THE GOLDEN ALTAR

Just as God instructed, the Israelite craftsmen made “the altar of incense out of acacia wood. It was square, eighteen inches long and eighteen inches wide; it was thirty-six inches high. Its horns were of one piece with it. He overlaid it, its top, all around its sides, and its horns with pure gold. Then he made a gold molding all around it” (Exodus 37:25-26).

Glistening, gleaming gold. Not very big… just eighteen inches square and thirty-six inches tall. It wasn’t any bigger than the small side table in your bedroom.

Notice, it had a “gold molding all around it” … a crown.

It stood in the Holy Place just in front of the Veil, and on it, “an incense offering (burned) before the Lord” (Exodus 30:8).

David’s psalm unlocks the meaning. He sang: “May my prayer be set before you as incense,

the raising of my hands as the evening offering” (Psalm 141:2). The fragrant aroma lifted like the passionate prayers of God’s children.

That small Golden Altar was symbolic, prophetic. It pointed forward to another Gold Altar. In Heaven, there is “golden altar in front of the throne” (Revelation 8:3), and on it are “golden bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the saints” (Revelation 5:8).

Like the Israelites, we’re invited to lift our fragrant offerings of prayer perpetually. “Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18).

Our prayers become a fragrant aroma on the “golden altar in front of the throne.”

“… think on these things” (Philippians 4:8, KJV).