Exodus 40:5, commentary and pictures

The command placed the golden altar of incense in the holy place before the veil and before the ark in the most holy place, with the curtain hung at the door of the tabernacle. The tabernacle was erected on the first day of the first month of the second year after Israel left Egypt. When Moses finished the work as commanded, he burned sweet incense on the altar, set the law in the ark beneath the mercy seat, arranged the holy-place furniture and the offerings, and the cloud covered the tent and the glory of the Lord filled the dwelling. The ark is called the ark of the testimony because the testimony is the Ten Commandments kept within it, and above them the mercy seat is where pardon is found through the sprinkled blood of atonement. The daily incense rising before the ark represents the merits, intercession, and perfect righteousness of Christ, through which prayer is made acceptable, and the whole earthly pattern teaches His priestly work in the true heavenly sanctuary to dwell among His people and restore them to God.

Tabernacle Arrangement and Terms

The verse belongs to the detailed account of the sanctuary Moses built in the wilderness after the Exodus from Egypt. It was made exactly according to the pattern shown on the mountain and the explicit directions given in Exodus 25-31, with its full description found in Exodus 25-40. The tabernacle was reared up and fitted on the first day of the first month in the second year after Israel departed from Egypt.

The golden altar of incense was set in the first apartment, the holy place, before the veil and before the ark of the testimony kept in the second apartment. The hanging curtain was put at the door entrance of the tabernacle. When erected, Moses burned sweet incense on the altar as commanded. He placed the tables of the Ten Commandments in the ark with the mercy seat upon it, set up the veil, placed the table of showbread and the golden candlestick in the first apartment and lit the lamps before the Lord, and offered the burnt offering and meat offering on the altar before the door. Afterward the cloud covered the tent of the congregation and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle as God took possession of His dwelling among Israel.

The ark stood in the middle of the most holy place directly opposite the incense altar. It was in the middle as regards the sides but near the second veil, so that most of the apartment lay in front of the ministering priest. This was the very best position required by symmetry and order, allowing the staves to be drawn out against the curtain or veil. The tabernacle had two apartments divided by a curtain, with the outer apartment twice the size of the inner one. Its inner walls were overlaid with gold. The altar stood in the richly lit holy place, while the ark and the visible glory of God were beyond the veil in the most holy place.

The hanging at the entrance of the outer sanctuary and the inner curtain before the most holy place are both veils. In Hebrew both words mean veil or curtain, and in Greek both curtains are called katapetasma, so the English distinction does not mark a real difference. The King James Version calls the curtain at the entrance to the holy place a hanging, distinguishing it in English from the veil at the entrance to the most holy place. Although the Septuagint also uses katapetasma for this holy-place curtain, that Greek term by itself does not identify one particular sanctuary veil.

Dwelling Place and Worship

The sanctuary was made as God commanded Israel after leading them out of Egypt, with explicit instructions for its manner of construction, that He might dwell among them to reveal more fully His great love, continuing the unfolding plan of redemption before shown in the simple offering of a lamb for sin upon an altar of rough stones with the father of each family acting as priest. The tabernacle so built according to God's explicit directions was the center of Israel's worship, and that worship centered on God's presence among Israel and in turn on the most holy place, where the law rested beneath the mercy seat. It was the dwelling place of God among His people first in the wilderness and later through Israel's history until the temple was built after the same pattern.

The sanctuary was sanctified and set apart for sacred use, so the priests could not use it as they would their own houses. It was built as directed in the carrying out of God's directions for the sanctuary and its furnishings, and its completion brought blessing and glory upon the congregation and the building. The building and inaugurating of the sanctuary and its services was crowned by the manifestation of God's glory, which showed that God accepted the people's repentance.

