The Kidneys Are the Incense Altar

Accept my prayer as incense offered to you, and my upraised hands as an evening offering. 

~Psalm 141:2 (NLT)

In the human body, the kidneys, ureters, and adrenal glands represent the incense altar of the Tabernacle, which was the place of prayer. 

The incense altar (or altar of incense) was a square box made out of wood and overlaid with gold. (The gold on this altar differentiates it from the altar of burnt offering, which was bronze. Some verses refer to the incense altar as the gold altar [Ex. 39:8; 2 Chron. 4:19].) Horns were incorporated into its design at each of its four corners and it was surrounded with molding around the edge of its top. Gold rings were placed on each side to hold its carrying poles, which were also made out of wood and overlaid with gold (Ex. 30:1-5). 

The incense altar stood outside of the inner curtain that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place (the innermost room of the Tabernacle where the Ark of the Covenant stood). As part of the old covenant law, priests were required to burn incense on the altar every morning and evening. Only incense could be burned on this altar. (Food and liquid offerings were to be made on the altar of burnt offering that stood in the courtyard.) It was the Lord’s most holy altar and had to be purified once a year with blood from a sacrificial animal (Ex. 30:10). 

Because this was the Lord’s altar and the place of prayer, not just any type of incense could be used. The incense used on the altar was a fine powder of ground spices specifically selected by God for this purpose. The NLT lists the spices as resin droplets, mollusk shell, galbanum, frankincense, and salt, however other translations render the first two ingredients as gum resin and onycha. 

Douglas K. Stuart clarified the origin of these spices in his commentary on the book of Exodus. He explained that the resin droplets (or gum resin) was powder formed from the hardened resin drops found in the bark of the Myrrh bush. Mollusk shell (or onycha) was powder formed by scrapping the horny shell of clamlike mollusks found in the Red Sea. Galbanum was a brownish resin taken from the Ferula plant that grew off the Mediterranean coast and acted as a scent preservative when mixed with other ingredients. Frankincense is a resin taken from the North African Boswellia tree, and salt was likely added as a preservative, though this may have been symbolic of permanent purity.  

When this special incense was burned, it produced a fragrant smoke before the Lord. It was holy, therefore it could not be used outside of the Tabernacle. Any attempt to recreate the incense or use it outside of the Tabernacle would result in the offender being cut off from the Israelite covenant community (excommunicated or put to death; Ex. 30:37-38). 

The incense, or the smoke produced from it, symbolizes prayer (Ps. 141:2; Rev. 5:8; 8:3-4). In Tabernacle worship, the priests served as intercessors for the Israelite community, and their prayers to the Lord on the worshipers’ behalf purified them of sin. Therefore, the incense altar stood as a place of purity before the Lord. Its use was connected to the washbasin that stood in the courtyard, as the priests were required to wash with water before entering the Tabernacle (Ex. 30:17-21; 40:30-32). In this way, the divinely designed priestly purification system of the Tabernacle replicates the urinary system of the divinely designed human body. It, too, purifies the body as it removes waste and other toxins from the body.  

In matters of worship, purity of heart is what pleases the Lord. The heart determined the way the incense offering was received by Him. When worship honored Him, the fragrance was pleasing. When worship was offensive, so was the smell (Prov. 15:8, 28:9; Isa. 1:13, 66:1-3). Therefore the heart has always been what really pleases the Lord, not rituals done in routine (Isa. 29:13; Matt. 15:9). 

In conclusion, the human body is an earthly tent designed like the one in heaven (2 Cor. 5:1). As such, the kidneys represent the incense altar. 

REFERENCES 

 Stuart, D. K. (2006). Exodus (Vol. 2, p. 646-48). Broadman & Holman Publishers.