Anointing Oil and Incense - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Exodus 30:32-33, 37-38 ,

"Do not pour it [the sacred anointing oil] on anyone else's body and do not make any other oil using the same formula. It is sacred, and you are to consider it sacred. Whoever makes perfume like it and puts it on anyone other than a priest must be cut off from their people."... "Do not make any incense with this formula for yourselves; consider it holy to the Lord. Whoever makes incense like it to enjoy its fragrance must be cut off from their people."

The environment for the presence of the Lord among the Israelites and the worship they were to perform there was to be one that engaged the senses. The Lord gave Moses a recipe for the "sacred anointing oil" that was to be used to apply to the various furnishings of the tabernacle as well as the priests. The fragrant spices to be used in the formula were liquid myrrh, fragrant cinnamon, fragrant calamus and cassia mixed in olive oil. (One wonders what the odor might have been like in the precincts where so many animals were sacrificed.)

Additionally, the Lord gave Moses a recipe for the incense that was to be burned on the altar to be constructed for that purpose. It was to be made from "fragrant spices": gum resin, onycha, galbanum, and pure frankincense.

It is interesting that with both recipes, the Lord forbade the Israelites from the misuse of either or copying the formula of each for their own use. Both were to be used exclusively for the worship at the tabernacle and only at the Lord's pleasure (and no one else.)

This drives the point to me that there are some things in life that are to be exclusively the Lord's - for his use and pleasure. Things we are not to take in hand to use for ourselves apart from the Lord or for other purposes. In a very specific sense, for example, human life is exclusively the Lord's - not for us to take (apart from his direction).

Possibly in a more general sense, in attempting to mimic what the Lord has done, counterfeits have been pursued. The Qur'an is an example of Muhammed, who did a poor job of attempting to copy what he found among the Jews - God's revelation of himself in the Scriptures, as he sought to retain loyalty from his troops. Copycat cults of Christianity might be considered others. I'm sure you could come up with a few.

Just a few thoughts this morning...

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

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