The Incense (Exodus 30:34-38).
a The constituents of the incense to be taken (Exodus 30:34).
b They are to be made into incense, a perfume after the art of the perfumer.
c Seasoned with salt, pure and holy (Exodus 30:35).
d It is to be beaten very small and put before the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting (Exodus 30:36 a).
d There Yahweh will meet with Moses (Exodus 30:36 b)
c It shall be to them most holy (Exodus 30:36 c).
b They shall not make the same composition of incense for themselves, it is to be holy to them from Yahweh (Exodus 30:37).
a Whoever makes its like in order to smell it will be cut off from his people (Exodus 30:38).
Note the parallels. In ‘a' the constituents of the incense are described and in the parallel the warning not to make its like in order to smell it. In ‘b' they are to make the incense through an expert, and in the parallel it is to be holy to them from Yahweh so that they must not make any for themselves of the same composition. In ‘c' it is to be seasoned with salt, pure and holy, and in the parallel it is to be to them most holy. In ‘d' it is to be put before the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, and in the parallel Yahweh will meet there with Moses.
‘And Yahweh said to Moses, “Take to yourself sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum, sweet spices with pure frankincense. There shall be a like weight of each (or ‘every part shall be for itself').”
Stacte (‘dropping') is a fragrant resin obtained from droppings of resin from a plant, either the ‘balm of Gilead' (from southern Arabia) or storax from the Palestinian hills. Onycha may be from shellfish in the Red Sea or from the horny plate that covers a species of mussel now found in the lakes of India which, when burned, emits a musky odour. Galbanum is a pleasantly aromatic gum resin derived from certain umbelliferous plants. Frankincense, (named so from the Old French for 'pure incense'), as used by the Jews, Greeks, and Romans, was a gum resin now called olibanum which was derived from certain trees of the genus boswellia found growing on the limestone of South Arabia and Somaliland. Thus, three of the four ingredients in the incense burned on the golden altar were gum resins. Gum resins are mixtures of gum and resin obtained from plants or trees by incision. Resins burn readily because they contain volatile oils. If it means the ‘like weight of each' it confirms its perfect balance. But it may mean that each was prepared separately before being combined. We note that, along with the salt which seasoned the mixture (Exodus 30:35), there were five ingredients, the number of covenant.
“And you shall make incense of it, a perfume resulting from the skilful art of the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy. And you shall beat some of it very small, and put it before the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, where I will meet with you. It shall be most holy to you.”
Once again the skilled work of the perfumer must be utilised to produce the very best refined incense. And all was to be seasoned with salt. When required the resultant incense was to be ground small and probably placed in a hollow on the altar of incense which was set before the veil behind which was the Testimony (the covenant of the ten words and other records) within the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh. There Yahweh would meet with him. Whether the ‘you' (singular) is Moses or Aaron or the people as represented by Aaron we are not told. Probably all were included. The great holiness of the incense is then stressed.
“And the incense which you shall make, you shall not make for yourselves of the same composition. It shall be holy for Yahweh to you. Whoever will make the same as that, to smell it, he shall be cut off from his people.”
Like the anointing oil the incense is to be sacred to its purpose and used for no other. It was to be seen by the people as ‘holy for Yahweh'. Anyone seeking to reproduce it in order to smell it was to be ‘cut off from his people'. This may have meant permanent expulsion into the desert, or being put to death (Exodus 31:14). The significance of this is that the incense smell was reserved for Yahweh and was most holy, signifying the praise and worship and declaration of loyalty of His people and that alone.
Notes for Christians.
The incense altar represents Christ through Whom we must come if our worship is to be acceptable to God. Having been cleansed with blood at Christ the brazen altar we come through Christ the golden altar to offer up the incense of our worship, praise and prayers (Revelation 5:8). For it is only through Him that we can be acceptable at all. But through Him we are presented, now potentially and by imputation and one day fully, holy, unblameable and unreproveable in His sight (Colossians 1:22), as holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:27), accepted in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:6).
The summing of the people of God is a reminder that we are all individually known to Him as one of His whole complete people (Revelation 7:1-8), and that even the hairs of our head are numbered (Matthew 10:30; Luke 12:7 - something Moses was never told to attempt). And the payment of the ransom money an indication that our service for Him is never as full as it ought to be so that we must always admit that we have not totally done what it was our duty to do.
The laver reminds us that hourly and daily we must wash ourselves as we enter His presence because we are constantly tainted by contact with the world and with sin. We must walk in His light and let the blood of Christ continually cleanse us from all sin (1 John 1:7; compare John 13:10). We must allow Christ to wash us constantly through the water of His word (Ephesians 5:26). We must constantly wash ourselves and make ourselves clean by doing what is right and turning from all that is wrong (Isaiah 1:16-18).
The holy anointing oil is a reminder that we can only be His by the means that He has provided as revealed in His word. God's way must alone be our way. There is no other name but one, given under heaven, by which we must be saved, and that the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12). It is through the anointing that comes from Him that we can know God and be sure of His truth (1 John 2:20; 1 John 2:27), and it is made complete through our dedication to Him.
And the holy incense is a reminder that our untainted worship can only be offered through Him (Hebrews 13:15), for he alone can make us acceptable in His sight, but that when it is so offered through Him it is a sweet odour to God (Revelation 8:3-4; Psalms 141:2).
End of note.