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Altar of Incense

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And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:  And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?  And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. Revelation 6:9-11

When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.  I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.   Another angel came and stood over the altar, having a golden censer. Much incense was given to him, that he should add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne.  The smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel’s hand.  The angel took the censer, and he filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it on the earth. Thunders, sounds, lightnings, and an earthquake followed.  Revelation 8:1-5

The sixth angel sounded. I heard a voice from the horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Free the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates!”  Revelation 9:13,14

And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.   But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. Revelation 11:1,2

And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. Revelation 14:18

And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.  For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.  And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments. Revelation 16:5-7

Now while he executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his division, according to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to enter into the temple of the Lord and burn incense.  The whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense.  An angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. Luke 1:5-11

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Then the priests the Levites arose and blessed the people. Their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy habitation, even to heaven.  2 Chronicles 30:27

Yahweh, I have called on you. Come to me quickly! Listen to my voice when I call to you.  Let my prayer be set before you like incense; the lifting up of my hands like the evening sacrifice.  Psalms 141:1,2

Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.  Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God. Romans 12:1,2

What agreement has a temple of God with idols? For you are a temple of the living God. Even as God said, “I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”  Therefore “‘Come out from among them, and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Touch no unclean thing. I will receive you. 2 Corinthians 6:16,17

Now when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. Revelation 5:8

But I have all things, and abound. I am filled, having received from Epaphroditus the things that came from you, a sweet-smelling fragrance, an acceptable and well-pleasing sacrifice to God.  Philippians 4:18

Now thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and reveals through us the sweet aroma of his knowledge in every place.  For we are a sweet aroma of Christ to God, in those who are saved, and in those who perish; to the one a stench from death to death; to the other a sweet aroma from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not as so many, peddling the word of God. But as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ. 2 Corinthians 2:14-17

“You shall make an altar to burn incense on. You shall make it of acacia wood.  Its length shall be a cubit, and its width a cubit. It shall be square, and its height shall be two cubits. Its horns shall be of one piece with it.  You shall overlay it with pure gold, its top, its sides around it, and its horns; and you shall make a gold molding around it.  You shall make two golden rings for it under its molding; on its two ribs, on its two sides you shall make them; and they shall be for places for poles with which to bear it.  You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold.  You shall put it before the veil that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with you.  Aaron shall burn incense of sweet spices on it every morning. When he tends the lamps, he shall burn it.  When Aaron lights the lamps at evening, he shall burn it, a perpetual incense before Yahweh throughout your generations.  You shall offer no strange incense on it, nor burnt offering, nor meal offering; and you shall pour no drink offering on it.  Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once in the year; with the blood of the sin offering of atonement once in the year he shall make atonement for it throughout your generations. It is most holy to Yahweh.”  Exodus 30:1-10

Thus all the work of the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting was finished. The children of Israel did according to all that Yahweh commanded Moses; so they did.  They brought the tabernacle to Moses, the tent, with all its furniture, its clasps, its boards, its bars, its pillars, its sockets, the covering of rams’ skins dyed red, the covering of sea cow hides, the veil of the screen, the ark of the testimony with its poles, the mercy seat, the table, all its vessels, the show bread, the pure lamp stand, its lamps, even the lamps to be set in order, all its vessels, the oil for the light, the golden altar, the anointing oil, the sweet incense, the screen for the door of the Tent, the bronze altar, its grating of brass, its poles, all of its vessels, the basin and its base, the hangings of the court, its pillars, its sockets, the screen for the gate of the court, its cords, its pins, all the instruments of the service of the tabernacle, for the Tent of Meeting, the finely worked garments for ministering in the holy place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, to minister in the priest’s office.  According to all that Yahweh commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did all the work.  Moses saw all the work, and behold, they had done it as Yahweh had commanded, even so had they done it: and Moses blessed them.  Exodus 39:32-43

You shall set the golden altar for incense before the ark of the testimony, and put the screen of the door to the tabernacle.  Exodus 40:5

He put the golden altar in the Tent of Meeting before the veil; and he burned incense of sweet spices on it, as Yahweh commanded Moses.  Exodus 40:26,27

He shall take a censer full of coals of fire from off the altar before Yahweh, and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil: and he shall put the incense on the fire before Yahweh, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the testimony, so that he will not die. Leviticus 16:12,13

