Gluten Free & God Seeking: Taking a Closer Look at the Tabernacle in Exodus

For many years on New Year's Day my husband and I like to write out our prayers for each of our children, and now that's spread to our grandchildren and other family members. This year all of them are home so we drafted most of our prayers earlier this week. Yesterday I started typing them out. If you've never done this, I would encourage you to take some time today or in the next week to reflect on the people in your life and write out a prayer from your heart. When I went back a few weeks ago and read what I typed up last January, I was surprised at how God had answered many of these prayers.

As I was working on these prayers, I realized it totally relates to the post I drafted at the end of December on the golden incense altar! In the book of Exodus it's the last piece of furniture that God revealed to Moses. In chapter 147 of the Life-Study of Exodus Witness Lee says that's because the golden incense altar is like the motor that causes the entire tabernacle to work. You're probably going huh right now, but keep reading and you'll see why in the excerpt below.

First, here's a verse that he puts in this chapter to show that the incense altar represents our prayers:

As you can see in this model, the incense altar stood next to

the curtain that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies.

And another Angel came and stood
at the altar, having a golden censer, and much incense was given to Him that He should add it to the prayers of the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. Revelation 8:3

On pages 1590, 1594-1595 Witness Lee explains the importance of the incense altar in the tabernacle:

"With respect to the tabernacle, there are two altars: the altar of burnt offering in the outer court, the first altar, and the golden incense altar in the Holy Place, the second altar. In the sight of God, the priestly service begins at the incense altar, at the place where prayers are offered to God. I believe that it will be very helpful to our Christian life to dwell on the importance of the priestly service beginning at the incense altar....When we study the incense altar, we are studying the greatest matter in the universe....Furthermore, we need to realize that whenever we pray in the spirit, Christ is praying in our praying. The New Testament speaks of praying in the Lord's name. To pray in the name of the Lord Jesus is to pray in Christ. When we pray in this way, Christ is actually the one praying" (Lee, Witness. Life-Study of Exodus. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1982, Print).

I had a wow moment when I read that-- through the prayer we offer at the incense altar, all the furniture in the tabernacle begins to function. I learned from my reading that first people are brought to the altar of burnt offering to confess their sins and then they are motivated to come to the laver and receive the washing of regeneration [Titus 3:5].

After that our prayer at the incense altar motivates these newly saved ones to come to the showbread table [the word of God] and receive a daily supply of grace. Our further prayer then causes them to receive divine light when they read the word. Finally our prayer helps others come all the way into the Holy of Holies to be in God's presence.

I could see in my reading of these Life-Studies that the tabernacle is an incredible picture of our spiritual experience. My prayer is that the Lord would lead His people to pray more prayers in 2017 that help Him to carry out His will on this earth!