When you study the twenty-ninth to the thirtieth chapter of the Book of Exodus, you’d find how that the Lord gave the children of Israel certain instructions, and asked that they rendered sin offering, burnt offerings and incense. These were to be done every day. However, God wasn’t pleased with the sacrifice and offerings of these animals; He wanted the perfect sacrifice: Christ Jesus.

 

Over in the New Testament, Jesus became our sin offering. He was offered for us as one sacrifice, forever. We never need to offer animals to God anymore. Hebrews 10:14 says, “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” He wasn’t just the perfect sacrifice; His sacrifice perfected us.

 

The Psalmist, David, gives us a light into this and tells us something striking in Psalm 141:2. He said, “Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.” Being a prophet, he had a revelation of the future and the new dispensation that should come into effect after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

 

The sanctuary of the old covenant was going to be removed and replaced. What then would take the place of the incense that was offered to God regularly, and the sacrifices that He commanded the priests to offer morning and evening?

 

It’s our prayers of worship and the lifting up of our hands! God says this should be perpetual; it should never cease. It’s the reason we worship Him always, with our hands lifted. Every time you worship the Lord, especially when you do it in the spirit, that is, in other tongues, your prayers go to Him as incense. The Bible says, “And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand” (Revelation 8:4).

 

As you lift your hands to Him, eulogizing and making confessions to His Name, it’s like the evening sacrifice, a sweet-smelling offering and sacrifice that pleases God. And we’re to do this every day.