CHARACTERISTICS OF HA TAMID

Rebellion against God manifested by disobedience and false worship practices results in Jehovah’s refusal to condone the incense altars and to smell the “sweet aroma” of false worship (Lev. 26:30-31). Through Isaiah, Jehovah cautioned Judah: “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of cattle. Bring no more futile sacrifices; incense is an abomination to Me” (Is. 1:11, 13; see also Amos 5:21-22).

Jehovah abhors attempts to offer sweet incense to idols (Baal worship) declaring He will lay waste the altars, break the idols, and cut down the high places (Eze. 6: 4-6, 13; see also Hos. 11:2). Baal worship is repeatedly associated with burning incense83 to Baal in Jeremiah upon which Jehovah pronounces doom.84 Finally, the contrast between genuine worship of a contrite spirit and false worship with counterfeit sacrifices and incense is set forth in Is. 66:2-3, “But on this one I will look; on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word. He who kills a bull is as if he slays a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, as if he breaks a dog’s neck; he who offers a grain offering as if he offers swine’s blood; he who burns incense, as if he blesses the idol. They did evil before My eyes, and chose that in which I do not delight.” The continual (tamid) persistence in counterfeit worship of Baal by those who sacrifice in gardens and burn incense on altars of brick, and who represent themselves as holier than their neighbor is condemned by Jehovah in Is. 65:3-6 where tamid is linked directly with counterfeit incense.

The scriptural evidence supports the conclusion that the counterfeit cultic hattamid or sweet aroma in Dn. 8:11 is intimately associated with Baal worship of pagan and papal Rome in which the latter lifts up hattamid from the former.

7.3 Counterfeit Priesthood

Index of This Study