CHAPTER 30 Feb.19 
The Altar of Incense
You shall make an altar to burn incense on. You shall make it of acacia wood. 2Its length shall be a cubit, and its breadth a cubit. It shall be square, and its height shall be two cubits. Its horns shall be of one piece with it. 3You shall overlay it with pure gold, its top, its sides around it, and its horns; and you shall make a gold moulding around it. 4You shall make two golden rings for it under its moulding; on its two ribs, on its two sides you shall make them; and they shall be for places for poles with which to bear it. 5You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. 6You shall put it before the veil that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with you. 7Aaron shall burn incense of sweet spices on it every morning. When he tends the lamps, he shall burn it. 8When Aaron lights the lamps at evening, he shall burn it, a perpetual incense before Yahweh throughout your generations. 9You shall offer no strange incense on it, nor burnt offering, nor meal offering; and you shall pour no drink offering on it. 10Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once in the year: with the blood of the sin offering of atonement once in the year he shall make atonement for it throughout your generations. It is most holy to Yahweh.
The Atonement Money
11Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 12When you take a census of the children of Israel, according to those who are numbered among them, then each man shall give a ransom for himself to Yahweh, when you number them; that there be no plague among them when you number them. 13They shall give this, everyone who passes over to those who are numbered: half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs); half a shekel for an offering to Yahweh. 14Everyone who passes over to those who are numbered, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the offering to Yahweh. 15The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when they give the offering of Yahweh, to make atonement for your souls. 16You shall take the atonement money from the children of Israel, and shall appoint it for the service of the Tent of Meeting that it may be a memorial for the children of Israel before Yahweh, to make atonement for your souls.
The Brass Basin
17Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 18You shall also make a basin of brass, and its base of brass, in which to wash. You shall put it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it. 19Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet in it. 20When they go into the Tent of Meeting, they shall wash with water, that they not die; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire to Yahweh. 21So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they not die; and it shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his descendants throughout their generations. 
The Anointing Oil
22Moreover Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 23Also take fine spices: of liquid myrrh, five hundred shekels; and of fragrant cinnamon half as much, even two hundred and fifty; and of fragrant cane, two hundred and fifty; 24and of cassia five hundred, after the shekel of the sanctuary; and a hin of olive oil. 25You shall make it a holy anointing oil, a perfume compounded after the art of the perfumer: it shall be a holy anointing oil. 26You shall use it to anoint the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the testimony, 27the table and all its articles, the lampstand and its accessories, the altar of incense, 28the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the basin with its base. 29You shall sanctify them, that they may be most holy. Whatever touches them shall be holy. 30You shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and sanctify them, that they may minister to Me in the priest’s office. 31You shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘This shall be a holy anointing oil to Me throughout your generations. 32It shall not be poured on man’s flesh, neither shall you make any like it, according to its composition: it is holy. It shall be holy to you. 33Whoever compounds any like it, or whoever puts any of it on a stranger, he shall be cut off from his people’. 34Yahweh said to Moses, Take to yourself sweet spices, gum resin, and onycha, and galbanum; sweet spices with pure frankincense: there shall be an equal weight of each; 35and you shall make incense of it, a perfume after the art of the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy: 36and you shall beat some of it very small, and put some of it before the testimony in the Tent of Meeting, where I will meet with you. It shall be to you most holy. 37The incense which you shall make, according to its composition you shall not make for yourselves: it shall be to you holy for Yahweh. 38Whoever shall make any like that, to smell of it, he shall be cut off from his people.

Commentary

30:8 Perpetual incense- The continual burning of incense, night and day, was a reminder that prayer (cp. Incense, Rev. 8:3,4) was a way of life, not only specific statements. David's references to making constant prayer (e.g. Ps. 88:1) may allude to the constant rising up of the incense. We cannot be literally praying all the time, but our basic spirit of life can rise up as a prayer to God constantly. Our lives are, in a sense, our prayer.
30:9 The Law seems to have foreseen the difference between real and apparent prayer by warning that the true incense was to be burnt [representing prayer], but not any other kind of incense, or incense comprised of other kinds of ingredients. We must ask ourselves whether our prayers are the real thing, or just one part of our brain talking to another part of our brain which we call ‘God’.
30:18 This may represent the need for the washing of baptism in order to come to Christ, the altar (Heb. 13:10). This was required if they didn’t want to die (:20).
30:20 Tit. 3:5-7 implies that the priests washing in the brass basin typified baptism. Baptism is related to salvation. All God's people are priests (1 Pet. 2:5,9); the washing of baptism is an absolute necessity before we can be God's priestly people.
30:21 There are many allusions to the language of priesthood in the New Testament, both as major statements and also in passing. The idea of baptism as a washing suggests that we afterwards enter into priestly service; we’re not declared by baptism to be merely members of a denomination, hobby level theologians who now agree to a set of doctrines. We instead, in a very real sense, are cleansed and consecrated into the service of God, ministering to His people, doing His work.
30:35 Incense is a symbol of prayer (Rev. 8:3,4). Whilst there is a place for instantaneous and emotional prayers, this doesn’t mean that we should overlook the fact that another kind of prayer should be prayer that is carefully prepared, just as the incense was. 
Seasoned with salt- Our speech, Paul says, should be “seasoned with salt” (Col. 4:6). He’s alluding here, perhaps with the idea that the way we speak generally should be in the same manner as we pray to God, like the incense.
30:36 Very small- If incense is like prayer, this may refer to how we shouldn’t be afraid nor ashamed to pray to God about the smallest things. Nothing is outside of His control, indeed, God is so often in the details.