Worship as a Fragrant Offering
Lisa Stanczak
Sometimes in a service, I hear the prayer,“ Lord, let our worship be a fragrant offering to you.” Prayers like this evoke imagery of pleasing aromas that filled the Temple in Jerusalem.
I understand this prayer. We want our worship to be pleasing to God. But what are we really asking for?
In Jerusalem, only Levitical priests( cohanim) were allowed to burn Temple incense. In doing so, they acted as intermediaries between God and the people. God required the cohanim to adhere to strict standards of holiness, including ritual and moral purity.
Under the New Covenant, all of us who follow Yeshua are cohanim, aren’ t we? In his first letter, Peter wrote to the communities of believers in modernday Turkey who were facing persecution, calling them both a royal priesthood and a holy nation. He reminded them that the nation that Hosea once called“ lo ammi”( not a people) were now, by God’ s grace, a holy people. Adonai chose them to proclaim the praises of the One who called us out of darkness and into a marvelous light.
But let’ s back up. Not all cohanim were allowed to burn incense in the Temple. In Exodus 30:9, God instructed only Aaron and his house to burn the required incense. In Numbers 18:1, God told Aaron that his house’ s responsibilities would include bearing the guilt for the Sanctuary and for the priesthood. So along with experiencing the sweet aroma, cohanim also carried a burden.
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