Frankincense, Gold, Myrrh, and Mystery

Scripture: Tell the Israelites: This will be my holy anointing oil throughout your generations. It must not be used for ordinary anointing on a person’s body, and you must not make anything like it using its formula. It is holy, and it must be holy to you. Anyone who blends something like it or puts some of it on an unauthorized person must be cut off from his people. Exodus 30:31-33

Observation: As God tells Moses how to prepare the tabernacle, he provides recipes for the anointing oil to be used on priests to purify them in the presence of the Lord, and the incense to be burned on the alter that sits before the Lord. The alter is covered in gold. The incense is 50 percent frankincense. The primary scenting agent in the oil is myrrh. Surely it cannot be a coincidence that these are the three things that are before the Lord at all times in the tabernacle, and are the three gifts specifically called out as presented before Jesus at his birth.

Application: While I could deep-dive on this topic all day, the truth is that all of this - from the rituals of the tabernacle, to the meaning of all elements surrounding it, to the foreshadowing of Messiah, to even the rules and restrictions for all of it - is a mystery.

At first, I was going to consider the restriction in the verses above (which is why I copied them in) ... that no one must ever copy this recipe for anointing oil ever ... when there are exact replicas of this oil proudly proclaiming they are this exact recipe for sale on Amazon today. One review I read even attributes a healing miracle to the oil. Is there sense to that? Is it possible God forbid replicating this oil, then blesses replicating this oil? Does this fall under the debates about the applicability of Old Testament law, or old vs. new covenant?

However, all of this is equally a mystery. And yet in the midst of all these ideas and elements and items and rituals and rules we truly cannot fully grasp, there is an inescapable truth and undeniable fact ... it somehow ALL points to Jesus.

Prayer: Lord, it is true that I do not understand your mysteries. Someday they may be revealed to me, but I am more likely to believe that someday there will be no need for understanding as I will simply experience it all. May my life be an offering to you, laid upon your alter, a pleasing aroma. No understanding is necessary. Amen.