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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. Exodus 30:7-10
The above verses come from the text of
Scripture where the Lord is instructing Moses about how to
build the tabernacle, all of the furniture and the use of
each piece of furniture. Here, He is referring to the altar
of incense. We know that each article and thing in the
tabernacle was a picture of something in our relationship
with the Lord and His redeeming work as the Lamb of God.
According to Revelation 8:3-4, the golden altar of incense
was a picture of the prayers of the 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. And
in Leviticus 16:13 we see that the High priest was commanded
to put incense upon the altar before he went in to sprinkle
the blood upon the mercy seat so that he wouldn't die -
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.
Let's look at our beginning text: verse
7 says, that he was to burn the incense in the morning. Look
at Psalm 5:3 - My voice shalt thou hear in the
morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto
thee, and will look up. Psalm 59:16 - But I
will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy
in the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge in
the day of my trouble. Psalm 88:13 - But
unto thee have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my
prayer prevent thee. Psalm 143:8 - Cause me
to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I
trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I
lift up my soul unto thee. There is just a few
scriptures about seeking God's face in the morning; not that
you can't pray at other times, because verse 8 says that he
was to burn the incense upon the altar at evening as well.
That is like Psalm 55:17 says, Evening, and morning,
and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear
my voice. So, prayer at any time of the day is
good; we need God's presence and direction all day long, but
there is something special about starting the day out with
the Lord. Verse 9 says that he should not offer any strange
incense thereon; there is abolutely no substitute for
prayer, no amount of reading the Bible, no amount of
studying the Bible, no amount of reading books about how to
be a powerful Christian, listening to any kind of music,
etc. can give you power, victory and strength like praying
and communing with the living God. You ought to read and
study the Word of God, there is no subsitute for it either;
you need it, but if you do not pray as well, then your life
will be lacking. Another thing about the incense is that it
was a daily thing, a perpetual incense. We can probably all
quote I Thessalonians 5:17 - Pray without ceasing.
We have to stay with it, we cannot quit to much is
relying on our prayers, not that our prayers are anything
special, but God has chosen to work through them. I Timothy
2:1-3 says, I exhort therefore, that, first of all,
supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks,
be made for all men;
For kings, and for all that are in authority; that
we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and
honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God
our Saviour... Our on lives depend on it; He
said to pray so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life
in all godliness and honesty. We cannot
quit praying. Lastly, verse 10 says, that
the priest was to make an atonement on the altar of blood.
Do you realize that it is only because of the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ that we are even allowed to come before
the Lord in prayer. Hebrews 4:16 says, Let us
therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may
obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Then if you look at Hebrews 10:19 it says,
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the
holiest by the blood of Jesus... Thank the Lord for
the priveledge of prayer.
Until next time, may the Lord bless you
Sis.
Tanya |
in the
