Tears of Frankincense

Twelve loaves of bread lie on a golden table in the tabernacle in the wilderness (Exodus 25:23-30). They look peaceful enough now, but their journey into the presence of God was anything but easy. As the tears of frankincense can testify.

The bread’s journey began with the preparation of its prime ingredient—fine flour. The feet of oxen trampled on seeds of wheat until the husks that protected them cracked open. Unceremoniously hurled into the air so the wind could blow their chaff away, the seeds laid naked and defenseless on the ground. But only until they could be tossed between grinding stones that crushed them until they could pass through the finest of sieves.

Jesus knew the wheat seeds’ plight. He was the human version of flour made fine. Pharisees questioned and tested his theology. Unrelenting crowds pressed in to touch and receive from him at all hours of the day. Soldiers ripped and tore into his flesh. The righteous taunted him along with the condemned. Teased and ridiculed, Jesus learned by experience how to identify with us. His experience more than enabled him to understand how difficult our journey to seek God in the holy place can be.

The Journey of Frankincense

Which may be the very reason our heavenly Father crowned the bread reaching his presence with a special element of remembrance. “You shall put pure frankincense on each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, an offering made by fire to the Lord” (Leviticus 24:7 NKJV).

Heaped in golden spoons upon the stacks of bread, the pale dust of costly frankincense added its glorious aroma to the meal on the table. Frankincense was a fitting choice for the purpose because, like the bread’s fine flour, its road to the holy place was rocky.

Its journey began inside a tough Boswellia tree growing in forbidding environments of the Middle East. When the season was right, harvesters slashed open the bark, causing the tree to bleed its golden sap. As the tree wept, its precious resin hardened into opaque “tears.” Only after it was crushed did it find its way into the holy place.

His Fragrance Awaits

Two costly fragrances met where God and man came face-to-face. One, the smell of freshly baked bread–the other, shattered tears of frankincense.

Two perfumes met again in the Song of Solomon 1:12–13. The Shulamite woman approached the table of the king, saying her “spikenard” was sending forth its fragrance to him. She brought the flavor of her bread to him, the fragrance of her life. But her Beloved was like a bundle of myrrh, she said, between her breasts. Myrrh, like frankincense, is made available only by wounding a thorny tree to collect its sap.¹

When it’s all we can do just to claw our way into God’s presence, we can know Jesus went before us. He suffered the cost of crushing, grinding, refining pressure, then hung on a cross to become our Boswellia tree. Weeping great tears of blood, he brought his fragrance into the Father’s presence to crown our suffering with his own.

Let us draw near then, in expectation. The fine flour we bring bears the perfume of Christ to our Father (2 Corinthians 2:15). But our Bridegroom awaits us, holding his tears in his hand. He will sprinkle them out upon our tears. A memorial before God of our welcome.

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1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrrh