Tabernacle Studies Lesson #7
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I. Introduction.
I. Introduction.
Talk about the Bazaar in Joberg, the mosques, the imams and faithful coming to prayer. Bee in your soda! Sammoosas!
Talk about the wheel mall/bazaar in Durban. Ganesha big as a building on the wheel.
The bright colors and overpowering scents from joss sticks.
Different stalls and stores had different idols and different incense smells!
Those lazy columns of drifting smoke, rising to heaven and assaulting my nose and senses, I will not soon forget!
Did you know that there is incense in your Bible?
Far more than most today would even guess!
II. The Altar of Incense.
II. The Altar of Incense.
Because of Christ’s death, burial and ressurection, As foreshadowed by the altar of sacrifice, the brazen laver and the ark of the covenant, Christ became:
1) Our light,
2) Our intercessor,
3) Our Spiritual food.
So we have talked about The Golden Lampstand, Christ our light! Our source and life!
We have talked about the Table of Shewbread and Christ our Spiritual food.
But consider now the place of intercession: The Altar of Incense!
This place right here, is where the heavy lifting of Christian ministry takes place!
Not the ministry of the preacher alone, but that of every born again child of God!
You are intended to serve at this altar!
So, what exactly was the altar of incense?
It was an altar made of wood and covered in gold.
There were four horns on its four corners.
It had a crown of gold and priests carried it about with two staves. (Long poles)
This was located in front of the veil in the Holy Place.
Now folks, we move furniture around in my house.
Quite often in fact!
Move it, clean behind it and vacuum!
“How would it look on that wall?”
Get a change of scenerey!
But this altar of Incense was not moved around within the Holy Place.
It lived always, before the veil!
Know this saint of God:
Intercession is always found, right before the glory!
Intercession is always found, right before the glory!
Let’s read about it:
And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon: of shittim wood shalt thou make it. A cubit shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof; foursquare shall it be: and two cubits shall be the height thereof: the horns thereof shall be of the same. And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, the top thereof, and the sides thereof round about, and the horns thereof; and thou shalt make unto it a crown of gold round about. And two golden rings shalt thou make to it under the crown of it, by the two corners thereof, upon the two sides of it shalt thou make it; and they shall be for places for the staves to bear it withal. And thou shalt make the staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold. And thou shalt put it before the vail that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee. And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it. And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations. Ye shall offer no strange incense thereon, nor burnt sacrifice, nor meat offering; neither shall ye pour drink offering thereon. And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements: once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generations: it is most holy unto the Lord.
This altar of incense first typifies Christ as our intercessor!
Have you ever thought that Jesus himself, prays for you?
And have you ever thought that in the darkest hours you have ever known, It was His prayer that spared you and kept you!
Romans 8:34 (KJV 1900)
Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
Explain right hand/position of power and activity!
Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
Jesus ever liveth to make intercession!
His blood speaks for you!
He speaks for me!
Now this incense, what does it represent?
I’ll tell ya!
Incense clearly symbolizes prayer!
Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense;
And the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.
The High Priest offered this incense every morning and evening.
Likewise, Jesus our HIgh Priest, intercedes for us by the blood that He shed!
For 2K years, Jesus has been interceeding for the lost!
This was never meant to be a casual or short term thing!
We seek to understand the altar of incense, because this is the ministry of Jesus Christ, our great intercessor!
And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it. And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations.
Perpetual. It means unending, perpetual, leverlasting!
Prayers that do not stop!
Ok, what does it look like, to have Jesus pray for me?
Does He even do that?
Yes!
He did it before His sacrifice and He does it still today!
And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
Aren’t you grateful that Jesus prays for you?
That Jesus puts His love for you into words?
This God that created the Galaxies by His Word, He puts his love for you into words also!
There is creative power in that!
There is great strength in that!
We read how that once a year, the blood from the altar of sacrifice was put on the horns of the Incense altar.
And friend, because and only because Christ Jesus shed His blood for you and me, is He able to interceed for us!
Have you ever wondered if God was truly willing to forgive you and form you and help you and be in you?
The enemy tries to convince us otherwise.
But you have to remember:
And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
Jesus wants you to succeed more than you want to!
The enemy has tried and is trying to take you out!
But know that God is the ultimate power! And He is interceeding for you!
He has plans for you that are bigger and grander than you can begin to imagine!
I am so grateful to know that my Dad prays for me.
Oh but to know that I am on Jesus mind and my name is on His lips!
Just what happens as a result, do you think, of Jesus’ prayer for you?
Now in the context of the Church, the incense typifies the prayers of the saints.
Let me show you what you did for our community this past Sunday morning:
And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense.
We were sending incense up to heaven!
Do it in the morning He said and in the evening. Do it without ceasing!
Intercession is the unselfish prayer!
Praying for someone else!
But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.
Here is one man talking to God.
Did it take him one minute? Five?
I don’t know.
But we do know that God heard him!
Listen, your prayers never die!
God hears your long prayers, your short prayers, the big fancy ones and the desperate now, right now prayers!
Your prayers never die!
And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.
And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.
Just what does the church do at the altar of incense?
Here the church stands between God and the sinner, working to get that man or woman, lost in sin, to be reconciled with their maker!
Incense rising forever!
There are prayers that we have prayed in this church, mixed with that of millions of others, around the world, that will rise before Him age without end!
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
Listen now: If it were not for the prayers of the saints, nothing would hinder Satan from dominating the Earth!
Since horns denote power, it is through prevailing prayer that we have power with God.
When the priest poured the incnese on the altar, the red hot coals on it made the fragrant cloud rise up toward God.
The priest could have dupmped great quantites of incense on that altar without any cloud rising if the fire had been allowed to go out!
Do you know how the altar was kept alight?
It was coals take from the altar of sacrifice and brought to the altar of worship and incense that sent the smoke up to God!
Our worship is pure and powerful, when we take our thanksgiving and gratitude from the altar where we were forgiven, our sins counted no more, and we use that fire of gratefulness for sins forgiven, to light out worship!!!!!!
Are you grateful to God? Well then, you can pray!!!
Truly reach heaven!
Hey! Ain’t no perfect people!
But if they were, they would not be able to worship like you can!
They’d not be able to and interceed for others or pray like you did Sunday!
If that altar is allowed to go out, all the prayers in the world just pile up on the altar, they do not drift up to heaven’s courtroom!
And this is the difference between merely saying prayers and praying until we make contact with God!
Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
I want to point out to you that the priests were to carry this altar about on staves or long poles.
No matter where we are in our wilderness journey, we can carry with us the powerful weapon of prayer!
I also want you to know that the incnense was beaten very small. And our God still answers the smallest of prayers!
The incnese was to burn continually!
Just so, we read in Luk 18:1
And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
The place to pray for others is at this altar of incense.
Deal with your own situation at the altar of sacrifice and the laver of water.
But here you are a priest!
You have light because of the Golden Lampstand!
You are fed by the Word at the table.
Here now, is where you pray for others!
And worship too!
III. Conclusion
III. Conclusion
This place of worship and intercession is where you should be instead of complaining about folks.
Pray for them here.
This is our ministry!
The highest ministry available to man!!
“Be thou reconciled unto Christ!”
And where is it?
Right before the veil!
And on the other side of that veil, is the Shekinah Glory of God!
The only way we’ll ever get there, is if we come first come to pray!
The greatest men of the ages were intercessors!
Moses, Abraham, Jesus Christ!