April 13, 2023

The Holy Anointing Oil

Exodus 30

Catherine Hensley
Thursday's Devo

April 13, 2023

Thursday's Devo

April 13, 2023

Thursday's Devo

April 13, 2023

Thursday's Devo

April 13, 2023

Big Idea

God reveals the way and His will through His Word.

Key Verse | Exodus 30:31-32

"And you shall say to the people of Israel, 'This shall be my holy anointing oil throughout your generations. It shall not be poured on the body of an ordinary person, and you shall make no other like it in composition. It is holy, and it shall be holy to you.'"

Exodus 30

The Altar of Incense

1 You shall make an altar on which to burn incense; you shall make it of acacia wood. 2 A cubit 1 30:2 A cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters shall be its length, and a cubit its breadth. It shall be square, and two cubits shall be its height. Its horns shall be of one piece with it. 3 You shall overlay it with pure gold, its top and around its sides and its horns. And you shall make a molding of gold around it. 4 And you shall make two golden rings for it. Under its molding on two opposite sides of it you shall make them, and they shall be holders for poles with which to carry it. 5 You shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. 6 And you shall put it in front of the veil that is above the ark of the testimony, in front of the mercy seat that is above the testimony, where I will meet with you. 7 And Aaron shall burn fragrant incense on it. Every morning when he dresses the lamps he shall burn it, 8 and when Aaron sets up the lamps at twilight, he shall burn it, a regular incense offering before the LORD throughout your generations. 9 You shall not offer unauthorized incense on it, or a burnt offering, or a grain offering, and you shall not pour a drink offering on it. 10 Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once a year. With the blood of the sin offering of atonement he shall make atonement for it once in the year throughout your generations. It is most holy to the LORD.”

The Census Tax

11 The LORD said to Moses, 12 “When you take the census of the people of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for his life to the LORD when you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them. 13 Each one who is numbered in the census shall give this: half a shekel 2 30:13 A shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), 3 30:13 A gerah was about 1/50 ounce or 0.6 gram half a shekel as an offering to the LORD. 14 Everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the LORD's offering. 15 The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when you give the LORD's offering to make atonement for your lives. 16 You shall take the atonement money from the people of Israel and shall give it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may bring the people of Israel to remembrance before the LORD, so as to make atonement for your lives.”

The Bronze Basin

17 The LORD said to Moses, 18 “You shall also make a basin of bronze, with its stand of bronze, for washing. You shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it, 19 with which Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet. 20 When they go into the tent of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister, to burn a food offering 4 30:20 Or an offering by fire to the LORD, they shall wash with water, so that they may not die. 21 They shall wash their hands and their feet, so that they may not die. It shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his offspring throughout their generations.”

The Anointing Oil and Incense

22 The LORD said to Moses, 23 “Take the finest spices: of liquid myrrh 500 shekels, and of sweet-smelling cinnamon half as much, that is, 250, and 250 of aromatic cane, 24 and 500 of cassia, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and a hin 5 30:24 A hin was about 4 quarts or 3.5 liters of olive oil. 25 And you shall make of these a sacred anointing oil blended as by the perfumer; it shall be a holy anointing oil. 26 With it you shall anoint the tent of meeting and the ark of the testimony, 27 and the table and all its utensils, and the lampstand and its utensils, and the altar of incense, 28 and the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils and the basin and its stand. 29 You shall consecrate them, that they may be most holy. Whatever touches them will become holy. 30 You shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests. 31 And you shall say to the people of Israel, ‘This shall be my holy anointing oil throughout your generations. 32 It shall not be poured on the body of an ordinary person, and you shall make no other like it in composition. It is holy, and it shall be holy to you. 33 Whoever compounds any like it or whoever puts any of it on an outsider shall be cut off from his people.’”

34 The LORD said to Moses, “Take sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum, sweet spices with pure frankincense (of each shall there be an equal part), 35 and make an incense blended as by the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy. 36 You shall beat some of it very small, and put part of it before the testimony in the tent of meeting where I shall meet with you. It shall be most holy for you. 37 And the incense that you shall make according to its composition, you shall not make for yourselves. It shall be for you holy to the LORD. 38 Whoever makes any like it to use as perfume shall be cut off from his people.”

Footnotes

[1] 30:2 A cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters
[2] 30:13 A shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams
[3] 30:13 A gerah was about 1/50 ounce or 0.6 gram
[4] 30:20 Or an offering by fire
[5] 30:24 A hin was about 4 quarts or 3.5 liters

"What was the purpose behind anointing oil? Do we need to use it today?"

Listen Now

Dive Deeper | Exodus 30

I'm not a detail-oriented person, so Exodus 30 at first glance feels like weirdly specific instructions about how the Lord wants things. By allowing our imagination to bring the details to life, however, the passage becomes a feast for the senses.  More importantly, it shows us that God intricately works His will throughout generations to be with us.

From the passage we can imagine the sun rising and feel the water as Aaron washes from the bronze basin. Envision being in the tent, steps away from the veil that separates the Holy of Holies. See the gold altar, hear the hiss of burning incense, and breathe in the cinnamon and other spices of the anointing oil. Suddenly, God is not simply particular but the king of ambiance.

When visualizing God's instructions to Moses, the minute becomes magnificent. It sinks in that the details culminate in the Lord meeting with His people. Here, in the individual instructions, we see a holy, set-apart God making a way to meet unholy people. He creates a ritual that leads to righteousness for those who were anything but. When all the little things combine, we get God's chosen priests, who must be anointed with a special oil in order to commune with Him and offer sacrifices that atone for the sins of the Israelites.

If that sounds vaguely familiar, it's because it is. We see with Christ the motif of God coming to meet His people, a priest anointed, and a sacrifice to atone for sins once and for all. He is the priest, anointed for burial before His death on the cross that will atone for the sins of all who put their faith in Him.  What a gift! It's exciting to discover that things we overlook contain whispers of grace and show how God loves us and cares for us down to the smallest detail. We know the big picture that God loves us and sent His Son to die for us, but when we pay close attention to the small things, we can see and be confident in just how great that love is.

This month's memory verse

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;

– Philippians 4:4-5

Discussion Questions

1. Where in your life has God turned something minute into something magnificent?

2. Today, thanks to Jesus, we don't have to approach God through specific rituals, but we may each have unique ways of worshiping Him. What ways do you like to worship the Lord?

3. Knowing that God cares about every detail, what are details of your own life that God may be calling you to pay attention to? What might He want you to do more or less of?

As we gear up to release even more features for Join The Journey in 2025, our staff team, unfortunately, no longer has the margin to continue to support the comment functionality. We have big things in store for Join The Journey 2025. Stay tuned!

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Hugh Stephenson

GM Catherine. Love your framing of minute to magnificent. Links me to Isaiah 53:2-3 describing the Servant. Q1. I love this question. Flashback- September 1980. Age 22. The latest dating relationship had ended in yet another three-alarm dumpster fire. My mother was rapidly losing her battle with cancer and my dad was totally checked out. It’s hard to describe how lost I was. After my first few weeks of grad school I went back to college for a weekend to decompress with friends. My fraternity brother who had gotten me a blind date told me he had to make a switch to another girl. I shrugged. “Whatever” was my attitude. A simple blind date. Minute. But God… That evening I met my blind date. Amy Rhodes from Dallas. I later learned there was what can only be explained as a super natural set of events that brought us together. And here we are 42+ years later. Magnificent. Q2. Worship music lifts me out of myself and to Him. Q3. Busyness is my main struggle. What he wants more of is surrender. And less reaching for control.
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Hugh Stephenson

Despite 8 years of daily reading and studying via The Journey, with several of those at least partly devoted to the Pentateuch, I don’t recall having this much fun slow walking through these books. If only we had Leviticus on the list… Why is this so much fun? Let’s go back to the three big questions- Who is God? Who am I? Why am I here? Each chapter of each book helps me with the answers. Short version… God Big Hugh Small That is a truth that I need running on a continuous loop in my brain and in my heart. God is taking me patiently step by step through each piece, player, and process regarding the tabernacle so that He can show me the answers to these three questions. Although He gives me great clues, I still rely a bunch on Constable and the ESV SB. https://www.planobiblechapel.org/tcon/notes/html/ot/exodus/exodus.htm ESV SB Hardcopy - https://a.co/d/3Oww0vW Online link - https://www.esv.org/ sign up and buy on-line access. Lots of links below. Call in late and make another pot of coffee.
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Hugh Stephenson

