The altar of incense was made of acacia wood overlaid with gold, and was a foot and a half square and three feet high. It was the tallest piece of furniture in the holy place. It had an ornamental gold rim (“crown”) around the top and golden “horns” at each corner. It stood before the veil that separated the Holy of Holies from the holy place, and the priest burned incense on it each morning and evening when he trimmed the lamps.
In the Bible, burning incense is often a picture of prayer. “Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense,” David prayed (Ps. 141:2), and John saw the elders in heaven with “golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints” (Rev. 5:8; see 8:3–4). Whenever the priest burned the incense, it was a call to the people for a time of prayer (Luke 1:8–10).
The fire for burning the incense came from the brazen altar where the sacrifices were offered to God (Lev. 16:12–13; Num. 16:46). This suggests that true prayer must be based on the work of Christ on the cross and on our complete dedication to God. A true fervency in prayer isn’t a religious emotion we work up ourselves; rather, it’s a blessing that God sends down as we yield ourselves to Him. John Bunyan, author of The Pilgrim’s Progress, said, “In prayer it is better to have a heart without words, than words without a heart.” Coldhearted praying is not effective praying (James 5:16).
In order to please God and not be in danger of death, the priest had to use not only the right fire on the altar but also the prescribed mixture of spices for the incense (Ex. 30:34–38). Nadab and Abihu tried to worship God with “false fire” and were killed (Lev. 10). Any Israelite who tried to duplicate this special incense for his own personal use would be cut off, which could mean death.
Prayer isn’t simply a jumble of words we mix together with the hope they’ll be heard by God and answered. The Bible names some of the “ingredients” of prayer—adoration, confession, thanksgiving, petition, submission (1 Tim. 2:1; Phil. 4:6)—and even gives us a pattern to follow (Matt. 6:5–15). You can be sure that the priest didn’t rush into the tabernacle, quickly burn the incense, and then rush out. No, he prepared himself and reverently approached the altar, knowing that he was in the presence of the holy God.
Because of the work of Christ on the cross, believers today can go through the veil into the very presence of God, and there present their worship and petitions in the name of Jesus (Heb. 10:19–25). Our living, reigning Priest-King, Jesus Christ, is interceding continually for us in heaven (Rom. 8:33–34; Heb. 4:14–16; 7:19–28), and the Holy Spirit also intercedes in our hearts (Rom. 8:26–27). While it’s good to open and close the day with special prayer, as the priests did, it’s also good to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17) and stay in communion with the Lord all during the day.
The priests were warned not to use this golden altar for anything other than burning incense (Ex. 30:9), for there are no substitutes for prayer. No amount of sacrificing can take the place of true praying. The golden altar wasn’t a place for making bargains with God or trying to change His mind (James 4:1–4; 1 John 5:14–15). It was a place for adoring Him and praying, “Thy will be done.”
It’s worth noting that the special incense had to be “salted” (Ex. 30: niv), for salt is a symbol of purity and of a covenant relationship (Lev. 2:13). “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear” (Ps. 66: nkjv). We’re commanded to lift up “holy hands” as we pray, and to remove “anger or disputing” from our hearts (1 Tim. 2: niv). If God killed every believer today who didn’t pray as He has ordered, how many of us would survive a prayer meeting?
Once a year, on the day of Atonement, the priest had to apply blood to the incense altar in order to make it ceremonially clean before God (Ex. 30:10). Even in our praying we can sin!