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“On the golden altar they shall spread a blue cloth, and cover it with a covering of sealskin, and shall put in its poles.  Numbers 4:11

Solomon made all the vessels that were in Yahweh’s house: the golden altar and the table that the show bread was on, of gold; and the lamp stands, five on the right side, and five on the left, before the inner sanctuary, of pure gold; and the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs, of gold; the cups, the snuffers, the basins, the spoons, and the fire pans, of pure gold; and the hinges, both for the doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and for the doors of the house, of the temple, of gold.  Thus all the work that king Solomon did in Yahweh’s house was finished. Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated, the silver, the gold, and the vessels, and put them in the treasuries of Yahweh’s house.  I Kings 7:48-51

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Solomon made all the vessels that were in God’s house, the golden altar also, and the tables with the show bread on them; and the lamp stands with their lamps, to burn according to the ordinance before the inner sanctuary, of pure gold; and the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs of gold that was perfect gold; and the snuffers, the basins, the spoons, and the fire pans of pure gold. As for the entry of the house, its inner doors for the most holy place and the doors of the main hall of the temple were of gold.  2 Chronicles 4:19-22

In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple.  Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet. With two he flew.  One called to another, and said, “Holy, holy, holy, is Yahweh of Armies! The whole earth is full of his glory!”  The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.  Then I said, “Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of Armies!”  Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar.  He touched my mouth with it, and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin forgiven.”  Isaiah 6:1-7

Now indeed even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service, and an earthly sanctuary.  For a tabernacle was prepared. In the first part were the lamp stand, the table, and the show bread; which is called the Holy Place.  After the second veil was the tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies,  having a golden altar of incense, and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which was a golden pot holding the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant; and above it cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat, of which things we can’t speak now in detail.  Now these things having been thus prepared, the priests go in continually into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the services, but into the second the high priest alone, once in the year, not without blood, which he offers for himself, and for the errors of the people. The Holy Spirit is indicating this, that the way into the Holy Place wasn’t yet revealed while the first tabernacle was still standing; which is a symbol of the present age, where gifts and sacrifices are offered that are incapable, concerning the conscience, of making the worshiper perfect; being only (with meats and drinks and various washings) fleshly ordinances, imposed until a time of reformation. But Christ having come as a high priest of the coming good things, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption.  For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify to the cleanness of the flesh: how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without defect to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?  For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, since a death has occurred for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. For where a last will and testament is, there must of necessity be the death of him who made it. For a will is in force where there has been death, for it is never in force while he who made it lives.  Therefore even the first covenant has not been dedicated without blood.  For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.”  Moreover he sprinkled the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry in the same way with the blood. According to the law, nearly everything is cleansed with blood, and apart from shedding of blood there is no remission.  It was necessary therefore that the copies of the things in the heavens should be cleansed with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.  For Christ hasn’t entered into holy places made with hands, which are representations of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy place year by year with blood not his own, or else he must have suffered often since the foundation of the world. But now once at the end of the ages, he has been revealed to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.  Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, without sin, to those who are eagerly waiting for him for salvation.  Hebrews 9

He brought me back to the door of the house; and behold, waters flowed out from under the threshold of the house eastward, for the front of the house faced toward the east. The waters came down from underneath, from the right side of the house, on the south of the altar.  Then he brought me out by the way of the gate northward, and led me around by the way outside to the outer gate, by the way of the gate that looks toward the east. Behold, waters ran out on the right side.  When the man went out eastward with the line in his hand, he measured one thousand cubits, and he caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the ankles.   Again he measured one thousand, and caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the knees. Again he measured one thousand, and caused me to pass through waters that were to the waist.   Afterward he measured one thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass through; for the waters had risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be walked through.  He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen?” Then he brought me, and caused me to return to the bank of the river.  Now when I had returned, behold, on the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other.  Then he said to me, “These waters flow out toward the eastern region, and will go down into the Arabah. Then they will go toward the sea; and flow into the sea which will be made to flow out; and the waters will be healed. Ezekiel 47:1-8

Yahweh will be seen over them; and his arrow will go flash like lightning; and the Lord Yahweh will blow the trumpet, and will go with whirlwinds of the south.  Yahweh of Armies will defend them; and they will destroy and overcome with sling stones; and they will drink, and roar as through wine; and they will be filled like bowls, like the corners of the altar. Zechariah 9:14,15

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