One altar, and the cross it points to

The Golden Altar Before the Throne

In the seventh chapter of Revelation the sky falls silent, and into that silence John sees an angel come and stand at the altar. The angel holds a golden censer and is given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints. The smoke of the incense, mingled with those prayers, rises before God from the angel's hand. This is a picture of what happens to prayer. The ordinary petitions of ordinary believers, spoken in kitchens and hospital rooms and prison cells, do not scatter into the air and vanish. They are gathered. They are carried to the golden altar before the throne, offered with incense, and they rise into the presence of God himself. Revelation lifts the curtain for a moment and shows us that no prayer is lost.

“And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.”Revelation 8:3

The altar in Scripture

The scene opens Revelation 8, at the breaking of the seventh seal. John records that when the Lamb opened it, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. It is a startling pause. After the thunder of the seals and the cries of the earlier chapters, heaven holds its breath. Into that stillness seven angels who stand before God are given seven trumpets. Then another angel comes and stands at the altar, holding a golden censer. He is given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar that is before the throne. The detail is precise and deliberate. There is an altar in heaven, and it is golden, and it stands before the very throne of God. The incense and the prayers rise together, and John says the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the hand of the angel. What follows is dramatic. The angel takes the censer, fills it with fire from the altar, and throws it to the earth, and there are peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake. The prayers that rose to God return to the earth as answered action. The trumpets then sound in sequence, unfolding the judgments that follow. The prayers of the saints are shown to be the very thing that sets heaven's response in motion. The imagery draws on the ancient temple, where the priest burned incense on the golden altar of incense that stood before the veil, morning and evening, while the people prayed outside. Revelation takes that familiar picture and locates its reality in heaven. The earthly altar of incense was a shadow. The golden altar before the throne is the substance, where the prayers of all the saints are received.

What it comes to mean

The golden altar before the throne answers a question every praying person eventually asks: does this matter, and is anyone listening? It is easy to pray and feel that the words dissolve before they reach the ceiling. Revelation says the opposite. Every prayer of every saint is gathered and carried to the highest place in the universe, the golden altar that stands directly before the throne of God. Nothing is dropped in transit. Notice that the prayers are described as the prayers of all the saints, not the eloquent or the important or the famous. The trembling prayer of a frightened believer and the fervent prayer of a seasoned intercessor rise on the same smoke. Heaven makes no ranking. The incense the angel adds is much, suggesting that something is joined to our prayers to make them acceptable and fragrant before God, covering what is weak or halting in them. The half hour of silence is worth dwelling on. Before the trumpets sound, before the great acts of God unfold, heaven grows quiet, and in that quiet the prayers of the saints are offered. It is as though the whole machinery of history pauses to receive the prayers of God's people. This overturns our sense of scale. We imagine our prayers are small and the workings of the world are large. Revelation shows the prayers at the center and the workings of the world responding to them. Then the fire from the altar is cast to the earth. The prayers do not merely rise; they return as thunder and lightning and answered action. This does not mean every prayer is answered as we ask or when we ask. It means our prayers are taken up into the purposes of God and become part of how he moves in the world. The believer who wonders whether prayer changes anything is shown a heaven where prayer is precisely what sets things in motion.