Exodus 27:1-8--The Bronze Altar

The Bronze Altar​
27 “You shall make the altar of acacia wood, five cubits long and five cubits broad. The altar shall be square, and its height shall be three cubits. 2 And you shall make horns for it on its four corners; its horns shall be of one piece with it, and you shall overlay it with bronze. 3 You shall make pots for it to receive its ashes, and shovels and basins and forks and fire pans. You shall make all its utensils of bronze. 4 You shall also make for it a grating, a network of bronze, and on the net you shall make four bronze rings at its four corners. 5 And you shall set it under the ledge of the altar so that the net extends halfway down the altar. 6 And you shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze. 7 And the poles shall be put through the rings, so that the poles are on the two sides of the altar when it is carried. 8 You shall make it hollow, with boards. As it has been shown you on the mountain, so shall it be made.

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We now move outside the Tabernacle to the Courtyard area (the area that is very public and in view of the whole congregation.  There is still going to be an outer barrier (we'll study the Courtyard in the next blog, so I won't spend much time on it now). so there are three main divisions in the Tabernacle.

Courtyard--All people wanting to do business with God, Jew or Gentile could enter here.  However, there would still be a hierarchy where Jewish males could get closer than Jewish woman and Gentiles were even further out than that.  Those who were "unclean" or "sinners" (like a tax collector) could not even enter this area to come and make sacrifices.

The Holy Place--Accessible only to the sons of Levi, and then only certain functions were performed by certain clans of the tribe of Levi--each family unit had their specific role to play and they were not to desire the role that someone else had.  Great care was given on how to enter this area of the temple as it required much purification and cleansing.

The Most Holy Place--Accessible only by the High Priest on Yom Kipper (The Day of Atonement).  This room was separated from the Holy Place by a thick curtain that was as thick as a man's hand.

So, why is this Bronze Altar so important?  It is probably the object in the Tabernacle that most closely represents the cross.  It is on this altar where all sacrifices were made and there wasn't a time when those sacrifices could cease--we're almost done studying the objects in the Tabernacle and you may have noticed that there is no place for the priest to sit down because night and day he was busy making atonement and interceding and mediating for the people.

There were many types of offerings offered on this Altar--Sin Offerings, Guilt Offerings, Fellowship Offerings, Drink Offerings, and Offerings of Firstfruits (just to name a few).  We see that Jesus would fulfill all of these offerings and more through His finished work on the cross as He would atone for our sin (and take it away), take our guilt, restore our fellowship with God and with each other, His blood was poured out as a drink offering before the Father, and He would be the firstfruits of a new spiritual "race" of people that were "in Christ" instead of "in Adam"--those who would experience Him as The Resurrection and the Life.

We see that the altar had horns on it.  Ever hear God called "The Horn of My Salvation"?  It refers to these horns on the altar.  Anyone who ran to the altar and grabbed onto the horns would be safe and immune from vengeance or prosecution for as long as they clung to the altar.  In the same way we cling to the cross of Christ as our only refuge and strength--an ever present help in a time of trouble (See 2 Samuel 22:3, Psalm 18:2, and Luke 1:69).  These horns represented the power and strength of the LORD--mighty enough even to deal with the issues of sin and brokenness that were brought to that altar. 

All the instruments used for the altar and all the "hardware" used to carry the altar were made of bronze.  This is the one exception to God's rule that He made in the Law about all altars being made of earth and no tool touching them and that they were not to be made of metal.  I think that's because it symbolized the man-made "altar" that God the Son would eventually die on.  Nothing about bronze is flattering.  it doesn't seem very precious and has no beauty or majesty to speak of like gold or silver (the objects in the Holy Place and most holy place were made of gold or coated in it, and those that touched the Holy place on the outside were made of silver, but all that which was kept at a distance from the Holy Place and Most Holy Place was made of bronze.  I think this is again showing us that Jesus wouldn't have any physical beauty that would draw men to Himself--there is nothing about the cross at first glance that would make anyone think of it as beautiful until you had experienced the salvation that comes through it.  All you would see would be a gory, bloody mess--but it was beautiful in its own way and probably as important as anything inside the Tabernacle, because it was the only way to get inside and gain access to God.  You did not enter the Holy Place without your sins being atoned fro--even the High Priest on The Day of Atonement first had to make a sacrifice for his own atonement before He could enter The Most Holy Place and make atonement for the nation.

There are so many good songs to choose from today about the Cross and the Blood.  Which ones com to your mind as you read this?  Let me know by replying to this post on Facebook or by letting us know in our #general channel on the Discipleship Discord.