Exodus 30:34-38 - Homiletics

The Holy Incense.

Let us note here—

I. THE COMPOSTION OF THE INCENSE ( Exodus 30:34 , Exodus 30:35 ). The utmost care was taken in the law that the incense should be properly composed, of the right materials, in the right proportion. Equal care is to be taken by Christians with their incense. Prayer is not to be adventured on rashly, carelessly, unpreparedly. The matter, even the very words, of prayer should be carefully weighed beforehand. To approach God with unworthy thoughts, to beseech him for those temporal advantages which we ought to regard as of no moment at all, is to "pray amiss"—to approach him with "strange incense." Equally unbecoming is it to use homely or over-familiar expressions in prayer. What we have to aim at is to reflect "the mind of Christ." Christ has given us three pattern prayers—

1 . The Lord's prayer;

2 . The intercessory prayer after the last supper ( John 17:1-26 .), and

3 . The prayer in the garden of Gethsemane ( Matthew 26:39 ).

Let these be our frankincense, and stacte, and onycha. For a fourth material, we may us( the Psalms of David—especially the penitential Psalms. We need not then to fear lest our incense should be "strange."

II. THE CONTINUAL PRESENTATION OF THE INCENSE (verse 30).— A portion of the incense was to be "beaten very small, and. put before the testimony" i.e; before the ark and the presence of God, where it was to remain continually. It was not to be lighted, but to be in constant readiness for lighting. So there is in the Christian heart a prayerful temper, ever present before God, which God accepts and values, in the intervals between actual prayer. Our incense cannot always be mounting in cloud after cloud to the courts of heaven. But the temper may be in us, ready to kindle, at all times.

III. THE VALUE OF THE INCENSE . The incense was among the things that were "most holy" (verse 36). God set special store by it. He would have it near him—in front of the tabernacle—only just outside the vail—and he would have it there constantly. So it pleases him to value the prayers of his saints. Angels offer them ( Revelation 8:3 ). They ascend before his throne ( Revelation 8:4 ). They are acceptable to him. They have power with him. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" ( James 5:16 ). One humble prayer, breathed by the publican, gained him forgiveness—"justified" him. One earnest prayer, uttered by the penitent thief, obtained him Paradise. There is no limit to the value of faithful prayer, whereby we draw upon the bank of omnipotence.