ALTAR of INCENSE - https://www.gotquestions.org/altar-of-incense.html. Incense was a symbol of prayer, (Psalm 141:2, Revelation 5:8, 8:3, Luke 1:10) Acacia wood- dense and very strong. Very resistant to decay. Endurance. Will last for generations. https://www.gotquestions.org/acacia-wood.html Pure Gold - All impurities have been burned off by heat and fire. (Zechariah 13:9, 1 Peter 1:6-7, Malachi 3:3). More info on purity, dross and refining- https://www.gotquestions.org/meaning-of-dross.html https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-purity.html https://www.gotquestions.org/every-word-of-God-is- Horns were symbols of strength, https://www.gotquestions.org/horns-of-the-altar.html CENSUS and SHEKELS- https://www.gotquestions.org/sanctuary-shekel.html The notes indicate this was about 2 days of labor. In today’s dollars about $200-$250. Let’s tell the IRS this. Interestingly, it was the same regards of wealth. All sin is sin and requires the same atonement. :( Let’s tell Elizabeth Warren this. On washing- “All the priests bathed (v. 4), representing the necessity of cleanliness before God. "The washing is typical of regeneration [cf. Titus 3:5." ANOINTING OIL https://www.gotquestions.org/anointing-oil.html INCENSE See above plus this- INCENSE—a sweet-smelling substance that was burned as an offering to God on the altar in the tabernacle and the temple. The purpose of this incense offering was to honor God. Incense symbolized and expressed the prayers of the Hebrew people, which were considered a pleasant aroma offered to God. The incense used in Israelite worship was of a specific composition, considered very sacred. The four substances from which it was made were stacte, onycha, galbanum, and pure frankincense (Exodus 30:34–35). And lastly- from Constable A GREAT Parallel: Structurally, the tabernacle account consists of seven acts each introduced by divine speech ("And the LORD said," Exod. 25:1; 30:11, 17, 22, 34; 31:1, 12). Structurally, the creation account consists of seven acts each marked by divine speech ("And God said," Gen. 1:3, 6, 9, 14, 20, 24, 26).
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Michael Sisson

Re: Ex 30:12 Later, David and his people would pay a terrible price for violating this ordinance. See 2Sam 24:1-17; 1Chr 21:1-17 Re: Ex 30:18 See Ex 38:8 Re: Ex 30:32-33, 30:37-38 These are sacred recipes, not to be replicated. To our shame, we seem to have lost all respect for the sacred in our pursuit of a dollar. In spite of this prohibition, you can find modern replicas of the oil and incense for sale on Etsy.
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Sue Bohlin

Thank you, Catherine! I appreciate how God used all the senses He gave us to communicate His holiness to His people. He gave the formulas for the sacred/set apart/holy anointing oil and incense but warned they were to be restricted to the tabernacle (and later temple) worship, so when people smelled them they would automatically--and ONLY--be reminded of Yahweh. I came across a suggestion based on this, to bring a new fragrance on a vacation or trip to a special place and use it every day; thereafter, every time one used the fragrance, it would instantly take you back to that place and the memories you made there. (Which is why one of the Bath & Body Works scents transports me to Slovenia. Such a good idea!) The sense of smell is deeply connected with memory, and memory is deeply connected with emotions. We find out in the New Testament that God has done that with us. "But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life." (2 Corinthians 2:14-16) When the Father smells us believers, we are the happy fragrance that reminds Him of His Son whom He loves so much. (And to those who hate the Son, we are a stench. See also those of us slimed as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center.) When we maintain an eternal perspective, we can rejoice in being a happy fragrance to God and despise being a stench to others. (Speaking of eternal perspective . . . I was so incredibly blessed that CityBridge commissioned this video for Easter: https://youtu.be/eIshnTR6ncY )
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Michael Scaman

Whoever makes any like it to use as perfume shall be cut off from his people.” Spoiler alert! although Genesis and Exodus are mostly narrative, Leviticus is not and shifts abruptly to mostly thematic and instead of being narrative shifts to being mostly thematic on the subject of holiness. It throws some people and they feel lost. There are two short narratives and one is the 'strange fire' where Aaron's sons did not listen to these warnings and tried to be creative in worship where they should not have been.
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Amy Lowther

1. One example is I worked at a McDonald’s as a part-timer while I was in college. The manager thought I was a good worker and offered me a management position in which I would be trained to run the restaurant. Another example is I set a goal to pay off a school loan of about $5,000 in one summer. I set the goal in May and finished it in August and didn’t skip anything fun that summer. God is good. 2. I worship God and Jesus through prayer. I also worship God and Jesus by helping others learn about the good things they offer. 3. God calls me to take care of my home, my job, my friends, and my relationships with Himself and Jesus. God calls me everyday to do my best and believe in His guidance through His words and His values.
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Michael Scaman

The priest having special perfume reminds me of Jesus who was anointed with an expensive perfume bomb and who knows how many days that Jesus was smelling like a rose the following 'holy week'' and in and near the temple.
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Kathy Hempel Cox

Beautifully written! Thank you for helping me experience this in a whole new way