Welcome to this Daily PBJ devotional. Read Exodus 30, Ecclesiastes 6, and Luke 10 today. This devotional is about Exodus 30. You are also to make an altar of acacia wood for the burning of incense. It is to be square, a cubit long, a cubit wide, and two cubits high. Its horns must be of one piece. Overlay with pure gold the top and all the sides and horns, and make a molding of gold around it, and make two gold rings below the molding on opposite sides to hold the poles used to carry it. Make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. Place the altar in front of the veil that is before the Ark of the Testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the Testimony, where I will meet with you. And Aaron is to burn fragrant incense on it every morning when he tends the lamps. When Aaron sets up the lamps at twilight, he must burn the incense perpetually before the Lord for the generations to come. On this altar you must not offer unauthorized incense, or a burnt offering or grain offering, nor are you to pour a drink offering on it. Once a year Aaron shall make atonement on the horns of the altar. Throughout your generations he shall make atonement on it annually with the blood of the sin offering of atonement. The altar is most holy to the Lord. Then the Lord said to Moses, When you take a census of the Israelites, to number them, each man must pay the Lord a ransom for his life when he is counted. Then no plague will come upon them when they are numbered. Everyone who crosses over to those counted must pay a half shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel, which weighs twenty giras. This half-shekel is an offering to the Lord. Everyone twenty years of age or older who crosses over must give this offering to the Lord. In making the offering to the Lord to atone for your lives, the rich shall not give more than a half-shekel, nor shall the poor give less. Take the atonement money from the Israelites, and use it for the service of the Tent of Meeting. It will serve as a memorial for the Israelites before the Lord to make atonement for your lives. And the Lord said to Moses, You are to make a bronze basin with a bronze stand for washing. Set it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and put water in it, with which Aaron and his sons are to wash their hands and feet. Whenever they enter the tent of meeting or approach the altar to minister, by presenting a food offering to the Lord, they must wash with water so that they will not die. Thus they are to wash their hands and feet, so that they will not die. This shall be a permanent statute for Aaron and his descendants for the generations to come. Then the Lord said to Moses, Take the finest spices, five hundred shekels of liquid myrrh, half that amount, two hundred fifty shekels, of fragrant cinnamon, two hundred fifty shekels of fragrant cane, five hundred shekels of cassia, all according to the sanctuary shekel, and a hin of olive oil. Prepare from these a sacred anointing oil, a fragrant blend, the work of a perfumer. It will be a sacred anointing oil. Use this oil to anoint the Tent of Meeting, the Ark of the Testimony, the Table and all its utensils, the Lampstand and its utensils, the Altar of Incense, the Altar of Burnt Offering and all its utensils, and the basin with its stand. You are to consecrate them, so that they will be most holy. Whatever touches them shall be holy. Anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them to serve me as priests. And you are to tell the Israelites, this will be my sacred anointing oil for the generations to come. It must not be used to anoint an ordinary man, and you must not make anything like it with the same formula. It is holy, and it must be holy to you. Anyone who mixes perfume like it or puts it on an outsider shall be cut off from his people. The Lord also said to Moses, Take fragrant spices, gum-resin, antia, galbanum, and pure frankincense in equal measures, and make a fragrant blend of incense, the work of a perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy. Grind some of it into a fine powder and place it in front of the testimony in the tent of meeting, where I will meet with you. It shall be most holy to you. You are never to use this formula to make incense for yourselves. You shall regard it as holy to the Lord. Anyone who makes something like it to enjoy its fragrance shall be cut off from his people. This is God's word. Do you find prayer to be difficult? Is it hard for you to put aside the many distractions of life and just talk with God? Does it feel like work to spend time praising God, confessing your sins, giving thanks to God, and asking for Him to work in the lives of other people? Is your prayer life mostly about sending up quick one-sentence missives to the throne of grace when you feel overwhelmed, scared, or have a need? I can relate. Throughout my life as a Christian, I've had struggles in the area of prayer. I've had times of prayerlessness. I've also had times when I was praying consistently, but my mind would wander or I'd get distracted by other things. I've had good, fruitful times of prayer, too. Don't get me wrong. But many Christians struggle in the area of prayer. Believe it or not, Exodus 30 might help you pray. In the context of the book of Exodus, Exodus 30 comes to us as a section God gave to Moses describing the tabernacle, Israel's place of worship, and how it should be made. The instructions God gave Moses span several chapters. This one, Exodus 30, describes how the altar of incense should be made according to verses 1-6 and used in verses 7-10. Remember that the tabernacle had three sections. The largest part was the courtyard, where all Israelites could go and where animal sacrifices were made. There was a curtain that framed it, but it was open to the air. Within the courtyard was the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place, or sometimes it's called the Holy of Holies. The Holy Place contained the Most Holy Place within it. But the most holy place was off-limits, except on the Day of Atonement, and only for the high priest. but the holy place was to be entered twice a day. According to verses 7 and 8, a priest would go into the holy place every morning and every evening at twilight. He did this to take care of two things. First, he had to make sure the lamp in the holy place was always lit. You can see more about that at Exodus 27 verse 21 and here in Exodus chapter 30 verse 8. Second, The priest was to offer incense on the incense altar. Again, that's here in Exodus chapter 30, verses 7 and 8. The incense altar was just outside the curtain of the Most Holy Place. And you can see that in verse 6. The Most Holy Place is where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. And it symbolized God's presence with Israel. So when the priest came and offered incense in the morning and in the evening, He was lighting that incense so that it would burn all day and all night. The smoke and the scent would be going constantly before the presence of the Lord on the other side of that curtain where the Ark of the Covenant was. Now what does any of this have to do with prayer and your prayer life? Just this. At the end of Exodus 30, verses 34 through 38, God gave the formula for making this incense that was to be burned on this altar. It was to be compounded by a perfumer, according to verse 35. Verse 38 forbids anyone from making it for their own use. But in that verse, it tells us about enjoying its fragrance. And this all suggests that the incense smelled really good. It would be pleasing to people if we were to smell it. Now here's where we get to prayer. In Psalm 141 verse 2, David wrote, May my prayer be set before you like incense. May the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice. In Revelation 5.8 it says, they, these are the living creatures and elders, but it says they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God's people. And Revelation 8-3 says, Another angel who had a golden censer came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all God's people on the golden altar in front of the throne. These passages suggest pretty clearly that the incense offering described here in Exodus 30 represented the prayers of God's people. That incense that Moses was to make and that's described here in Exodus 30, that incense was to burn day and night without stopping, because God hears prayers day and night without ceasing. And because the incense smells good, we should understand that God is pleased by our prayers. Our prayers honor him and worship him. They bring joy and delight to his heart. So, you may struggle to pray and even to enjoy prayer, but God enjoys it when you pray. Keep that in mind when your prayer life is struggling and feels dry. God is pleased when he hears your prayers, as pleased as you are by the best smelling cologne or perfume or the smell of food on the grill. That's the sensation that God was trying to create. to demonstrate how our prayers are pleasing to Him. So no matter how you feel, keep talking to God. Your prayers bring Him delight. If you like these devotionals, please go to my website dailypbj.com and enter your email address there. 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Please share this with someone who might be encouraged to keep praying in their prayer life. and who it might help think about prayer in a different way. And I'll see you next time. May God bless you. Hope you have a great day today.