The Great Day of Atonement, Part 5
“Then he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from the altar before the LORD, with his hands full of sweet incense beaten fine, and bring it inside the veil.” (Lev 16:12)
“Looking through the type to the antitype, (that is comparing the typical ceremony to the reality) let us now step by step, compare the doings of Jesus with this prophetic picture of his work, when he as the man Christ Jesus, had fully consecrated himself, he immediately as the new creature, begotten by the Holy Spirit, took the sacrificed human life (typified by the blood of the bullock into the ‘Holy’) to present it before God as our ransom price, but ‘not for ours alone, but also for the sins of the whole world’.
Spirit-begotten he was no longer [considered to be] in the ‘court’ condition, but in the first ‘Holy’, of the Tabernacle, (behind the curtain or first veil) where he must tarry and offer his incense upon the fire of trial; he must demonstrate his loyalty to God and righteousness by the things suffered as a begotten son, before entering the ‘Most Holy’, the perfect spiritual condition. (Heb 5:8)
“The High Priest took with him (along with the blood) fire from off the altar, and his two hands full of sweet incense (as depicted in the illustration above) to cause the perfume; and so our Lord Jesus’ fulfillment of his vow of consecration, during the three and a half years of his ministry, was a sweet and acceptable perfume to the Father, attesting at once the completeness of the consecration and the perfection of the sacrifice. The sweet incense beaten small represented the perfection of the man Jesus. The fire from the Brazen Altar represented the trials to which he was subject; and its being carried along by the Priest signifies that our Lord must, by his own course of faithfulness, bring his persecutions upon himself. And when the perfections of his being (incense) came in contact with the trials of life (fire), he yielded perfect obedience to the divine will, a sweet perfume. Thus is shown his temptation in all points, yet without sin. As the incense must be all consumed in the fire, so he yielded his all in obedience, it was the Priest’s `two hands full’ which he offered, thus representing our Lord’s full capacity and ability of righteousness, required and yielded.” (T 56)
“And he shall put the incense on the fire before the LORD that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the Testimony, lest he die.” (Lev 16:13)
“The incense from the ‘Golden Incense Altar’ having preceded him and been satisfactory, the High Priest passed under the second ‘veil’ into the ‘Most Holy’, so with Jesus, having for three and a half years offered acceptable incense in the ‘Holy’, the consecrated and spirit begotten condition, he passed beyond the ‘second veil’, death. For three days he was under the second ‘Veil’ [figuratively speaking] in death. Then he arose beyond the veil, ‘the express image of the Father’s person’, he was ‘put to death in the flesh, but quickened (made alive) in spirit, ‘sown a natural (human) body, raised a spiritual body’. Thus our Lord reached the ‘Most Holy’, condition, the perfection of spirit being, at his resurrection.” 1 Pet 3:18; 1 Cor 15:44 (T 57, 58)
Why must Aaron tarry for a time in the ‘Holy’ before proceeding with the blood of the bullock, into the ‘Most Holy’?
“That he dies not.” (Lev 16:13)
Once again “Looking through the type to the antitype… (the picture here presented by the incense rising from the Golden Incense Altar is that our Lord) must [first] demonstrate his loyalty to God and righteousness by the things suffered as a begotten Son, before entering the ‘Most Holy’, the perfect spiritual condition.” Heb 5:8 (T 56)
“As a `new creature’ our Lord spent the three and a half years of his ministry in the holy, enlightened by the light of the golden candlestick, divine truth, fed by the show-bread, the divine promises and blessing, while he himself ministered at the golden altar, offering up his two hands full of incense upon the fire, the fragrance penetrating beyond the veil, the second veil, into the Most Holy, as a cloud rising above the Ark of the Covenant, the Mercy Seat. That offering of the incense by the priest in the Holy represents to us the light in which our heavenly Father viewed his Son and his offering of himself in the trials and difficulties of his life during the three and a half years of his consecration. As a whole it was sweet incense to the Lord, fragrant incense, holy and acceptable.” (R3708:3)
“The sweet incense went before Him and appeared in the presence of God before He finished His course at Calvary. His death upon the cross was the last crumb of incense falling into the fire, in the antitype.” (R5731:1)
Next post.