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Patriarchs and Prophets
could not see, so the people of God are now to direct their prayers
to Christ, their great High Priest, who, unseen by human vision, is
pleading in their behalf in the sanctuary above.
The incense, ascending with the prayers of Israel, represents the
merits and intercession of Christ, His perfect righteousness, which
through faith is imputed to His people, and which can alone make the
worship of sinful beings acceptable to God. Before the veil of the most
holy place was an altar of perpetual intercession, before the holy, an
altar of continual atonement. By blood and by incense God was to be
approached—symbols pointing to the great Mediator, through whom
sinners may approach Jehovah, and through whom alone mercy and
salvation can be granted to the repentant, believing soul.
As the priests morning and evening entered the holy place at the
time of incense, the daily sacrifice was ready to be offered upon the
altar in the court without. This was a time of intense interest to the
worshipers who assembled at the tabernacle. Before entering into the
presence of God through the ministration of the priest, they were to
engage in earnest searching of heart and confession of sin. They united
in silent prayer, with their faces toward the holy place. Thus their
petitions ascended with the cloud of incense, while faith laid hold upon
the merits of the promised Saviour prefigured by the atoning sacrifice.
The hours appointed for the morning and the evening sacrifice were
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regarded as sacred, and they came to be observed as the set time
for worship throughout the Jewish nation. And when in later times
the Jews were scattered as captives in distant lands, they still at the
appointed hour turned their faces toward Jerusalem and offered up
their petitions to the God of Israel. In this custom Christians have
an example for morning and evening prayer. While God condemns
a mere round of ceremonies, without the spirit of worship, He looks
with great pleasure upon those who love Him, bowing morning and
evening to seek pardon for sins committed and to present their requests
for needed blessings.
The showbread was kept ever before the Lord as a perpetual offer-
ing. Thus it was a part of the daily sacrifice. It was called showbread,
or “bread of the presence,” because it was ever before the face of the
Lord. It was an acknowledgment of man’s dependence upon God for
both temporal and spiritual food, and that it is received only through
the mediation of Christ. God had fed Israel in the wilderness with