The Ingredients of the Incense typify Christ with His Death and Resurrection

As those who love God, seek Him, and desire to experience Him, we need to know what makes Him happy and how can we contribute to the fulfilment of His purpose.

What is it that satisfies God’s heart and what contributes to the fulfillment of His purpose? It is Christ, but in a more specific way, Christ processed and consummated to be the incense.

In the Old Testament when the priests burned the incense, God was satisfied, and in Rev. 8 when the prayers of the saints ascend to God and Christ as Another Angel adds the incense, God releases His judgements and executes His administration. What satisfies God’s heart and accomplishes His purpose is incense.

What is this incense, what does it represent, and how can we experience it? Christ is the incense; He is the reality of all the positive things in the universe, He is everything to God for His satisfaction, He is everything to God in His economy, and He is all and in all in the Body of Christ, the church, and the new man.

As the anointing, Christ is the compound Spirit today to add God’s elements to our being and saturate us with God for us to be priests to God for God’s building; as the incense, Christ is being wrought into us and we offer Christ to God for His satisfaction and delight.

As the holy anointing oil, Christ is within us to anoint us, teach us subjectively concerning the Triune God, and impart all that God is into us; as the incense, Christ from within is being offered as a sweet-smelling fragrance to God for His satisfaction and for the fulfillment of His economy.

This week we are appreciating and enjoying how this Christ, who is all-inclusive, all-extensive, and wonderful, is everything to man and to God for God’s building so that God would be built into man and man would be built into God for the fulfillment of God’s heart’s desire and His purpose.

In order for us to fully appreciate what the incense is, we need to take a look at the ingredients of this compound incense, and we need to do so not only as a study but seek to know how these apply to our Christian experience.

The Ingredients of the Incense typify Christ with His Death and Resurrection

In Exo. 30 we see the compound ointment and the incense: the compound ointment was for man to be anointed for God’s building, and the incense was for God’s satisfaction. The type of the incense with its components and the way to make it quite unusual because the three spices – stacte, onycha, and galbanum – are unusual; they are peculiar words referring to unusual things.

For example, stacte is a resinous gum used as the purest myrrh, which is edible, to heal the throat and reduce excess saliva; it signifies the sweet death of Christ.

There’s a footnote in Exo. 30:34 in the Holy Bible, Recovery Version, which helped me a lot in understanding what the ingredients of the incense are:

The three fragrant spices signify the Triune God in resurrection (the number three signifies both the Triune God and resurrection), and the addition of pure frankincense, making the number of ingredients four, signifies the humanity of Christ (the number four signifies man as God’s creature — Ezek. 1:5). The compounding of the four ingredients into one incense signifies the mingling of God with man, of divinity with humanity, in Christ as the incense. Each of the three spices signifies the death of Christ, as follows: (1) stacte, a kind of myrrh, a resinous gum produced by a tree, signifies the sweet death of Christ’s generating life (signified by the plant life — John 12:24); (2) onycha, the shell of a small animal that grows in the marshes of the Red Sea, signifies the death of Christ with His redemptive life (signified by the animal life — John 1:29); and (3) galbanum, also a resinous gum from a tree, signifies the powerful death of Christ’s generating life. The disagreeable and offensive odor of galbanum strengthened the fragrance of the other spices and caused the fragrance of the incense to remain and endure. Galbanum was used to repel noxious insects and poisonous reptiles, including serpents. The second of the spices, being of the animal life, signifies that the second of the Godhead was slain to accomplish redemption. Hence, the three spices indicate that Christ’s death in His generating life and His redeeming life has three functions: to generate us as sons of God, to redeem us from the fall, and to expel the serpent, the Devil (cf. John 12:24; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; Heb. 2:14). The fourth ingredient, frankincense, is a white resinous gum, signifying the sweet resurrection of Christ. The three spices and the frankincense are seasoned with salt (v. 35), making the number of ingredients five, the number five signifying responsibility (Matt. 25:2). (Exo. 30:34, footnote 1)

What we see with the incense and its ingredients is:

