Christ in all the scriptures Sweet perfume

 Christ in all the scriptures

Sweet perfume  Exodus 30v34-38

The burning of incense before the Lord took place every evening and every morning.  This amazing ritual was performed continually before the Lord.  Exodus 30v7-8 sums it up perfectly, referring to the golden altar, "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".   Other scriptures confirm this: Leviticus 2v1-2-in this portion it should be noted that while the priests shared in the ingredients of the meal offering, all the frankincense was for God!  Also Leviticus 16v12; 2nd Chronicles 2v4; 13v11.  This is continued in the N/T, some 1500 years later-Luke 1v9; Revelation 4v8, the living creatures before the throne "...rest not day and night, saying Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty, which is and which was and which is to come.  These scriptures, and others, inspired the following words in the hymn by John Ellerton:

"The day thou gavest Lord is ended, the darkness falls at thy behest; to thee our morning hymns ascended, Thy praise shall sanctify our rest.

We thank thee that thy Church unsleeping, while earth rolls onward into light; through all the world her watch is keeping, and rests not now by day or night.

And o'er each continent and island, the dawn leads on another day; the voice of prayer is never silent, nor dies the strain of praise away.

The sun, that bids us rest, is waking our brethren neath the western sky; and hour by hour fresh lips are making thy wondrous doings heard on high.

So be it Lord thy throne shall never, like earth's proud empires pass away; Thy kingdom stands, and grows forever, till all Thy creatures own thy sway."

In that wonderful Psalm 72, speaking of the kingdom of our Lord, it is recorded, "prayer also shall be made for Him continually; and daily shall He be praised".  The Psalm ends, "His name shall endure forever; His name shall be continued as long as the sun...and blessed be His glorious name forever: and let the whole earth be full of His glory; Amen, and Amen"-v15-19. 

God demanded that perpetual incense be raised in His presence, and it is good for us to understand why.  Why was it so vital that clouds of sweet smelling incense rise always?

The answer is twofold: in short, 1) The stench of sin; 2) The scent of Christ.

The stench of sin   In and around the tabernacle, the stench of dead animals, and collected blood, apart from the usual human smells, must have been awful, and so God decreed powerful incense to rise day and night to compensate.  This is but a faint picture of the stench of sin that rises to God from "dead men walking" on a daily basis.  We, human beings, can scarcely comprehend how loathsome sin is to God.  Here and there, in His word, this comes out.  The proliferation of the word abomination is key.  The word occurs in scripture, in Hebrew and Greek, over 40 times.  The dictionary definition is of "something that causes disgust or loathing"; it is often translated "detestable".   The reality of this world is that every day there rises to God that which is detestable to Him.  The stench of sin permeates the universe, as Job wrote, "...yea, the  heavens are not clean in His sight.  How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?"-Job 15v15.  He will expunge it from the universe, as "nothing that defileth shall enter the heavenly city"-Rev. 21v27.  God hates sin, He hates my sin, He hates your sin, and He is the One who defines it!  He calls it "purifying sores"-Isaiah 1v6; hypocrisy He calls, "smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day"-Isaiah 65v5-this to the most religious people on earth.  He uses leprosy, a contagious disease that isolated the sufferer. as a picture of sin-Matthew chapter 8.  He defines Gentiles (non-Jews) as "dead in trespasses and in sins".  Nothing more putrid than dead bodies, yet these are dead souls walking in sins-Ephesians 2v1-3.  In Matthew 23v27-28, Jesus pronounces on Jewish Pharisees "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.  Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity"!  The list of 14 Divine indictments against humanity in Romans 3v9-18 includes the following withering judgments, "Their throat is an open sepulchre" and "The poison of asps is under their lips".  Day after day, the putrid stench of sin rises to God.  It is like the hymnwriter put it, "And every prospect pleases, but only man is vile".  A beautiful world, tarnished by sin, and only God can make all things new.

The scent of Christ   No wonder He demanded that against the loathsome stench of sin, the sweet incense would arise morning and evening to dispel it.  Of course the incense speaks of Christ, for there was only ever one man who brought delight to the heart of God.

John 8v29 "He that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please Him". 

Ephesians 5v2 "And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour".

From birth to ascension, Christ the Son of God brought pleasure to His Father-God Himself declared it-Matthew 3v17, after 30 years perfect subjection in the home; Matthew 17v5, after 3+ years of perfect service in public; Romans 3v25-26 after a perfect sacrifice, a declaration of complete satisfaction in His work.  This is the incense, the fragrance that rises to God, that offsets the stench of sin, and allows God to display His benefits to sinners.  Only in Christ can God have direct dealings with men.  The fragrance of that life ascends to Him constantly.  There are four fragrances mentioned: STACTE, ONYCHA, GALBANUM, and FRANKINCENSE.  There is little agreement on what these spices were, but we can be sure they speak of Christ.  Song of Solomon 1v3, "Because of the savour (fragrance) of thy good ointments, thy name is as ointment poured forth..."; Hosea 14v6, "His branches shall spread, and His beauty shall be as the olive tree, and His smell as Lebanon"; 2nd Corinthians 2v14-16, "...the savour (fragrance) of His knowledge"..."we are unto God a sweet savour (fragrance) of Christ"..."a savour (fragrance)) of life unto life...", as opposed to the stench of death.  The hymnwriter...W.C. Martin -"The name of Jesus is so sweet" comes to mind.  We can consider the blending, the beating, and the burning of the incense.

