Exodus 30 - Altar of Incense, Prayer & The Bronze Laver vs Holy Water

All right, Exodus chapter 30, we'll follow along, and then we'll get into our study. You shall make an altar to burn incense on.

You shall make it of acacia wood. A cubit shall be its length and a cubit its width.

It shall be square, and two cubits shall be its height. Its horns shall be of one piece with it, and you shall overlay its top, its sides all around, and its horns with pure gold.

And you shall make for it a molding of gold all around. Two gold rings you shall make for it, under the molding on both its sides.

You shall place them on its two sides, and they will be holders for the poles with which to bear it.

You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. And you shall put it before the veil that is before the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with you.

Aaron shall burn on it sweet incense every morning. When he tends the lamps, he shall burn incense on it.

And when Aaron lights the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense on it, a perpetual incense before the

Lord throughout your generations. You shall not offer strange incense on it, or a burnt offering, or a grain offering, nor shall you pour a drink offering on it.

And Aaron shall make atonement upon its horns once a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonement.

Once a year he shall make atonement upon it throughout your generations. It is most holy to the

Lord. Then the Lord spoke to Moses. When you take the census of the children of Israel for their number, then every man shall give a ransom for himself to the

Lord when you number them, that there may be no plague among them when you number them.

This is what everyone among those who are numbered shall give, half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary.

A shekel is 20 giras. The half shekel shall be an offering to the Lord. Everyone included among those who are numbered from 20 years old and above shall give an offering to the

Lord. The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel when you give an offering to the

Lord to make atonement for yourselves. And you shall take the atonement money of the children of Israel and shall appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of meeting, that it may be a memorial for the children of Israel before the

Lord to make atonement for yourselves. Then the Lord spoke to Moses.

You shall also make a laver of bronze, with its base also of bronze, for washing.

You shall put it between the tabernacle of meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it, for Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet in water from it.

When they go into the tabernacle of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire to the

Lord, they shall wash with water, lest they die. So they shall wash their hands and their feet, lest they die, and it shall be a statute forever to them, to him and his descendants throughout their generations.

Moreover, the Lord spoke to Moses. Also take for yourself quality spices, five hundred shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much sweet -smelling cinnamon, two hundred and fifty shekels, two hundred and fifty shekels of sweet -smelling cane, five hundred shekels of kasha, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and a hymn of olive oil.

And you shall make from these a holy anointing oil, anointment compounded according to the art of the perfumer.

It shall be a holy anointing oil. With it, you shall anoint the tabernacle of meeting and the ark of the testimony, the table and all its utensils, the lampstand and its utensils, and the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the laver and its base.

You shall consecrate them, that they may be most holy. Whatever touches them must be holy.

And you shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister to me as priests.

And you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, This shall be a holy anointing oil to me throughout your generations.

It shall not be poured on man's flesh, nor shall you make any other like it, according to its composition.

It is holy, and it shall be holy to you. Whoever compounds any like it, or whoever puts any of it on an outsider, shall be cut off from his people.

Take sweet spices, stacte and arnica and galbanum, and pure frankincense with these sweet spices.

There shall be equal amounts of each. You shall make of these an incense, a compound according to the art of the perfumer, salted, pure, and holy.

And you shall beat some of it very fine, and put some of it before the testimony in the tabernacle of meeting, where I will meet with you.

It shall be most holy to you. But as for the incense which you shall make, you shall not make any for yourselves, according to its composition.

It shall be to you holy for the Lord. Whoever makes any like it, to smell it, he shall be cut off from his people.

All right, so Exodus chapter 30, we're going to return looking at some of the furniture in the tabernacle.

So far, what furniture have we looked at? We've seen the lampstand, the table of showbread, of course the

Ark of the Covenant. So now we're going to look at the altar of incense, as you can see here.

And then after that, the bronze laver. And then there's also this statement about ransom money, and how the rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less.

But let's begin with the first few verses, Exodus 30, verses one through three, it says, and you shall make an altar to burn incense on.

You shall make it out of acacia wood. A cubit shall be its length and a cubit its width, and it shall be square, and two cubits shall be its height.

How long is a cubit? Who knows? Six, 18 inches. Six feet.

What do you say, Ray? Okay, so yeah, so the length of your forearm, and you said 18 inches, both correct answers.

So that gives you an idea of how big this thing was. So if you've been following along, or verse three, it says, you shall overlay its top, its sides all around, horns with pure gold, you shall make a molding of gold all around it.