• The Triune God in resurrection (signified by number 3, three spices);
• Pure frankincense is added – the spices become four, signifying the humanity of Christ;
• Stacte signifies the sweet death of Christ’s generating life;
• Onycha signifies the death of Christ with His redemptive life;
• Galbanum signifies the powerful death of Christ’s generating life;
• Incense had a strong fragrance, strengthened by galbanum, and it repelled snakes and insects, signifying that Satan is repelled and defeated by Christ in His death and resurrection;
• The three spices indicate that Christ’s death is to generate us as sons of God, to redeem us from the fall, and to expel Satan;
• Frankincense signifies the resurrection of Christ;
• The incense was seasoned with salt – five spices, signifying responsibility.

How wonderful to see all these ingredients in the incense! I used to think that the incense the priests offered to God was simply one element that smelled really nice called “incense”, but God is not that simple: He designed a particular kind of “incense” that is compounded with some strange and unusual ingredients, and this incense was what satisfied Him. Hallelujah!

Lord Jesus, we love You! Thank You for Your death in Your generating life and Your redeeming life to generate us as sons of God, redeem us from the fall, and expel the Devil, the serpent! Lord, we praise You and we thank You for all that You are and all that You have gone through. Now all Your processes and elements are compounded together to be the incense which we can offer to God for His satisfaction! Hallelujah for our wonderful Christ who passed through many processes and accomplished many things to become a sweet-smelling fragrance to God!

How Christ with All His Processes is for Man’s Enjoyment and God’s Satisfaction

It is very interesting to see that there is the holy anointing oil (for the anointing of the priests and the furnishings of the tabernacle) and the incense (to be offered to God for His satisfaction), and their ingredients are quite peculiar yet they signify this wonderful Christ with His processes and ingredients.

With both the ointment and the incense we have the Triune God, Christ’s divinity, His humanity, His death, and His resurrection. In both the anointing and the incense we see divinity mingled with humanity, the death and resurrection of Christ, and the effectiveness and sweetness of Christ’s death and resurrection.

This shows us that both the anointing oil and the incense point to the wonderful Christ with the processes He passed through and the ingredients He has. Christ, the all-inclusive and all-extensive One, passed through the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, death, and resurrection, and He became a life-giving compound Spirit who is anointing us to be our enjoyment and He is to be offered to God by His people for His satisfaction and rest.

The all-inclusive Christ as the compound Spirit is our enjoyment for our portion, and this Christ with all His ingredients is for God’s satisfaction. In the anointing we have the Divine Trinity, divinity, humanity, and the death and resurrection of Christ; in the incense we also have the Divine Trinity, humanity, divinity, and Christ’s death and resurrection.

This Christ who passed through all these processes has become the satisfaction and enjoyment of both God and man for the fulfillment of God’s purpose, the building of God. Hallelujah for our wonderful Christ with all His processes!

Lord Jesus, thank You for passing through the processes of incarnation, human living, death, and resurrection to become a compound ointment for our enjoyment and the incense for God’s satisfaction! Lord, how we appreciate and love You for all that You are, all that You passed through, and all that You have attained and obtained. You are the only One who can bring God to man (as the anointing) and bring man to God and into God in Christ (as the incense). We love You, Lord Jesus Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, brother Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message for this week, and Life-study of Exodus, msg. 169 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (3), week 12 (week 36), The Incense.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Pure myrrh and cinnamon, / Calamus and cassia— / These are Thy elements, / Jesus my Lord! / In olive oil they’re blent / In wondrous measurement— / O what an ointment this, / Anointing us! / Four-in-one mingled, / Compounded Spirit, / Sweet with Christ’s suffering death, / Full of the fragrance / Of resurrection— / O what an ointment flows / In spirit, Lord! (Hymns #1116)
  # Thy death as myrrh in sweetness / Man’s spirit comforteth; / Thy resurrection fragrance / God’s longing answereth. / We treasure with affection / Thy perfect comeliness, / Thy sweetness and Thy fragrance, / And all Thy loveliness. (Hymns #169)