The Incense Altar

The incense symbolizes prayer and thus the inner, spiritual side of religious worship. The incense altar is the counterpart to the bronze altar, which symbolizes physical gifts and thus the outer, costly side of religious worship. Both altars are necessary; true religion is both internal and external. You may think of Paul's dictum that "He is a Jew who is one inwardly." True enough. But the inward must and will make its way outward. What you do is inseparable from who you are internally. We must serve God with both our hearts and our bodies. That is the truth of the golden altar, and that is the truth we are going to look at this evening.