Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20100829.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Exodus: God's Forming The Nation Israel For His Abrahamic Covenant
Part II: God's Forming Israel To Heed Him, Exodus 15:22-40:38
K. God's Directive Of The Tabernacle To Fellowship With His People
13. The Incense: God's Power For The Weak And Vulnerable
(Exodus 30:34-38)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    Many people today need help in handling fears and frustrations over the humanly overwhelming obstacles they face to their welfare:

    (1) The August 11, 2010 Republican-American, p. 7A ran some letters to the editor complaining about the political campaigns they witnessed. In view of the distortions she had seen in "(e)very single ad", one woman wrote of the candidates: "I would be horrified to see the government they would create."

    (2) The August 16, 2010 USA TODAY, p. 5A told of President Obama's August 13, 2010 address before a group of Muslims when he said: "I believe Muslims . . . have the right to build a place of worship . . . in Lower Manhattan . . . This is America."

    Strong opposition to this statement led him to modify his stance the next day when he said: " . . . I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there (near Ground Zero)" (Ibid., p. 8A), but that modification only intensified the debate! Indeed, so heated did this matter become that an August 24, 2010 Associated Press story reported the President will no longer comment on the issue!

    Remarkably, "one of the greatest historians", Will Durant, in The Story of Civilization, IV: 160-161 (as cited in The Berean Call, February 2000, "Q & A") wrote: "Within the Kaaba [at Mecca], in pre-Moslem days, were several idols . . . One was called Allah . . ." So, the Islamic faith, the focal point of this mosque-near-Ground-Zero issue, is false, making the mosque itself and the 911 events as tragic as they were horrific! Yet, the mosque debate has now gone worldwide!

    (3) Perhaps more troubling to some is the story of an alleged "illuminati", a group of ruthless, self-serving, powerful and vastly wealthy "elitists" who seek to undermine the world order to control it. Byron J. Richards, a Board Certified Clinical Nutritionist, in his 2006 book, Fight for Your Health: Exposing the FDA's Betrayal of America, p. 87-93 is the latest work I've viewed that asserts such a stance.

    Richards claims the American brand of the illuminati began in 1776, the year our nation's Declaration of Independence was framed. Whether or not Richards' details are accurate, we do know that Revelation 17-18 explains such a group exists as "Babylon the Great." Accordingly, with such humanly frustrating, overwhelming obstacles to one's welfare, he may ask, "If I face a problem that is too big and I'm too small, what can be done about it?!"

    Need: "I face issues that are too big and I'm too small! What now?"