The setting of the golden altar of incense before the ark of the testimony belongs to the worship division of Exodus, which gives the delivered nation an established form of worship with thorough organization, efficient leadership under Moses, and a complete code of laws. That nation had grown from a prosperous family settled in Egypt into a nation in bitter bondage and then been delivered, and the name Exodus means going out in Greek, referring to the departure of Israel from Egypt.

Law, Testimony, and Atonement

The ark is called the ark of the testimony because the testimony means the Ten Commandments, and those commandments give their name both to the ark and to the tabernacle. The direction places the golden altar for incense before that ark and orders the hanging to be put at the entrance of the tabernacle.

The ark containing God's moral law spoken at Mount Sinai was placed in the second apartment of the earthly sanctuary, the Most Holy Place. There the Levitical priesthood was appointed to minister before it in the typical sanctuary, which was a pattern of Christ's ministry in the heavenly sanctuary. The top of the ark is the mercy seat, where pardon is found for breaking the law beneath it by sprinkling the blood of atonement.

The whole ceremonial system with its sacrifices and priestly service was ordained to let man approach again to this broken law and represented atonement for its transgression. That ministry could show sinners their guilt but could not itself provide pardon, pointing forward instead to Christ's saving work as High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary before God's testament. It typified the restitution of the pardoned to their inheritance and the destruction of the impenitent.

The instruction belongs to the law of Moses commanded in Horeb with statutes and judgments, including the Ten Commandments and all the other precepts, civil, moral, health, and ceremonial. It is among the laws revealing offerings, sacrifices, and types whose shadows point to the substance of the new dispensation. In the last days attention is called to this law as set forth especially in Exodus 20 to 40 and Leviticus, not to the moral rule of conduct alone.

It is part of a separate set of laws regulating the worship of Israel, belonging to the religious system designed to bring men back to God. This is distinct from the laws in Exodus 21 to 23 for civil government, which is a temporary arrangement of force made necessary by sin to control men and regulate their relations toward each other in this life only. The two systems must go side by side on entirely separate lines of operation without commingling. As a rite of Israel's ceremonial system, it is among types and shadows pointing to Christ and therefore limited in duration.

Type of Christ's Ministry

The setting of the golden altar for incense before the ark of the testimony belongs to the final arrangement of a sanctuary whose furnishings and order were appointed by divine pattern to teach God's way and the heavenly sanctuary and Christ's priestly work. That movable wilderness dwelling was the worldly sanctuary, the temple of God with men, always typical of and foreshadowing the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man. It served unto the shadow of heavenly things and pointed to Christ and His power to forgive sin, to transform character, and to deliver from burden. The tabernacle containing the ark of God's law in the most holy place, where the Levitical priesthood ministered before it, was a pattern of Christ's ministry in the heavenly sanctuary.

The tabernacle and its services were object lessons and a type of Christ's ministry in the heavenly sanctuary as High Priest before God's testament, set up where God would dwell among His people. God's purpose is also to dwell in the hearts of His people. The altar thus placed was used morning and evening for incense, whose fragrance continued between offerings and spread through both the holy and the most holy places.

The altar stood in the holy place before the veil of the Most Holy Place where the ark was, and when the priest offered incense there he faced the ark. The cloud of incense accompanied Israel's prayers, and the altar's daily incense mingled with the prayers of priests and people. That incense represents Christ's merits, intercession, and perfect righteousness, through which worship and prayer are acceptable to God. It represents also God's grace and love that make even the humblest person's prayers acceptable. Together with the table of showbread and the seven-lamped candlestick, the altar's service in the first apartment taught practical truths essential to Christian life and cooperation with Christ's work as high priest in heaven.

Sabbath Proof and Context

Exodus 40 describes the setting up of the tabernacle and the placing of the table and the showbread in it on the first day of the first month. That account, including the placing of the golden altar, belongs to the time before the ceremonial rule requiring the showbread to be set out every Sabbath was given. That date alone does not establish that the day on which the tabernacle was set up was the weekly Sabbath, so the chapter does not prove that it was a Sabbath.