were in prayer outside at the hour of the incense offering.

Revelation 5:8 (NASB95)
⁸ When He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

Revelation 8:3-4 (NASB95)
³ Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne. ⁴ And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel’s hand.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NASB95)
¹⁶ Rejoice always; ¹⁷ pray without ceasing; ¹⁸ in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. ^[2]

We were discussing the other day the way that Jesus continually disappeared to go off and pray.  The altar of incense may have symbolized prayer.  When that is the case, notice that it was overlaid with pure gold, everything on the altar was gold.  It also took the honored place of being directly in front of the Mercy Seat where God met with men.  Look at the significance of that, Aaron was to offer an incense offering every morning, and at twilight, then again perpetually before the Lord for all generations.  Prayer is to be offered up constantly, Paul encouraged us to pray without ceasing.  Look at this as a picture of prayer.  Jesus came to fulfill the law, but the spirit of the law continues, where the altar of incense symbolized the prayers of the saints going up before God, Jesus embodied that altar of incense and made His life a life of prayer.  We are to follow suit, making prayer a priority in our lives.

Once each Year Aaron was to make atonement on the altar with the blood of the sin offering, making the altar most holy before the Lord.  Jesus shed His blood as a sin offering for all people, His altar of prayer was sanctified forever with His blood.

Romans 12:3-4 (NASB95)
³ For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. ⁴ For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, ^[3]

The next thing discussed in the passage is the census where the half-shekel was paid for the ransom of each person.  This offering protected them from disease and plagues.  Notice that the exact same amount of money was required from everyone.  It weighed about one-fifth of an ounce.  i may be reading into the text, a thought crossed my mind as I read through this verse, I thought about the measure of faith that is issued to each believer.  Each and every one of us are exactly the same in the eyes of God.  None of us is any more important than the other, we are all sinners saved by grace.  If it were not for the blood of Jesus we would all be doomed to spend eternity in hell.  In God's eyes, whether we are rich or poor, we are still the same in His eyes.  Our ability to serve Him is based upon our faith in Him, and He gives each one of us the exact same measure of faith.   

Verse 15 carries this thought one step further, according to the NASB footnotes, the "yourselves" could also be translated "your souls".  We all know that we cannot buy our salvation, it is a symbol of what we are to do with our faith that God has given us.  We are not to hoard it and keep it for ourselves, our faith is meant to be given back to God.  The atonement is similar to the tithe where we give our money in acknowledgement that God is in charge of our finances.  The atonement is an exercise demonstrating that we belong to God.  Today that exercise is to put the measure of faith into action in our lives.  God says that He gave us a measure of faith, we don't automatically put it into practice.

The next article discussed was the "laver of bronze", this speaks of the need to stay clean before the Lord.  Our lives are to be devoted to Him, in all areas, and all areas of our lives are to be constantly cleansed.  There was also a practical aspect to this ritual, God was protecting them from possible infections that came from handling and walking around after handling dead animals.  They didn't know what germs were, but God did.

The anointing oil was special, constructed in a precise mixture that was not to be duplicated for any other purpose.  Jesus was given myrrh as one of the spices by the wise men.  They were wiser than they knew because He was the anointed one that was prophesied from the Old Testament.  His life anointed the altar of all of our lives, making our lives holy in His presence.  Jesus was the one who anointed every believer with the oil of the Holy Spirit, and sanctified each believer through His blood.  We stand Holy and righteous in His presence because He has passed His anointing on to us.  In the Old Testament usage, it was used to sanctify the temple and all of its implements.

We have already discussed the incense, but similar to the oil, it was designated exclusively for use in the tabernacle.  The idea of both the oil and th incense is that it created a most-holy environment.  Our lives are to be permeated with the holiness of the Lord.  Our lives are to be speckled and consumed with prayer, and we are to carry the fragrance of the incense in our lives.  In practicality, our lives are already sanctified by Jesus and made most holy so that we can stand in the presence of the Father. Check out this note:

This perfume was probably the most lovely fragrance imaginable, but God said it would cost the people their lives if they made it for themselves. That’s because the fragrance was holy, designed only for God. When this incense rose to God, it was unique to Him. It pictures worship as a holy act that rises from a person’s heart to God in heaven. ^[4]

Mary’s deed was an act of true worship. As the fragrance arose from her perfume, filling the room, it was a powerful symbol of a worshipful heart. That’s what God is after.

We tend to be so pragmatic, don’t we? We are a generation of Marthas—always busy. We have the church fine-tuned to a system, with all its programs and activities. And we are very careful not to waste our substance. Even what we give to God we tend to mark out very carefully, rather than pour out a year’s wages and stoop humbly to wipe His feet with our hair.

I think a comparison of worship with service or ministry might help distinguish what true worship really is. To begin with, it is not the same as ministry. Ministry comes down to us from the Father, through the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to one another in the form of spiritual gifts. Worship goes up from us, by the Spirit’s power, through the Son, to the Father. Ministry descends from God to us, while worship ascends from us to God. Both must be in perfect balance. Unfortunately, we tend to be too ministry oriented (like Martha) and not oriented enough toward worship. We need to learn from Mary how to sit at Jesus’ feet and worship Him.

A wise minister wrote long ago:

Come now, little man, put aside your business for a while, take refuge for a little from your tumultuous thoughts; cast off your cares, and let your burdensome distractions wait. Take some leisure for God; rest awhile in him. Enter into the chamber of your mind; put out everything except God and whatever helps you to seek him; close the door and seek him. Say now to God with all your heart: “I seek thy face, O Lord, thy face do I seek” (cited by R.W. Southern in Saint Anselm and His Biographer [Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1963], p. 49). ^[5]

I read into the implements that were discussed today, I read into the text, and embellished the thoughts some.  I hope that the digression from the historical texts did not take away from the sacred intentions of these implements.  I ask that as you read through this passage, if you disagree or agree with my discussion that you will write in, I will be glad to post your comments.

Father, as we consider Your word, and the work of Jesus on the cross, that we will put all of these principles into practice in our lives.  That we will commit to living a life of holiness, one fashioned after the example that Jesus left for us.

In Him,

Joe Turner.