Lord who orders worship with precision and beauty,
You tell Moses to make an altar of acacia wood,
overlaid with gold,
for burning incense before the veil
that guards the ark of the testimony.
Morning and evening,
Aaron must burn fragrant incense there,
a continual reminder that prayer should never cease.
No strange incense,
no burnt offering or grain offering
only the holy blend You have commanded.
You instruct that when a census is taken,
each person must give a ransom for their life
the same amount for rich and poor
so that no plague will strike the people.
This offering reminds them
that their lives belong to You,
and their safety rests not in numbers,
but in redemption.
You give the pattern for a bronze basin,
set between the tent and the altar,
filled with water for the priests to wash their hands and feet
before serving.
Clean hands and clean feet are not optional
when standing in Your presence.
Then You give the recipe for the anointing oil
myrrh, cinnamon, fragrant cane, cassia, and olive oil
a holy blend that must not be used for anything else.
It is for anointing the tent, the ark,
the table, the lampstand, the altar,
and the priests,
setting them apart as most holy.
You also give the incense blend
stacte, onycha, galbanum, and pure frankincense
to be made pure and holy,
used only for You.
Lord, teach me to guard the purity of worship,
to pray continually with a fragrance pleasing to You,
to remember that my life has been ransomed,
to serve You with clean hands and clean steps,
and to keep sacred what You have made holy.
In the name of Jesus,
whose blood cleanses,
whose intercession rises forever,
and whose Spirit anoints us for service,
Amen.