Prayer IV: Incense

 What is something aromatic that you particularly enjoy? A scented candle, soap, shampoo? How about the smell of a campfire or a charcoal grill? Do smells remind you of your childhood or an enjoyable moment? If any of those things are true about you, what about for God? What smells does He enjoy and what is our role in that? 

 Continuing on with our theme of prayer, let's look at aromatic sacrifices to God beginning in Genesis 8. Noah offers a sacrifice to God as the first thing he does after getting off of the ark. He doesn't build a house, but rather sacrifices animals from the ark. He just spent a good portion of time (a century) building the ark, stockpiling it, and caring for these animals on their voyage, yet he sacrifices one of each of the clean animals. He sacrifices something that was dear to him. But he builds an altar there, burns a sacrifice to God the Father, not the Holy Spirit, or God the Son, but rather the Father Himself. 

The LORD smelled the soothing aroma; (Genesis 8:21)

 This sacrifice was a soothing aroma to Him. Let's continue onto Exodus 30. In this chapter for the first nine verses, God explains how to offer incense before Him upon the altar. The sacrifice is a sacrifice to the Father of incense. This incense was offered directly before the veil to the Mercy Seat itself. As you may know, the Mercy Seat was were God chose to dwell upon the earth. It was the symbol of His presence built in the exact proportion to mimic that which was in Heaven. In the Old Testament the veil kept sinners from their righteous God, except once a year, on Yom Kippur when the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies and offer a sacrifice directly to God. In our new covenant, however, the veil was torn by Jesus' death and He reigns as our High Priest, offering Himself as both sacrifice and mediator to God the Father. This passage illustrates how things were, so we can better understand how things are.
 Verse 9, God specifically lays down things He doesn't not want, things His priest should not offer. Only priests could offer sacrifices in the Old Testament, and the same is true in the New, only all believers are priests, having not been born into the Tribe of Levi under the Order of Aaron, but rather born again into the Tribe of Christ in the Order of Melchizedek. This verse shows just how particular God is about His sacrifices though and we need to take extra caution that we aren't adding anything that He has not commanded or anything He specifically commanded against.
 In Leviticus chapter 2, the grain offerings made by the priest are outlined. Everything about this sacrifice tells us something about Christ from the oil for His anointing to the grain of the Word. Specifically we're looking at the frankincense offered and that the whole sacrifice was a soothing aroma to God. It was offered by priests, upon an altar, to God the Father. In verse 11 God says again that which He doesn't not want sacrificed to Him. No leaven, which we know is sin, and more specifically the sin of pride. Remember, knowledge puffs up, like leaven or yeast, but the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. What, then, is the incense, what does it symbolize and mean for us specifically, and how does this correlate to what's going on in Heaven?
 Before we can answer that we need to look a little further at how devastating the leaven and unauthorized sacrifices are. Isaiah 1:1-16 is a great example of this. The southern kingdom of Judah was serving other Gods, worshiping on the high places, and not doing what God had asked. He was just another god, not THE God. In verse 11 God says He has had enough of burnt offerings and in verse 13 He says that incense is an abomination to Him. This is because of their treachery and apostasy. There is hope, however, in verse 16. Though are sins are like scarlet, they will be made white as snow.
 Revelation 8:1-5 gives us our answer. Incense is the prayer of the saints. It is eternally before God. Your prayer will outlast your earthly bodies! This incense, prayer, is a soothing aroma, pleasing to God. It has to be true though. It has to be authorized. If it comes with leaven, it is an abomination. Remember the Exodus example, there was a veil between the altar and the Mercy Seat. When Christ died, He took that altar and tore it in two, so that sinful man would be able to be in the presence of a Holy God. When we sin or pray in an unauthorized, leavened, or strange manner, we are, in effect, putting the veil back up. Strive to keep your prayers true and holy!
 But God is faithful! He'll watch out for you and keep your prayers as they are sacred. Do not consider your prayer time lightly! Rather, strive for holiness and do not sacrifice from that which is leavened. Dear brothers and sisters you, as priests of the Most High, offer yourselves as a sacrifice upon the altar of your own cross daily to God the Father. See that it is full of incense, and therefore a soothing aroma to God.