So if you have been following along, you know something about this piece of furniture already. And what is that?

We know that somehow, in some way, this altar of incense represents or points ahead to who?

Now, we already know that, right? Because all of the items of the tabernacle do that.

So it's only a question of how so. Well, I believe that the altar of incense speaks of prayer, and how

Christ is our great high priest and mediator, mediating our prayers between us and God the

Father. Continual prayer. Continual prayer. Because he does it in the morning and in the evening.

He lives always to make intercession for us. Now, in the worship of the Old Testament, there was part of the worship that appealed to the senses, right?

And there's what, five senses. We've already seen this in the clothing of the high priests, right?

It's for glory and beauty. So Aaron's garments would have appealed to the eyes.

They had songs. We've already seen the song of Moses. So this appeals to your hearing.

We know the Psalms were later developed. You've probably heard the book of Psalms referred to as Israel's hymn book.

How many of you have heard that? Right. So all of these elements of Old Testament worship, they appealed to the senses, and this is no different, right?

The altar of incense would appeal to your sense of smell. So it would give off this pleasant aroma, but it wasn't just for the sensory aspect of it.

We know that there is symbolic meaning as well. So when it comes to the altar of incense, if we compare scripture with scripture, we see that incense represents prayer.

You think of the incense burning, what goes up? The smoke rises up, and that's a picture of our prayers rising up to God.

A few verses on that, Psalm 141 verse two says, let my prayer be set before you as incense.

And then Revelation chapter five, verse eight talks about golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

So incense speaks of prayer, and prayer is made acceptable to God when offered in faith upon the true altar, which is

Christ himself. So in that way, the altered incense represents

Christ. So if our prayers are prayed in faith,

Christ mediates our prayers, brings them to God. God hears our prayers. But if our prayers are not offered in faith, or if they're offered, if people pray to another

God without Christ there to mediate, what happens? The prayers don't go any further than the ceiling.

So with that said, let's ask, how important is prayer in the life of the church?

How important is prayer in the life of a Christian? Prayer is to the

Christian walk, I think what gasoline is to an engine, right? So if you see someone spitting and sputtering in their

Christian walk, I mean, it might be because they're only putting in a few drops of prayer in the engine every day.

I mean, that's possible. So prayer, we all know this, right? Prayer is essential.

So this is basically Christianity 101. Christians go to church, we read the

Bible, we pray. I mean, it's just one of those most basic things. And yet sometimes it's one of the easiest things to neglect.

So what is prayer? If someone were to ask you, what is prayer? What's the purpose of prayer?

How would you respond? Communicating with God.

Good. That's exactly what, yeah, exactly what I was going to say. It's communication with God.

Anyone else? Any other ideas of what prayer is? Yeah, that's how we talk to God.

It's how we communicate to him our thoughts, our emotions, and our petitions. So that's how we speak to God.

How does God speak to us? Right. So between the

Bible, between the word of God and prayer, he speaks to us and we speak to him.

And of course the Holy Spirit applies the word of God to our heart and the Holy Spirit can obviously plays a role in our prayer life.

So we respond to God through prayer. Let me just illustrate it this way. When people just think about human beings for a moment, when people stop talking to each other, what does that do to a relationship between the two people?

What does it do? It breaks down. It breaks down. So in order to keep that relationship, you have to, you have to talk to one another.

So to stay close to the Lord, to have a healthy in fellowship relationship to God, obviously we have to talk to him.

The Bible says in first Thessalonians 5, 17 that Christians are to do what pray, right?

Pray without ceasing. Let's turn to Luke chapter 11. Pray without ceasing.

There's some people that pray more than others. That's a given. That's okay.

You know, sometimes there's people that, you know, feel more comfortable praying out loud in front of other people.

Some people are more comfortable than others and that's okay. As long as we're all praying, that's what matters.

So some people will pray, maybe set aside a time, 30 minutes a day, all at once, and then three brief prayers before a meal.

Okay, that's good. Other people, they don't have that attention span. How many of you that describes you?

You don't have the attention span to pray for 30 minutes or an hour at a time. Well, if you pray three minute prayers 10 times a day, it equals the same amount.

So, you know, who's to say one is better than another. You're never going to hear me say, Hey, listen, if you're really spiritual, your prayers will last at least 10 minutes each or, you know, like to put some sort of gauge on it.

Or you know, if your prayers are really effective, you have to be eloquent. You're never going to hear me say that.

