Luke 1:9

His lot was. Gr. lagchano, “to obtain by lot.” Owing to the large number of priests, not all might officiate at any given service. Therefore lots were cast to determine who should participate each morning and each evening. According to Jewish tradition, the priests stood in a semicircle and each held up one or more fingers to be counted. Naming some number, such as 70, the “president” began counting and continued till the number selected indicated who was chosen. The first lot determined who should cleanse the altar of burnt offering and prepare the sacrifice, and the second, who was to offer the sacrifice and cleanse the candlestick and the altar of incense. The third lot, which determined who was to offer incense, was most important. The fourth lot determined who was to burn the pieces of the sacrifice on the altar and perform the concluding part of the service. Lots cast in the morning applied also to the evening service, except that the lot was cast anew for the burning of the incense.

To burn incense. The offering of incense was considered the most sacred and important part of the daily morning and evening services. These hours of worship, at each of which a lamb was offered (Ex. 29:38-42) for a burnt offering, were known as the morning and evening “burnt offering,” or “sacrifice” (2 Chron. 31:3; Ezra 9:4, 5), or as “the time of incense” (Luke 1:10; see Ex. 30:7, 8). These were hours of prayer for all Israelites, whether in attendance at the service, at home, or in foreign lands. As the incense ascended from the golden altar the prayers of Israel ascended with it to God (Rev. 8:3, 4; see on Ps. 141:2) for themselves and for their nation, in daily consecration (PP 352, 353). At this service the officiating priest prayed for the pardon of Israel’s sins and for the coming of the Messiah (DA 99).

The privilege of officiating at the golden altar on behalf of Israel was considered a high honor, and Zacharias was in every respect worthy of it. This privilege usually came to each priest but once in a lifetime, and was therefore the great moment of his life. As a rule no priest might officiate at the altar more than once, and it is possible that some of the priests never had this opportunity.

The priest chosen by lot to offer the incense — in this case Zacharias — selected two of his fellow priests to assist him, one to remove the old coals from the altar and the other to lay upon it new coals taken from the altar of burnt offering. These two priests retired from the holy place after their assignments were completed, and the priest chosen by lot then arranged the incense upon the coals, and as he did so made intercession for Israel.

As the cloud of incense arose, it filled the holy place and even passed above the veil into the most holy place. The altar of incense was immediately before the veil, and although actually within the holy place, it seems to have been considered as belonging to the most holy (see on Heb. 9:4). The golden altar was “an altar of perpetual intercession” (PP 353), for day and night the holy incense diffused its fragrance throughout the sacred precincts of the Temple (PP 348).