1 Kings 7:48

The altar of gold. — The altar of gold (1 Kings 6:20; 1 Kings 6:22) is the altar of incense. On it (see Exodus 30:1) incense was to be burnt morning and evening. The horns of the altar were to be touched with the blood of the sin offering (Leviticus 4:7; Leviticus 4:18) offered for the priests or the people; and it was to be solemnly purified by the blood of the sacrifice on the great Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:18). The offering of incense, therefore, pre-supposed sacrifice already offered, and atonement made for sin. To the Israelites it clearly symbolised the offering of an acceptable worship by man, as restored to the love and communion of God. (See Psalms 141:2.) The priest, as a mediator between God and man, alone entered the Holy Place and offered the incense; the people “stood praying without” (Luke 1:10). To us it symbolises the intercession of the One Mediator, offered for us in the Most Holy Place of heaven, by whom alone our worship ascends to God. (See Hebrews 9:11; Hebrews 9:24; Hebrews 10:19; Revelation 8:3.)

For the table of shewbread, see Exodus 25:23; Exodus 37:10; for the shewbread itself, see Leviticus 24:5. The “shewbread” — properly “bread of the face” (or presence) of God, translated in the LXX. Version as “bread of offering” or “of presentation” — was clearly of the nature of an Eucharistic offering to God of His own gift of bread — a kind of first-fruits, acknowledging that the whole sustenance of life comes from Him, and possibly also implying the truth more closely symbolised by the pot of manna, that “man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word proceeding out of the mouth of God.”