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The Tabernacle Just as the fire was ever to be kept burning upon the brazen altar, so also there was to be "perpetual incense" upon the golden altar. Listen to the command of God:
222 The Tabernaclt there could be no Intercessor for us at the "throne of grace." His Priestly work began at the cross-that Priestly work which He still continues to do for us as our "Advocate with the Father." This fundamental truth is clearly set forth in the story of the great sin of adab and Abihu, Aaron's sons, who took their censers and "put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered str:inge fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord" (Lev. 10: 1, 2) . The verse immediately preceding this quotation throws a flood of light upon this sin of Aaron's sons and their consequent punishment. The priests had just begun their ministry. The offerings had been laid upon the brazen altar. "And the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the people. And there came a fire out from before the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt-offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces" (Lev. 9:23, 24). Immediately after these words we read of the sin of Nadab and Abihu. God had told Moses previously that the fire upon the brazen altar should "ever be burning," that it should "never go out" (Lev. 6: 13 ) . God sent the fire; and He commanded His priests to keep it burning. More- over, fire from that brazen altar was to be placed upon the golden altar in the Holy Place to burn the sweet in- cense "before the Lord." It was all according to God's perfect plan-a plan which prefigured the ministry of Jesus, our Great High Priest, in prayer for us only after He had offered Himself upon the altar of Calvary, and had risen in glory.
"And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresseth the lam_Ps, he shall burn incense upon it. And when Aaron lightcth the lamps at even he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense 'before the Lord throughout your generations" (Exod. 30:7, 8).
Throughout the day and throughout the night the smoke of the sweet incense went up before the Lord, filling the sanctuary with its fragrance; and all the while the fire -was burning upon the brazen altar; all the while blood was being shed for the sins of God's people. Yes; the two altars were linked together by the express command of God. On the cross our Lord paid the penalty for our sins; at the golden altar in heaven He ever lives to intercede. At Calvary He bought us with His own precious blood; at the throne of God He keeps us from falling, maintains our fellowship and communion with Him. When we put our faith in His shed blood, we were «accepted" in Him; as we keep "looking unto Jesus," we see Him seated at "the right hand of the Majesty on high," praying for us. At the cross we see Him crowned wi_th thorns; at the right hand of the Father we see Hun «crowned with glory and honour." On Golgotha's hill we see only blood and ashes, as it were; at the golden altar in heaven we see the eternal God, who is "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13 :8) . And although He bears the marks of Calvary, yet He is the Light of heaven-no longer the suffering Saviour, but the triumphant Lord and King. His shed blood makes His prayers avail before His righteous Father; and our faith
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