22 ¶ Moreover the Lord spake
unto Moses, saying,
23 Take thou also unto
thee principal spices, of pure myrrh five hundred shekels,
and of sweet cinnamon half so much, even two
hundred and fifty shekels, and of sweet calamus
two hundred and fifty shekels,
24 And of cassia five
hundred shekels, after the shekel of the
sanctuary, and of oil olive an hin:
25 And thou shalt make it
an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary:
it shall be an holy anointing oil.
26 And thou shalt anoint
the tabernacle of the congregation therewith, and the ark of the testimony,
27 And the table and all
his vessels, and the candlestick and his vessels, and the altar of incense,
28 And the altar of burnt
offering with all his vessels, and the laver and his foot.
29 And thou shalt sanctify
them, that they may be most holy: whatsoever toucheth them shall be holy.
30 And thou shalt anoint
Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they
may minister unto me in the priest’s office.
31 And thou shalt speak
unto the children of Israel, saying, This shall be an holy anointing oil unto
me throughout your generations.
32 Upon man’s flesh shall
it not be poured, neither shall ye make any other
like it, after the composition of it: it is
holy, and it shall be holy unto you.
33 Whosoever compoundeth any like it, or whosoever putteth any of it upon a stranger, shall even be cut off from
his people.
34 ¶
And the Lord
said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum;
these sweet spices with pure frankincense: of
each shall there be a like weight:
35 And thou shalt make it
a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, tempered together,
pure and holy:
36 And thou shalt beat some of it very small, and put of it before the
testimony in the tabernacle of the congregation, where I will meet with thee:
it shall be unto you most holy.
37 And as for the perfume which thou shalt make, ye shall
not make to yourselves according to the composition thereof: it shall be unto
thee holy for the Lord.
38 Whosoever shall make
like unto that, to smell thereto, shall even be cut off from his people. (Ex.
30:22-38)
In these verses the
Lord gives Moses directions for a recipe for holy anointing oil and for incense.
The oil was for anointing and sanctifying the tabernacle and the priests. The
Incense was to be burned in the tabernacle. Both were to be holy and not used
for any other thing outside the tabernacle. Anyone who made it and used it for
other purposes was to be cut off (or excommunicated).
Why was this so
important? Why was it to be so exclusive?
It seems to me
that the Lord was trying to use the power of smells and how they create strong
associations with memories and feelings. He wanted a particular set of smells
to be associated with the act of anointing and with going into the tabernacle.
Smells create
atmosphere, and they are a good symbol for how the Spirit of God creates an
atmosphere when present as part of priesthood ordinances and holy places.
Also, often smells
of places cling may cling to people, and if people who had been worshipping at
the tabernacle had those smells on them, everyone who came close would know
where they’d been and what they’d been doing and associate it with the tabernacle
and the positive feelings of that. Those associations would strengthen over
time. Perhaps those who were distanced from God could be reminded by smelling
those smells again from other people around them who worshipped faithfully at
the temple.
How might this be
useful to us today? What if parents had a particular perfume or cologne they
only used after having gone to the temple? It might do the same thing for them
and their family.
More lessons I get
from these verses:
1)
The anointing
oil can symbolize the Spirit of God. If so, then we can’t (and should not try
to) imitate the workings of the Spirit. Attempts to imitate would amount to
emotional manipulation, which isn’t what the Lord wants. The Lord wants us to
imitate Christ’s works, but let the Spirit work as it will.
2)
The incense can
represent prayer, since it was to be burned will the priests prayed. Thinking
about the ingredients of the incense might make us think about the proper
ingredients of prayer—humility, submission, requests for help, gratitude for
blessings, confessions for sins, requests for forgiveness, pleas for protection
from temptation, requests for guidance, confidences about one’s situation and feelings,
praise and adoration for mercy and power manifest, etc.
Update on the Revelation
Commentary: I’m still working hard on it! My word count is up to about 153,000 right now.
The whole thing has been drafted, but each chapter requires multiple draft
iterations for refinement. I’m very excited about it.
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