One of the keys to understanding the Bible is to understand the meaning and activities associated with the sanctuary. A key component of the holy place in the temple was the altar of incense. This altar was symbolic of the prayers of God’s people traveling to Yahweh. The shekinah glory of God was on the other side of the curtain in the most holy place. The smoke of the incense was a kind of protection for the priest as he presented the people’s prayers directly to the Lord. There was no shekinah glory in the post-exilic temple, but the procedure remained the same.

In Romans, Paul speaks of the Spirit bringing our prayers to God, just as the incense from the altar floated over the veil and into the most holy place. On the surface, lighting incense on an altar in a beautiful temple and bowing down in our homes to pray in Jesus’ name seem to be totally different activities, but as we study the Bible, we learn that they are one and the same. The sanctuary was a book without writing given by God to teach His people the lessons that were essential for their survival. We need those lessons just as much today as the original illiterate slaves who worshipped at Moses’ tabernacle. One small part of the lesson about prayer taught by the altar of incense is in the following presentation.

This video is an example of using your sanctified imagination and reading strategies in order to better understand a narration and to apply the lessons of the story to our own lives.

Zechariah’s Prayer