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I Thess. 1: 4; II Pet. 1: 20, 3: 3, and other places. What was Paul's great stay when all
Asia left him? when no man stood by him? when the truth for which he had lived,
suffered and was about to die was forsaken and betrayed?
"Nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I KNOW Whom I have believed" (II Tim. 1: 12).
While it is perfectly true that there is a knowledge that puffeth up, a knowledge that is
nothing worth, a knowledge that is proud, selfish and false, is this any reason why we
should renounce the true because of the counterfeit? "I would not have you ignorant" is
still written. "Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ"
is still true. "Add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge" is still a divine
command. As with Israel of old so now. Redemption, separation, pilgrimage,
sanctification are all stages in the knowledge of the Lord, and the glorious goal is
foreshadowed in Israel's prophetic history:--
"After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it
in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people, And they shall teach
no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord;
for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith
the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more"
(Jer. 31: 33, 34).
#67.
The altar of incense, or acceptance through Christ.
pp. 53 - 57
The first article of furniture for the tabernacle that is specified is the ark of the
testimony; the last is the golden altar of incense. The ark, together with the mercy-seat,
speak of righteousness and atonement; the altar of incense speaks of intercession and
acceptance.
Prayer is likened to incense in Psa. 141: 2: "Let my prayer be set forth as incense,
and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice." In Psa. 66: 15 the word
"incense" is used in a way that at first appears somewhat strange: "I will offer unto Thee
burnt sacrifices of fatlings with the incense of rams." We find, however, that this word
is translated "perfume" in Exod. 30: 35, and in its verbal form (qatar) not only means
"to burn incense" (as in Exod. 30: 7), but to burn "fat" (Exod. 29: 13), and "the
bullock" of the burn offering (Lev. 1: 9).
The N.T. references to incense associate it with prayer:--
"The people were praying without at the time of incense" (Luke 1: 10).
"And another angel came and stood by the altar, having a golden censer; and to him
much incense was given, that he should give it to the prayers of all the saints on that
golden altar which is before the throne. And the smoke of the incense went up with the
prayers of the saints out of the hand of the angel before God" (Rev. 8: 3, 4).