What's important is that we are praying and that we're praying without ceasing.

So some things work better for others. It's just a matter of you figuring out what works best for you.

Maybe short prayers continually through the day. I think that's what pray without ceasing means.

I mean, you're praying every day and prayers throughout the day and big chunks are good too.

All right. So Luke 11, why are we turning to Luke chapter 11? Yeah.

So this is the Lord's prayer or the model prayer. Jesus is teaching his disciples how to pray.

Luke chapter 11 verse one. Now it came to pass as he was praying in a certain place when he sees that one of his disciples said to him,

Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples.

And we know how Jesus responded, but we'll read it. Jesus said, when you pray, say our father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

Did I use the wrong version here? We often recite it a particular way and that's not necessarily how it's conveyed in scripture for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

So we see a few things here. Number one, this is obvious, but our prayers are addressed to who, right?

Our prayers are addressed to God and we need to reverence his name.

Our prayers should be glorifying to God and we keep his name holy. The second thing we see there is confession in our prayers.

So when we pray to God, we need to confess our sins. And then number three, we ask for the things that we need.

I think most of you are familiar with the acronym ACTS, right? A -C -T -S.

Who knows this? What does it stand for? Who can tell me off the top of their head?

Acts. Adoration. Confession. Confession. Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. Supplication.

And supplication and usually point out the supplication is last on the list.

So our prayers are to include all of these different aspects. Adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication.

So we pray in adoration to God. What does adoration mean? What? To worship.

We love God. We adore him, right? You think of the word adore and adoration. So we reverence

God. We confess our sins. We talked about that. We thank God for what he's done, for what he's doing, for what he's going to do.

And then finally, supplication. These are our petitions. These are the things that we ask for.

And of course, we pray according to God's will. First John 5, 14, if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

I remember in Sunday school one time, this was years ago, we were talking about prayer and I said, you know, it has to be to get your prayers answered.

We need to pray according to God's will. And somebody said, well, that ruins it then. What is going on here?

God should just answer everything, you know, everything I pray for, anything I ask for, he should give me.

According to his will, that ruins it. And the person doesn't attend here anymore, unfortunately.

All right, let's go back to Exodus chapter 30. But I think it's a problem that we run into that our prayers oftentimes become just a list of petitions.

I mean, isn't this true? Any Sunday morning, and please always feel free to come in with your petitions.

Don't read into what I'm saying, but we do want the praise, right? Praise and prayer. We want the good things, the praises, the answers to prayer.

Prayer should never just be a list of what we want God to do for us. Because here's what happens.

If we fall into that trap, we pray asking God to do things that may or may not be in accordance with his will.

And then when he doesn't answer it according to how we want him to answer, then people get discouraged and then they pray less and less and finally barely at all.

We do not want to fall into that trap. So always think of acts. Adoration is number one, or like Steve said, the whole purpose of prayer is to communicate with God, not just to ask him for things.

If that's all it becomes, yeah, your prayer life will shrink because you get it wrong from the beginning.

All right, so look at Exodus chapter 30 verse seven, because we're talking about what the altar of incense.

So the incense going up represents the prayers of God's people.

Exodus 30 verse seven, Aaron shall burn on it sweet incense. How often?

Every morning. I don't think it's a stretch to say that based on this, we should begin every day with prayer.

It should be the first thing that we do. Next up.

All right. Any questions before we move on from this subject? I made a note on that, on verse six, and you shall put it before the veil, and before the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with you.

That's an opportunity for, it's a place for man to meet with God, and God to meet with man.

And it pictures, it's a picture of, well that's the next verse.

Alright, well if nobody has anything else, we're going to move on to verses 11 through 16.

Okay, well let's do that. This section is titled The Ransom Money. When we cover a whole chapter, you know, in a sermon

I like there to be one overarching point. Sometimes in Sunday school or Wednesday night, if we're covering a large, or a whole chapter, you have to kind of jump around to whatever the topic is.

So the next is the ransom money. What is a ransom? A ransom, if you're paying a ransom, right?

So we know that ransom is a payment. Exodus 30, 11 and 12,

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, When you take the census of the children of Israel for their number, then every man shall give a ransom for himself to the

Lord, when you number them, that there may be no plague among them when you number them.

So let me start out with something obvious. Because he talks about paying a ransom, then he talks about atonement.

Here's the obvious statement. This is not buying salvation, right? That's the one thing we know from the outset.