  1. God had Israel build a tabernacle to typify how He as a holy God could fellowship with sinful man and meet his needs, Ex. 25:1-9.
  2. The Exodus 30:34-38 commands on incense depict how greatly God helps humanly weak and vulnerable believers when they pray:
    1. God called for four equal parts of items to be finely ground and mixed with salt to burn as a perfume on the altar of incense, Ex. 30:34-36.
    2. This incense recipe could not be used for anything else, Ex. 30:37-38.
    3. Contextual details show this incense depicts how godly but humanly frail believers gain God's great help to pray as taught in Romans 8:26:
      1. Exodus 30:34 in the NIV, ESV and Hebrew text presents the incense as consisting of the "spices" stacte, onycha and galbanum along with "pure frankincense," Kittel, Biblia Hebr. (1962), p. 127.
      2. Each ingredient had a key role in the burning of the incense itself:
        1. The frankincense carried the main aroma, a warm, balsamic odor prized by the ancients, victorie_inc./holy_incense.html.
        2. Each of the other three ingredients are "fixatives" that control the frankincense odor and/or the odors of the other spices, Ibid.
        3. Both the NIV and ESV use the word "salted" in Exodus 30:35b to show salt was added to the mix to depict purity and holiness.
      3. The reasons for each of these items are seen in noting the logistics of getting the frankincense aroma from the altar of incense through the veil to God's presence above the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant (Ex. 30:36b) to typify effective prayer (Rev. 5:8; 8:3-4):
        1. The onycha from the foot plate of a Red Sea snail burned with a penetrating force needed to carry the incense aroma through the veil and into God's presence, Ibid.; Z. P. E. B. , v. 4, p. 539.
        2. Galbanum prolonged the incense odor's effects so it could be smelled after the time needed for the onycha to carry it through the veil, Ibid., victorie_inc.; Ibid., Z. P. E. B. , v. 2, p. 638.
        3. Yet, onycha gives a burnt hair odor and galbanum a turpentine smell when burned (Ibid., victorie_inc.), so stacte, an air freshener with a vanilla-like aroma, was added to remove the stale onycha and galbanum smells and enhance the frankincense aroma, Ibid.; indigo_herbs.co.uk/acatalog/Benzion_Styrax.
        4. Salt was added to signal the mix was pure and holy, Ex. 30:35b.
      4. Each ingredient was pulverized before mixing with the others to be burned so a well-blended and thus effective but pleasing aroma could be detected on the other side of the veil, Exodus 30:35a, 36.
      5. These details depict how the Holy Spirit provides great, effective help for the humanly weak but godly believer's prayer (as follows):
        1. Romans 8:26 shows the Spirit helps us in our astheneia, in our physical, spiritual and emotional needs, B. K. C., N. T. , p. 473.
        2. The three fixatives typify the Spirit's help in these areas, (1) the onycha with its penetrating force His help in the physical realm, (2) the galbanum with its prolonging power His spiritual aid and (3) the stacte with its cover of unsettling stale smells and support of the frankincense aroma His emotional assistance!
      6. So, godly prayer (1 John 3:22) in God's will (frankincense, 1 John 5:14-15) is holy (salt) and greatly aided by the Spirit (fixatives).
  3. The HISTORICAL CONTEXT of Exodus 30:34-38 also reveals the power of God to handle great obstacles to our blessing as we pray:
    1. The Arabs controlled much of the incense trade of ingredients coming from mainly pagan lands (Ibid., Z. P. E. B., v. 3, p. 274), but God ruled this trade so Israel could always burn the incense, Ex. 30:7-8! We can trust God to rule world forces so we can always heed Him.
    2. The Red Sea needed to produce the onycha is a relatively enclosed, shallow (1500 ft. av.), warm (80 deg. F.) part of the Indian Ocean with a high rate of evaporation and high salinity, Compton's Ency., 1973, v. 17, p. 120. This unique sea is part of the Great Rift Valley that runs from the Sea of Galilee 3,400 miles down to Mozambique (Ibid., v. 6, p. 41; Compton's Ency. World Atlas , 1972, p. 10-11) and was formed in the Noahic Flood with the depression of a massive block of the earth's crust that ran between two long parallel faults (Compton's Ency. Dict., s. v. "rift valley"). We can thus trust God's will to use His vast but precise power to handle natural obstacles to our welfare!
    3. The Red Sea snail that grew the onycha foot plate was ceremonially unclean (Deut. 14:9-10), but God sovereignly overruled any legalistic bias in Israel so it could be burned and smelled in His presence! We too can trust God for victory over great and theologically errant foes!
Application: May we (1) trust in Christ for salvation to be a child of God, John 1:11-12. (2) Then, may we pray in His will for His help!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 God wonderfully, powerfully and graciously illustrated this message on our vacation, and I share it with you for your edification:

(1) On Friday, August 13, 2010, my wife and I traveled north on Interstate 91 to visit a specific location in northern Massachusetts. Strangely, we never found the place, so we returned the way we left!

(2) However, both going and coming, and for different reasons, the I-91 traffic came to a standstill near Northhampton, Massachusetts! Both times, our stopping led me to think of the great Puritan preacher, Jonathan Edwards, who ministered in that town around 250 years ago!

(3) I later recalled Edwards' 261-year-old book, The Life of David Brainerd, was mightily used of God to fuel "the domestic and foreign missionary movement of the late eighteenth through the nineteenth century" according to The Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University (edwards.yale.edu). That book had spread Christianity to the ends of the earth in several generations starting at Northhampton where Brainerd is buried and where Edwards had written of his life!

I remembered how Christ had predicted in Revelation 3:4 that the godly in Edwards' and Brainerd's time would walk with Him in white (Rev. 1:13), that is, to impact the Church from their era down to the rapture. Brainerd's short but dedicated work among American Indians that ended in death by TB at age 29 coupled with Edwards' book on Brainerd's diary had been used of God to spread the Christian faith to many lands in opposition what Byron J. Richards claims were the evil works of an American illuminati that arose after Edwards' day! I was thus encouraged that regardless what "Babylon the Great" had been doing since 1776, Christ had been fulfilling His Matthew 16:18 pledge to build His Church in line with His Revelation 1:13 promise!

(4) I then realized I had been a recipient that day of Christ's Revelation 3:4 prophecy to use Edwards and Brainerd to impact me!

(5) I also realized our trips by Northhampton had occurred just hours before the President had made his first remark on the mosque near Ground Zero! God had used that whole day both to recall His past great works and to signal His foreknowledge of a critical event to occur that day, an event revealing the great discipling needs of the world of our era! The lesson was to trust Him now as had His saints of the past!

May we believers in Christ rely on the Holy Spirit to do God's will, and pray for His great help in our very needy time!