The blending of the incense  Three spices, stacte, onycha, galbanum, with pure frankincense, each of equal weight.  These were "tempered" together (salted-is the majority translation).  The salt speaks of Christ's purity and holiness, the total absence of corruption.  Stacte, (literally means "drop") speaks of His passion-free flowing myrrh, the balm of Gilead as the Rabbi's called it.  Myrrh is said to be bitter to the taste, but sweet to the smell, a fitting symbol of the patient sufferings of Christ. Onycha is peeled from shellfish found in the depths of the Red Sea, treated, and emitting a strong odour.  The onycha was thought to be a kind of trap door in shells, claw-like in design to protect the mussels from external attack-source Wikipedia.  It is therefore a symbol of the power of Christ to evade taint from a hostile environment.  Galbanum is a gum resin from trees with a pungent earthy smell.  The root of the word is "Fat" and suggests a fatty composition and smell.  We learn later that in the peace offering, all the fat-the best of the animal, was for God-Leviticus 3v3.  The use of galbanum, despite an earthy smell, enhanced the blending of the other odours.  God accepted an earthy smell, signifying that heaven an earth were reconciled.  Galbanum thus speaks of the peace that Christ made between man and God.  Finally we have the frankincense, the most common of all the spices in the bible, being mentioned over 100 times.  The quality of the frankincense produced white clouds of fragrance, symbolising the pleasure that Christ brought to God.  In the offerings, all the frankincense was for God.   

The beating of the incense  "And thou shalt beat of it very small, and put it before the testimony in the tabernacle of the congregation where I shall meet with you".  The same word appears in 2nd Samuel 23v43 and Psalm 18v42.  In each case it refers to the "small dust of the earth".  thus the word beaten is to pulverize, to grind to powder.  That which is offered in incense is to be ground very small after blending.  This is quite remarkable, applied to Christ.  Absolutely equal with God in every way-John 1v1; 5v18; 14v9; Romans 9v5; Philippians 2v6; Colossians 1v15; Hebrews 1v3; Revelation 1v10, yet He made Himself small, He took the form of a servant, He submitted Himself to God in all things.  He called Himself "a worm and no man"-Psalm 22v6.  He became poor, even though He was exceeding rich.  He became sin, though He knew no sin.  He was the song of the drunkard even though the choirs of heaven honoured Him.  He was like a lonesome pelican in the wilderness, even though the masses will extol Him.  Likewise, when we come in prayer and worship before the Majesty of heaven, we should be humble before Him who is the Blessed One.  If the One who was brought into the dust of the earth, is our Saviour and Lord, how would we come in any other way?

The burning of the incense  The ground powder had to be burned before the Lord.  The coals for burning must only be taken from the brazen altar-Leviticus 16v12-13, "And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, and his hands full of incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil: and he shall put the incense on 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".  Any other source of fire was considered "strange fire", which carried the death penalty.  Later we learn that the sons of Aron, Nadab and Abihu did just that and paid with their lives-Leviticus 10v1-3.  The reason for the severity of the judgment is given in v3, "I will be sanctified in them that come nigh unto me, and before all the people I will be glorified".  The worship of God must be on God's terms if we are to shew proper respect to Him.  The incense is burned to emit the fragrant cloud from the fire of the altar.  Worship is only possible when the wrath of God against sin has been fully satisfied.  God wants heart worship, not just ritual, and we should worship Him in His way, not any way of our own choosing.

There was a restriction on the incense for worship.  The blend of spices was not to be used for personal aggrandisement, only for the glory of God-v37.  We, all of us know the tendency in our hearts, in dealing with these high and holy matters, to use them for personal glory-it is an ever-present danger.  The objective of our worship/service must ever be for His glory, as it says in 1st Peter 4v11, "...that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever.  Amen".

Some interesting applications of the incense.  Christ has also inspired His people as incense to God:

Worship from the heart is incense to God-John 12v3, Romans 15v16, Hebrews 13v15; Prayer-Psalm 141v2, Revelation 8v3, 1st Timothy 2v1-3; Giving of material help-Philippians 4v18, Hebrews 13v16; Singing and making melody in the heart-Ephesians 5v20; Walking in light-Ephesians 5v8-10; Walking worthy-Colossians 1v10; Respect to parents-1st Timothy 5v4, Colossians 3v20; love to the brethren-Romans 14v1-18.  These, and many more are like fragrant incense to the Lord.  It is a good study to trace the things that please Him.