30:1-11. Furniture: Altar of Incense.

1491 B.C.

Exodus 30)

1 And you shall make an altar to burn incense upon: of acacia wood shall you make it.
2 A cubit (approx. 21") shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof; foursquare shall it be: and two cubits (3 1/2') shall be the height thereof: the horns thereof shall be of the same.
3 And you shall overlay it with pure gold, the top thereof, and the sides thereof round about, and the horns thereof; and you shall make unto it a crown of gold round about. (See 25:24)
4 And two golden rings shall you make to it under the crown of it, by the two corners thereof, upon the two sides of it shall you make it; and they shall be for places for the staves to bear it withal.
5 And you shall make the staves of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold.
6 And you shall put it before the screen that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat (see 25:17) that is over the testimony, where I will meet with you.
7 And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning (with fire taken from the brazen altar of atonement, implying that there could be no acceptable worship except on the ground of atonement made. All other fire was "strange fire", and all other worship strange worship, and therefore unacceptable): when he dresses the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it.
8 And when Aaron lights the lamps at dusk, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations.
9 You all shall offer no strange incense thereon (incense different from and other than that which God had prescribed. See Lev.10:1), nor burnt sacrifice, nor meat offering; neither shall you all pour drink offering thereon.
10 And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in a year (namely the 10th day of the 7th month [our September 23-24th]. Lev. 16:18,29,30. Num. 29:7) with the blood of the sin offering of atonement's (see 29:14): once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generations: it is most holy (see 3:5) to the Lord.
11 And the Lord (Yahaveh) spoke to Moses, saying,

12-16. Worshipers.

12 "When you take the sum of the sons of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom (= covering, Heb. kåpher, hence atonement, see 29:33) for his soul (= himself, the acknowledgment of Ezek. 18:4) to the Lord, when you number them; that there be no plague among them, when you number them.
13 This they shall give, every one that passes among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary (approx. $26 of our money, a lot back then): {a shekel is twenty gerahs}: an half shekel shall be the offering of the Lord.
14 Every one that passes among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give a heave offering to the Lord.
15 The rich one shall not give more ("There is no difference" in the matter of atonement, Acts 10:34. Rom. 3:22,23. 10:12. Then, all Israel without exception: but now "all" without distinction), and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give a heave offering to the Lord, to make an atonement (= covering) for your souls.
16 And you shall take the atonement money (= cover money) of the sons of Israel, and shall appoint it for the service of the tent of the congregation; that it may be a memorial to the sons of Israel before the Lord, to make an atonement (covering) for your souls."

17-38. Furniture.

17 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
18 "You shall also make a laver of brass (or copper, bronze, no brass back then. The Laver comes after the Altar; the altar is for sinners; the laver is for the priests = cleansing for worship. Not included in Ex. 25-28, but added here after atonement. John 13:10 is the Divine anti-type), and his base also of bronze, to wash withal: and you shall put it between the tent of the congregation and the altar, and you shall put water therein.
19 For Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat:
20 When they go into the tent of the congregation, they shall wash with water, that they die not; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn offering made by fire to the Lord:
21 So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they die not: and it shall be a statute for ever to them, even to him and to his seed throughout their generations."
22 Moreover the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
23 "Take you also unto you principal spices, of pure myrrh (= the gum of Arabian thorny shrubs) five hundred shekels (approx. 16 lbs.), and of sweet cinnamon half so much, even two hundred and fifty shekels, and of sweet calamus (= the lemon grass of India) two hundred and fifty shekels,
24 And of cassia (= the bark of an Indian cinnamon) five hundred shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, and of oil olive an hin (approx. 1 gal.):
25 And you shall make it an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary: it shall be an holy anointing oil.
26 And you shall anoint the tent of the congregation therewith, and the ark of the testimony,
27 And the table and all his vessels, and the lamp-stand and his vessels, and the altar of incense,
28 And the altar of burnt offering with all his vessels, and the laver and his base.
29 And you shall sanctify them, that they may be most holy: whatsoever touches them shall be holy.
30 And you shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and install them, that they may minister to Me in the priest's office.
31 And you shall speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'This shall be an holy anointing oil to Me throughout your generations.
32 Upon man's (= humankind's) flesh shall it not be poured (the oil is the type of the Holy Spirit. His work not to act on the flesh, but to give holy spirit [hagion pneuma]. Cp. John 3:6), neither shall you all make any other like it, after the composition of it: it is holy, and it shall be holy to you.
33 Whosoever compounds any like it, or whosoever putts any of it upon a stranger, shall even be cut off from his people.' "
34 And the Lord said to Moses, "Take to you sweet spices (5 in number, #5 = grace), stacte (possibly the gum of the storax tree. A drop), and onycha (= a sweet-smelling shell found on the shores of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean), and galbanum (= a resinous gum of brownish-yellow color and strong disagreeable smell, usually met with in masses, but sometimes found in yellow tear-like drops. Even though it is well known, the plant which yields it has not been exactly determined); these sweet spices with pure frankincense (= a vegetable resin, it was called frank because of the freeness with which, when burned, gives forth its odor. Burns long and with a steady flame, bears resemblance to the mountain ash): of each shall there be a like weight: (Typical of the perfect proportion of all the excellencies of Christ)
35 And you shall make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, tempered together (perfection its parts: perfect in its whole. So in the Anti-type), pure and holy: (Typical of the holiness and unimaginable purity of Christ.)
36 And you shall beat some of it very small, and put of it before the testimony in the tent of the congregation, where I will meet with you: it shall be to you most holy.
37 And as for the perfume which you shall make, you all shall not make to yourselves according to the composition thereof: it shall be to you holy for the Lord.
38 Whosoever shall make like unto that, to smell thereto, shall even be cut off from his people."

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