We are in chapter thirty-seven of Exodus with our word for today. מְּנַקִּיָּה vessels for libations, sacrificial bowl, offering-bowl. It is used 4 times in the Old Testament. Our word is used in the sense of a round vessel typically smaller than a basin that is open at the top and used chiefly for holding food or liquids. In all of the uses are in reference to the drink offerings. Let’s look at our uses. Exodus 25:29 you shall make its plates and dishes for incense, and its flagons וּמְנַקִּיֹּתָ֔יו and bowls with which to pour drink offerings; you shall make them of pure gold. Numbers 4:7 over the table of the bread of the Presence they shall spread a cloth of blue and put on it the plates, the dishes for incense, הַמְּנַקִּיֹּ֔ת the bowls, and the flagons for the drink offering; the regular showbread also shall be on it. Jeremiah 52:17-19 And the pillars of bronze that were in the house of the Lord, and the stands and the bronze sea that were in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and carried all the bronze to Babylon. And they took away the pots and the shovels and the snuffers and the basins and the dishes for incense and all the vessels of bronze used in the temple service; also הַמִּזְרָק֜וֹת [this is a different word for bowl] the small bowls and the fire pans and the basins and the pots and the lampstands and the dishes for incense and הַמְּנַקִי֔וֹת the bowls for drink offerings. What was of gold the captain of the guard took away as gold, and what was of silver, as silver. This is exactly how our word is used in our chapter today. Exodus 37:16 And he made the vessels of pure gold that were to be on the table, its plates and dishes for incense, and מְנַקִּיֹּתָ֔יו its bowls and flagons with which to pour drink offerings. It is interesting that our word used as part of the tabernacle worship that helped people connect to God is also used this same way in the book of Revelation. The word in the New Testament that is translated bowl is used by John to describe both the prayers of believers and of God’s wrath. God’s wrath is seen in a vivid display as being poured out of a bowl. Revelation 15:7-8 And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever, and the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished. Revelation 16:1 Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.” The good news is that Christ has turned God’s wrath against us because of our sin on to himself so that we can be forgiven and connected back to God. Then we see this beautiful picture of believer’s prayers compared to a bowl of incense that pleases God. I’ll close with this great passage. Revelation 5:8 And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