Whatever is going on here, we know that that's not what's happening. Why? 1

Peter 1, 18 and 19 says, Knowing that you are not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct, received by tradition from your fathers, but with the what?

You can't be redeemed by silver and gold with money. You're redeemed by the blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot.

And in that passage, I just read the verses prior mentions how God shows no partiality.

So the rich or the poor, it makes no difference because the

Lord tells Moses, look at verse 15, the rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than a half shekel.

So this is kind of like a flat tax, right? Everyone needs to pay an equal amount.

Why is that important? Because it shows that everybody is equal. Today, we have the idea that the rich should pay way more and the poor should pay nothing.

Of course, the richest of the rich find ways around paying more. But that, you know, that's another story.

But what's going on here? The symbolism in Exodus chapter 30. This isn't buying your salvation.

It's that everybody's on the same level, rich, poor, powerful, common man, male, female.

Everybody is on the same level. Everybody is in need. Everybody's on the same level.

I just like to read what one commentator says about verse 12. This statement, then every man shall give a ransom for himself.

He says, I'm being formerly enrolled among the people of God. It would be brought home how every man, no matter how unworthy he was of such favor, how necessary it was that atonement should in some way or other be made for him.

God, therefore, appointed away the same way for all in order to teach strongly that souls were of equal value in his sight.

And that unworthiness, whatever its degree, required the same expiation or the same atonement.

In other words, everybody is in the same situation. Everybody needs the same payment.

What do you think he's getting at? What's the payment? But it is pointing to the blood of Christ.

OK, so the poor, they're redeemed by the blood of Christ, just like the rich. Everybody is redeemed by the blood of Christ.

And then he says about this statement that there should be no plague among them. He says, if a man did not feel his need of ransom and gladly pay the small sum at which the ransom was fixed, he would show himself so proud and presumptuous that he might well provoke a divine plague or punishment.

So if you think that you're sort of above that, I don't need a payment for my sin,

I don't need this. Well, you're going to get the divine curse then because you're at the same level as everybody else.

You know, all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God. So the rich were not to give more.

The poor were not to give less because God is not a respecter of persons.

That's one of the biggest problems in our society today is that we're respecters of persons.

We either exalt the rich and put down the poor or we maybe even exalt the poor and demonize the rich.

You know, in God's eyes, everybody is equal and that should be the way it is for us as well.

So this money that was raised was to be used for what purpose?

To support the sanctuary, the upkeep and that sort of thing.

Right, so that all this gold, the incense, Aaron and supporting Aaron and the sons and their clothing and the garments, everything was for the service of the tabernacle.

So here's the point. Money cannot atone for sin. Money, the giving of the shekel or whatever that cannot really redeem anyone.

But what does it do? It is given in honor of him who has made atonement and today for the maintenance of the gospel ministry, because everything that's happening in the tabernacle is really a picture of Christ in the gospel.

So they give not to redeem their own souls, but it's a picture of honoring the one who will redeem their own souls or redeem their souls.

All right. Any questions or comments on this? Yes. Where did you get the money from to do that?

Where did they get it? Did they bring it with them? Right. So I don't know that it tells us.

We know that they got their gold from the Egyptians. So when they departed from Egypt, the

Egyptians just gave them all this stuff. Right now, living in Egypt, you would.

I mean, they were slaves, so they wouldn't have had much, but they probably would have acquired something.

But when Israel left Egypt, remember, we talked about they plundered the

Egyptians. But really, the Egyptians just handed them all this wealth and just go get out of the land.

So that's probably where they got it. All right. Any other questions or comments?

Yes, Mark. Is it the same thing as the tax collectors asked

Peter that Jesus paid the temple tax? Is that what this is all about? How so?

Well, in Matthew, when they had come to Capernaum, those who received the temple tax came to Peter and said,

Does your teacher not pay the temple tax? Is this the same thing?

So Jesus paid the temple tax? Whether it's the same thing, it could be.

I'm not exactly sure. It could be based on that. And you remember, Peter didn't think that Jesus should have to pay.

And Jesus confirmed that. This is my house. I don't need to pay. But so as not to offend them, he did.

But yeah, that's a good point, Jim. That shekel eventually turned into a temple tax.

Yeah. When they built the temple, it became a temple tax. Right.

I mean, there would have been, obviously, taxes to go for the upkeep of the temple.

Right. Right. Right. Good. All right. Well, let's move on to the next subject.

