301 "Make an Altar for burning incense. Construct it from acacia wood, 2 one and one-half feet square and three feet high with its horns of one piece with it. 3 Cover it with a veneer of pure gold, its top, sides, and horns, and make a gold molding around it 4 with two rings of gold beneath the molding. Place the rings on the two opposing sides to serve as holders for poles by which it will be carried. 5 Make the poles of acacia wood and cover them with a veneer of gold. 6 "Place the Altar in front of the curtain that hides the Chest of The Testimony, in front of the Atonement-Cover that is over The Testimony where I will meet you. 7 Aaron will burn fragrant incense on it every morning when he polishes the lamps, 8 and again in the evening as he prepares the lamps for lighting, so that there will always be incense burning before God, generation after generation. 9 But don't burn on this Altar any unholy incense or Whole-Burnt-Offering or Grain-Offering. And don't pour out Drink-Offerings on it. 10 Once a year Aaron is to purify the Altar horns. Using the blood of the Absolution-Offering of atonement, he is to make this atonement every year down through the generations. It is most holy to God." The Atonement-Tax
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Exodus 30:1-10
Commentary on Exodus 30:1-10
(Read Exodus 30:1-10)
The altar of incense represented the Son of God in his human nature, and the incense burned thereon typified his pleading for his people. The continual intercession of Christ was represented by the daily burning of incense thereon, morning and evening. Once every year the blood of the atonement was to be applied to it, denoting that the intercession of Christ has all its virtue from his sufferings on earth, and that we need no other sacrifice or intercessor but Christ alone.