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“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.” Revelation 5:8b (ESV)

The Book of Revelation is filled with wondrous and sometimes frightening imagery. In chapter 5, the Lamb, who is Jesus, had just taken a scroll from the Father’s right hand. As soon as He took it, the twenty-four elders fell down before Him, holding harps and bowls of incense. According to Revelation, the bowls of incense are the prayers of God’s people…us.

God has always loved incense. In the time of Moses, He gave a specific formula for the incense to be placed before the ark of the covenant, warning that this formula was forbidden to be used for any ordinary purpose. It was a holy incense with the stamp of God on it. (Exodus 30:34-38.) Mixing up this formula for personal use carried a heavy penalty: the guilty person was to be cut off from their people.

Aaron the priest was commanded to burn such incense on the altar every morning and again every evening, “a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations.” (Exodus 30:8-9.) He was also commanded to burn no strange or unauthorized incense. Only that special incense was good enough.

A friend in my study group was touched by the idea of the incense of Revelation being the prayers of God’s people. ‘Touched’ isn’t even the right word. She was struck by it as if it were a bolt of lightning. When she talked about it, she was animated, and her eyes sparkled. “Just think,” she said. “When you pray, you are in the throne room of God.” After she let that sink in, she said, “I want to pray more because that’s what God wants. I want to be in those bowls.”

Yes, I want to be in those bowls, too. If God was so protective of the holy incense of the Old Testament, how much more will He value the precious incense that is the prayers of His people? So let’s pray without ceasing. Let’s go boldly to the throne of grace. Let’s fill the throne room with the sweet-smelling incense of our prayers.

“Lord God, we thank You for Your invitation to come boldly to the throne of grace. We thank You also for the imagery in the Book of Revelation that helps us understand Your nature and the way You receive our prayers as a sweet-smelling incense.”

For His Glory

Cherie Harbridge Williams (www.cherieharbridgewilliams.com)
TRBC Women’s Life