Marcia and I have been diffusing essential oils lately. This produces a pleasing aroma and provides a cleansing and healing effect. It also caused us to think about incense we burned in our college years and the incense offerings made by God’s people in Old Testament times.
God gave specific and detailed instructions for the construction of the altar of incense which was placed inside the Holy Place of the tabernacle. It was to be built of acacia wood with gold overlay. The fire was to be brought from the altar of burnt offerings outside the tabernacle. A specific blend of incense was to be burned day and night, never to be used for other purposes. It was “an aroma pleasing to the Lord.” (Leviticus 3:5) The high priest sprinkled blood on the altar to cleanse it. (Sounds strange in our times, doesn’t it?) Later we read that God found the incense offerings to be “meaningless” and “detestable,” and he ordered them stopped (Isaiah 1:13) because the people were living disobedient lives and just “going through the motions” or worship. What God always desires from us is a humble and grateful heart, devoted to him.
The incense burned in the tabernacle was accompanied by prayer, representing to us a symbol of our own prayerful life. Just as the smoke from the burning incense rose from the altar, so our prayers rise to heaven. And just as the burned incense, when offered from a pure heart, was a pleasing aroma to him, so your prayers and mine are also a pleasing aroma. It’s not worship rituals, but rather the heart of worship that pleases God.
God is holy. And because we are made in his image, we are called to live holy, pure lives also, set apart and different from the rest of the world. You know how you feel when your child does something right and generous and good. You might think of it as a pleasing aroma, something that satisfies you and makes you happy. It seems our sincere prayers are like that to God. In John’s vision of heaven (Revelation 5:8, 8:3) he saw “golden bowls of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people.” And just as the incense in the Holy Place was kept burning day and night, so we are God’s temple (1 Corinthians 3:16) and we are meant to live lives of unending prayers (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). The psalmist said, “May my prayer be set before you like incense.” (Psalm 142:2)
You can diffuse essential oils, burn incense, or simmer vanilla, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon to make your home smell like a heavenly bakery. But what God is most interested in – what pleases him most – is the “fragrance” of a grateful heart, a heart that seeks him and is fully satisfied in him.
May our prayers always “smell” good!
