While reading in 2 Chronicles this morning, this verse really struck me. As I tried to read on, the Spirit kept drawing me back to it.  So I sat in the verse and just listened.  

The first thing that came to mind was that it was the priests that did the actions here.  Not being a priest, I wondered why the Spirit had me stop here.  Well, I found the answer in 1 Peter 2:9.  According to this passage, I see that, as a believer, I am a royal “priest”.  Ok…so how does this apply to my life?  What does the Spirit want to teach me through this?

With it established that I am indeed in a “royal priesthood’”, I looked up “What is a burnt offering?” on https://www.gotquestions.org and found that the Hebrew word for “burnt offering” actually means, to ascend; literally, to go up in smoke.  The smoke from the burnt offering ascended to God and was a “pleasing aroma to the Lord” (Exodus 29:18).  A burnt offering was the complete destruction of an animal in an effort to renew the relationship between Holy God and sinful man.  While we know today that Jesus died once for all for our sins, removing the veil that separated us from God, we must also see confessing our sins to God restores intimate fellowship that unconfessed sin interrupts.   In Romans 12:1, Paul urges us, “…brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”   I am a living sacrifice which means that I can climb down off that altar anytime I please, but that’s not what God intends or deserves.  In view of all the mercy He extends to me, I must choose to stay on the altar, dying to self daily (or more times a day if necessary).  

When I considered the “fragrant incense”, what came to mind were two passages. Psalm 141:2, “May my prayer be set before You like incense...” and Revelation 5:8, “And when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders, fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.”  So as a “priest” today, I can set specific times aside during the day to pray, knowing that those prayers rise as a fragrant incense to my God.  

How can I, as a “priest”, set out the bread on the ceremonially clean table?  Jesus said, “I am the BREAD OF LIFE.  Whoever comes to me will never go hungry” (John 6:35).  So I know the showbread was a picture of Jesus.  As a “priest”, I set out “Jesus” on the clean table of my heart and life, so others can be drawn to Him and get the hunger of their hearts satisfied.  Also consider that as the priests set out fresh bread, they were allowed to eat the bread they were removing from the table.  As we partake daily of the words of Jesus, the Bread of Life, our needs are met as well. 

How do I “light the lamps on the golden lampstand?”  I see a picture of the Holy Spirit.  I need to be in such a place in my heart and life that I’m not grieving Him — not in any way dimming or extinguishing the light of the testimony of my life.  Life has a habit of keeping us so busy that we neglect our spiritual “fire”.  If you consider what happens to a bonfire that is neglected, it grows cold and goes out.  Just like bonfires need stoked and tended, so do the fires in our hearts.  That’s why Paul reminded Timothy, “…fan into flame the gift of God…” (2 Timothy 1:6).  Jesus said that believers are “the light of the world”.  I need to “let my light shine before others, that they may see (my) good deeds and glorify (my) Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). 

PAUSE TO PONDER.  After reading through this, how are you doing?  

• Is your life a living sacrifice to the Lord,  or are you climbing on and off the atlar as you please?
• Does God enjoy the fragrant incense of your prayer life?  
• Is the “table” of your life clean?  
• Are you in the Word daily, to feed yourself and then to be able to share with others?  
• Does your life burn brightly enough for God that others can see it and be drawn to your Father?  

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, 
a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession,
SO THAT
you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has 
called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;”
~~1 Peter 2:9~~