Construction (Exodus 30:1–10)
"And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon: of shittim wood shalt thou make it. A cubit shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof; foursquare shall it be: and two cubits shall be the height thereof: the horns thereof shall be of the same. And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold."
Acacia wood overlaid with pure gold — the same two-natures construction. One cubit square, two cubits high (about 18 inches square, 3 feet high). A crown of gold round about. Four horns at the corners, of one piece with the altar. Rings and staves for transport. Smaller than the Bronze Altar, lighter, finer.
Position: "Thou shalt put it before the vail that is by the ark of the testimony" (Exodus 30:6). The Altar of Incense stood directly before the veil — closer to the Holy of Holies than any other furniture. The High Priest, standing at it, was as close to the Mercy Seat as he could come without entering. On the Day of Atonement he carried coals from this altar through the veil (Leviticus 16:12–13), bringing the cloud of incense before the Mercy Seat itself.
The incense formula (Exodus 30:34–38)
"Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be a like weight: And thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy."
Four spices — equal parts. Salted (Leviticus 2:13). Pure and holy. The incense formula was protected by a strict prohibition: "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. Whosoever shall make like unto it, to smell thereto, shall even be cut off from his people." The formula was God's alone.
Strange fire was death. Nadab and Abihu, two of Aaron's sons, "offered strange 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" (Leviticus 10:1–2). The wrong incense, the wrong coals, the wrong fire — and a holy God consumed them. The altar's sanctity was not negotiable.
The timing — light and incense together
"And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it. And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations" (Exodus 30:7–8).
Light and incense, paired, every morning and every evening. The priest never tended one without the other. The two acts of Tabernacle ministry — the lampstand's flame and the altar's smoke — were inseparable in execution.
The typological argument — Christ the intercessor
The smoke of the incense ascending upward is the prayer of God's people. The biblical text makes this explicit. "And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand" (Revelation 8:3–4). The heavenly altar of incense is the same furniture, in the heavenly Tabernacle, with the same purpose: offering prayer to God.
But the prayers do not go up alone. Revelation 5:8 — "having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints." The prayers are mingled with incense. The altar requires a fire that came originally from the Bronze Altar — that is, prayers ascend on the basis of the prior sacrifice. The incense is acceptable because the blood was first.
This is the typological architecture of intercession. "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25). "Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us" (Romans 8:34).
The Altar of Incense is Christ's ongoing intercessory ministry in the heavenly Tabernacle. In Jesus' name is not a ritual phrase — it is the altar. The fire was once kindled at the cross; the smoke goes up from the heavenly altar; God receives the prayers of his people through the perpetual mediation of Christ.
Commentary
John Owen, On the Glory of Christ (1684, PD), is the most extensive treatment in the PD tradition: Christ's intercession is not a one-time act but a perpetual ministry, the standing application of the once-for-all sacrifice. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Hebrews (PD): the altar of incense was placed nearest the veil, that we might know that prayer is the means by which we, even now, draw nearest to God's very presence.
→ Cross-link: The Lampstand (light + intercession paired) • The Veil (next-door furniture) • The Mercy Seat (where the incense cloud went on Yom Kippur).