The next piece of furniture in the tabernacle is the bronze laver.

What is a bronze laver? Or what's a laver? Washbowl.

Washbowl. Right. Today we have sinks. But yeah, it would be a basin of water.

And not to be disrespectful. But if you go and look at it, usually the pictures, the depictions of the bronze laver, it kind of looks like a birdbath.

Yeah. And not to get off point. I mean, it's all kind of tied in together.

How many of you have gone into a church, and you walk through the front door, and the first thing you see is this laver, birdbath, basin of water type of a thing?

Yeah. And they put their hand in and do the sign of the cross.

So you will see that in typically Roman Catholic churches. And in the washbowl is water.

But they call it what? Holy water. Holy water. And we've talked about this before, right?

How the religion of Rome seems to be more based on Old Testament religion than it is on New Testament biblical

Christianity. They have their special priesthood, the ornate clothing like Aaron had.

They claim the Lord's Supper is a real, they have a real sacrifice. Jesus is being re -sacrificed or represented.

It's a real altar. Remember, we talked about all this. And they keep the wafer up front in a box that they call the tabernacle.

So if you see them go into the church and kneel before they go into the pew, they're bowing to that host, that piece of bread that contains the divinity of Christ.

And it's in the box called the tabernacle. So it really isn't any surprise that they would have a basin of water, which is based on the bronze laver.

So holy water in their system is just regular water that's been blessed by a priest.

And they believe that it can repel evil, among other things. They believe holy water can repel evil and wash away what they call venial sin.

So if you committed murder or adultery, I mean, splashing water, that's not going to do any good.

That's a mortal sin. But, you know, the little sins. Taking the water, that'll wash away venial or little sins.

Is that biblical? It's not enough to say, well, we have this laver, and, well, there's a laver in the

Old Testament. It's the same kind of deal. No, that's not legitimate.

So my point is there's no real connection, except that they're both basins of water.

So the furniture in the tabernacle is symbolic, right? I mean, it really happened.

It was really there, but it's symbolic, and it points ahead to the person and work of Christ.

So now that we have the real thing, once we have the faith once for all delivered to the saints, we don't need to go back and observe all these

Old Testament rituals. So we're not supposed to go backwards. The applications and meanings for us of all the things in the tabernacle, these are all spiritual in nature.

None of this is God's way of telling us, here's the furniture that you should have in your church in the year 2021.

That is not the point of any of this. It's all pointing to Christ.

So there's no need for us to have a laver or a basin of water here at Morris Quarter Church because we have

Christ. I mean, we have the real thing. So what was the basin for?

All right, we'll answer that question in a second. Jim, you have a comment. It was for Aaron and his sons to wash before they performed the rituals.

Right. So if you have a sink in your house, what's the sink for? Well, it's obvious what it's for.

It's to wash in. So what's the basin? What's the laver? Yeah, it's obviously for washing.

Look at verse 18. You shall also make a laver of bronze with its base, also a bronze for what?

For washing. And you shall put it between the tabernacle of meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it.

For Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet in water from it.

I mean, they're out in the desert, in the wilderness. It's a dry climate, sand. I mean,

God wants them clean. Right. So there is a practical purpose for this.

But it also speaks of spiritual cleansing, that they were to purify themselves before they approached the

Lord. Just as we cannot approach the Lord until we first have been purified through the washing of regeneration.

Who knows Titus chapter 3, verse 5? What does Titus 3, 5 say? That very thing.

That very thing. A little more specific, but yes. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the

Holy Spirit. Jesus said in John 3, 5. Most assuredly,

I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

There's been a lot of debate about what that means. Water and the Spirit. I believe the water represents or is symbolic for spiritual cleansing.

And now we get to the last part, the anointing oil.

I think we know what oil represents. Okay. So again, all of this is symbolic.

It's not about getting a real Ark of the Covenant in our church and a laver in our church. I'm trying to copy what they did back then.

No, it's all symbolic. It all points to the Lord. So the oil represents who or what?

Good. The Holy Spirit. So in conclusion, one spiritual takeaway, when you read

Exodus 30, 21, it says, so they shall wash their hands and their feet, lest they die.

So if a person is not regenerated by the Holy Spirit and cleansed through faith in Christ, they are at risk of dying in their sins.

But if a person would call upon the Lord and pray to the Lord seeking His mercy, then

Christ, who is our High Priest and Mediator, He will, through prayer, make that person acceptable before God.