In order to get a clear picture of what was happening in the tabernacle and to know how the incense was made to have true value, we must go back and a look at the brazen altar. For there the work of Christ began, where He suffered and shed His blood and died, purging our sins.  Thus the brazen altar is a type of the cross, which was Christ’s first work in God’s whole plan for our redemption.

The brazen altar, the place where animals were sacrificed, was made of brass and had no crown; thus it speaks to us of the suffering and humiliation of our Lord on earth. But the golden altar, with a crown of gold, speaks to us of the reigning of Christ in heaven.

The blood from the sacrifices of the first altar was symbolic of the blood of Christ; the incense of the second…