The Aroma of Heaven: The Furniture of Prayer Text: Exodus 37:25-29
Introduction: God's Interior Design
We live in a pragmatic and materialistic age, an age that has very little patience for symbolism. If something does not have an immediate, practical, and preferably profitable function, we tend to dismiss it as frivolous decoration. Our worship reflects this. We want four bare walls and a sermon that gives us three steps to a better week. But God is not a pragmatist. God is an artist, a poet, and a master craftsman. When He designs His own house, He does not give a minimalist blueprint. He gives a detailed, glorious, and profoundly symbolic set of instructions. Every piece of furniture, every type of material, every measurement has a meaning. It all preaches.
The tabernacle is not just a tent for the Israelites to meet God in. It is a scale model of the cosmos. It is a picture of the heavenly reality. More than that, it is a detailed, architectural prophecy of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the true tabernacle, the place where God dwells with man (John 1:14). To neglect these details, to skim over them as tedious minutiae, is to walk past a portrait gallery of the Savior with our eyes closed. It is to ignore the grammar God uses to teach us about Himself.
In our text today, we come to the construction of the altar of incense and the holy anointing oil. These are not peripheral items. They are central to the life of worship. The altar of incense stood in the Holy Place, just before the veil that separated sinful man from the blazing glory of God in the Holy of Holies. It was the closest a priest could get to the immediate presence of God in his daily ministry. And its function was to offer up a sweet-smelling aroma to God continually. This furniture, as we will see, teaches us about the very heart of our relationship with God. It teaches us about prayer, about the person of Christ, and about the work of the Holy Spirit. It shows us how a holy God makes it possible for unholy people to approach Him, not with trembling fear, but with an offering that is a sweet savor in His nostrils.
The Text
Then he made the altar of incense of acacia wood: a cubit long and a cubit wide, square, and two cubits high; its horns were of one piece with it. He overlaid it with pure gold, its top and its sides all around, and its horns; and he made a gold molding for it all around. He made two golden rings for it under its molding, on its two sides, on opposite sides, as holders for poles with which to carry it. He made the poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold. And he made the holy anointing oil and the pure, fragrant incense of spices, the work of a perfumer.
(Exodus 37:25-29 LSB)
The Altar of Intercession (v. 25-28)
We begin with the construction of the altar itself.
"Then he made the altar of incense of acacia wood: a cubit long and a cubit wide, square, and two cubits high; its horns were of one piece with it." (Exodus 37:25)
Like the other pieces of furniture, the foundation is acacia wood. This was a common desert wood, tough and resistant to decay. In Scripture, wood, which comes from the earth, consistently speaks of humanity. But this is not just any humanity; its incorruptible nature points to the perfect, sinless humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is a root out of dry ground, a man, but a man without sin, without decay, without corruption.
But this humanity, perfect as it is, is not left bare. Verse 26 tells us, "He overlaid it with pure gold." Gold, in the Bible, is the metal of deity, of glory, of kingship. What we have here, in this single piece of furniture, is a perfect picture of the hypostatic union. We have the two natures of Christ, human and divine, joined together in one person. You have the acacia wood, His true humanity, and you have the pure gold, His true deity. You cannot separate them. This is our Mediator. Because He is man, He can represent us. Because He is God, He can save us. Any prayer, any worship that is not offered on the basis of this reality, the God-man, Jesus Christ, is an offering made on a different altar, and it will not be accepted.
The altar has horns, one piece with the altar itself. Horns in Scripture are a symbol of power and strength. When a guilty man fled for refuge, he would grab hold of the horns of the altar (1 Kings 1:50). These horns represent the power of Christ's intercession to save. There is mighty power in the prayers of Jesus. His intercession is not a hopeful plea; it is an authoritative demand based on His finished work. When He prays for His people, He is not ignored. The Father always hears the Son, and the horns of this altar are a picture of that prevailing power.
The altar is also portable. It has rings and poles, also made of acacia and gold. This signifies that the access to God through prayer is not tied to one location. Wherever God's people go, the altar goes with them. We do not have to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to pray. Through Christ, we can approach the throne of grace from anywhere, at any time. The way is always open, because our Mediator is always with us.
The Fragrance of Worship (v. 29)
After the construction of the altar, we are told of the two substances that make it function: the oil and the incense.
"And he made the holy anointing oil and the pure, fragrant incense of spices, the work of a perfumer." (Exodus 37:29 LSB)
First, there is the holy anointing oil. The instructions for this oil were given back in Exodus 30. It was a specific, unique blend of myrrh, cinnamon, calamus, and cassia, mixed in olive oil. This oil was used to consecrate, to set apart, everything in the tabernacle, including the priests themselves. It marked everything as holy unto the Lord. Oil in Scripture is a consistent type of the Holy Spirit. For anything to be holy, for anything to be acceptable to God, it must be consecrated by the Spirit. Our prayers are no different. We do not even know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words (Romans 8:26). True prayer is not something we work up; it is a work of the Spirit within us, consecrating our hearts and our words, setting them apart for God's ears.
Second, there is the pure, fragrant incense. This too was a specific recipe, not to be duplicated for common use. This incense was to be burned on the golden altar every morning and every evening, a perpetual offering before the Lord. The smoke of the incense rising up is a picture of the prayers of the saints. David says, "Let my prayer be set before You as incense" (Psalm 141:2). In the book of Revelation, the elders before the throne have "golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints" (Revelation 5:8).
This tells us something crucial about prayer. Our prayers are meant to be a sweet aroma to God. But how can that be? Our prayers are often fumbling, selfish, and weak. On their own, they have no fragrance. They are offered, remember, on an altar that is a picture of Christ. They are kindled with fire taken from the brazen altar of sacrifice. And the incense itself, a picture of the merits of Christ's own righteousness, is what makes them fragrant. Our prayers are made acceptable and pleasing to God only because they are mingled with the perfect intercession of our great High Priest. He takes our feeble petitions, purifies them, and presents them to the Father, wrapped in the aroma of His own perfect righteousness. What rises before the throne is not the smell of our faltering faith, but the sweet perfume of the Son's perfection.
Conclusion: The Unceasing Aroma
This piece of furniture, then, is a profound gospel lesson. It stands as a permanent reminder that our access to God is not based on our performance, but on a perfect Mediator. It teaches us that true prayer is supernatural, initiated and enabled by the Holy Spirit. And it shows us that our prayers are made powerful and pleasing not by our own eloquence, but by the righteousness of Christ which perfumes them before the throne of God.
The incense was to burn perpetually. Morning and evening, the aroma was to fill the Holy Place. This is a picture of the command for us to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). This does not mean we are to be on our knees 24 hours a day. It means that the life of the believer is to be a life of constant, dependent communion with God. Our whole lives are to be an aroma of Christ, rising to God as a pleasing sacrifice.
This altar stood right before the veil. On the other side of that curtain was the raw, unmediated glory of God. The only thing that stood between the priest and that glory was this altar. And when Christ died, that veil was torn in two, from top to bottom. The way into the Holiest of all was thrown open. The altar of incense did not become obsolete; its reality was fulfilled. We now have bold access to the very throne of grace, to offer up our spiritual incense through Jesus Christ our Lord. He is our altar, He is our incense, and it is His Spirit who anoints us to pray. Therefore, let us draw near, knowing that because of Him, our prayers rise before God as the very aroma of heaven.