Exodus 27:1-8: & 38:1-7 – The Altar
Moving outside the tent into the courtyard of the tabernacle we find ourselves in an open space fenced in by a cloth wall. The only door was in the eastern side of the tabernacle. When you entered the tabernacle complex the very first thing you saw was a bronze altar.
Exodus 27 & 38 speak of the instructions and construction of the altar. Leviticus chapters 1-7 speaks of how the altar was used.
The altar itself was 7 ½ feet long and the same wide, and 4 ½ feet high. It was made from acacia wood, overlaid with bronze, and had four horns, one on each corner.
The bronze altar was for burnt offerings; it was a hollow box, with a bronze grate on the top and around the sides, and the fire of the LORD burned inside and burnt up all the sacrifices. This fire was to be kept burning continually, Leviticus 6:13.
Why was this the first item that every Israelite saw on entering the tabernacle? The answer is because of sin. Because of sin we cannot approach God. The only way into the presence of God is to have our sin dealt with.
The altar tells us that God is angry at sin and the punishment that sin deserves is God’s fierce, hot, wrath. Hebrews 12:29, “for our God is a consuming fire.”
But the altar also tells us that there is a way to have satisfaction made with God – through a substitute.
All the sacrifices of the people of Israel were brought to the bronze altar. Without the shedding of blood there can be no remission of sin. And so for each person, or representative, each was to bring an animal without blemish for sacrifice.
This points us to the reality that we have in Jesus Christ. He has satisfied the righteous anger of God at our sin. The consuming fire of God the Father fell on Jesus Christ as he willingly died, as our substitute, on the cross for our sin.
Christ Jesus was tied to the horns of the altar for us.
Questions
- Read Psalm 118:27. Jesus sang these words as he went out to the Garden of Gethsemane. What do they tell us about the altar and the sacrifice?
- Why was it important that the altar was the first item that God’s people would encounter in the tabernacle?
Prayer Points
- Pray for the salvation of friends and family members.
- Use prayer points from your congregation.
- Pray for family matters.