The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 198

probability that the story of thirteen ingredients (Jos., B. J. v. 5. o) of the addition of cassia., cinnamon, &c., to the elements mentioned in the Law, is a Rabbinical fable. Such a confection would have been "strange incense." (8) It was a per- fwme reserved for God (Exod. xxx. 37, 88). None might be me.de for private use under pain of death (ib. ver. 88). Hence it was called" most holy" (Heb. holy of holies). 2. Where wa11 it offered! In two places. Occasionally in the most holy place; usually on the golden altar which stood before that place. Hence this altar is spoken of as "before the Lord," and is called "the altar that belongeth to the oracle" (eh. vi 22). It was clearly, therefore, and peculiarly an offering to God, whose throne was in the sanctuary, and whose palace was the temple. It was burnt before the Presence, whose seat was between the cherubim. Indeed, it is not improb- able that it was only burnt outside the oracle, because the priests must not enter the most holy place. (The golden altar, as we have just seen, really "belonged to the oracle.") When the high priest dtid enter, on the day of atonement, the incense was burnt within the veil. And the Sadducees were accounted heretical because they contended that the incense might be kindled outside and then carried inside the holy of holies. 3. When was it burned! It was bm'Ded (1) morning and evening. When the lamps were trimmed at the break of day; when the lamps were lighted at the approach of night. Thus every little life--for our days are "lives in miniature"- was rounded off with incense. There was not a day for many hundred years but began o.nd ended with this sweet service. (2) With the morning and evening sacrifice. It was bound up with the offerings of the gi·eat altar. "Mane, inter sanguinem et membra sufli.ebat, vesperi, inter membre. et libamina " (Talmud, quoted by Lightfoot). "When the incense and prayers were :finished, the parts of the victim were laid on the altar." So that the incense and the sacrifice were really parts of the same service. The two altars of Judaism presented their offerings to heaven at the so.me time. (8) It was a "perpetual incense'' (Exod. x:n. 8), just as the sac1ince is called a continual burnt offering (ib. xxix. 42). The sweet perfume, we may remember here, never died out in the holy place. There was an everlasting fragrance, year in, year out, in the earthly abode of the heavenly King. (4) It was offered together with prayer. See Luke i. 10; Rev. v. 8; viii.1--4; and Lightfoot, "Heb. and Talm. Exerc. on Luke i. 10." 4. By whom was it offered .i (1) By the priests. Originally, it is believed, by the high priest exclusively, but subsequently a priest was chosen by lot (Luke i. 9) to perform this office each morning and each evening. And we are told that as this was esteemed the most honourable of all the functions of tlie priests, and as a Llessing was thought to be attached to its performance, the lot was cast among those who were "new to the incense," i.e., among those who had not offered it already. (2) By the priests alone. No function was more jealously guarded than this. On two memorable occasions (Num. xvi. 35--40; 2 Chron. xxvi. 16 sqq.) a terrible dispensation proclaimed that "no stranger, who was not of the seed of Aaron, should come near to offer incense before the Lord." 5. lf hy was it offered ! Maimonides held that it was merely, or principally, designed to counteract the stench which would arise from the victims slain for the morning and evening sacrifice. Others have beheld in it merely a recognition of the majesty and sovereignty of God, and have seen its counterpart in the perfumes which were offered before the monarchs of the East (cf. Matt. ii. 11). But a moment's reflection will show that both these conceptions are miserably inadequate and unworthy. It is inconceivable that so prominent and essential a part of the Jewish system can have had no higher meaning or have no analogue in Christianity. It is universally admitted that the brazen altar and its ea.orifices were full of symbol- ism. How oan we think that while these prefigured Christ's death the golden altar and its incense foreshadowed nothing. No, they must have typified something, and something oonneoted with the work of the eternal Son of God. For observe,just as there is an altar raised on Calvary,jnst as there is a sacrifioie.l altar of whioh we Christiane eat (Heb. xiii. 10), so is there an altar in heaven (Rev. viii. 8). Nor will this surprise us if we bear in mind that the Moso.io worship was 900 '.l'HE FIRST BOOK 01"' KINd-S. [011. IX, 10-28,