The Tabernacle of God: The Brazen Altar

Exodus 27:1-8

The year I attended seminary in Florida, I remember the President of the school telling us that we were going to have to sit through a 5 hour lecture on The Old Testament Tabernacle. I thought "How in the world is anyone going to talk about a tent for 5 hours”. Thinking I was dodging a bullet, I changed my schedule to work at lunchtime the day of the lecture. However, I soon learned that was a mistake. It was absolutely fascinating! I'm not going to replicate that in this series. However, I do want to point out some things that I believe you will find interesting as well.

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“You shall make an altar of acacia wood, five cubits long and five cubits wide—the altar shall be square—and its height shall be three cubits. 2 You shall make its horns on its four corners; its horns shall be of one piece with it. And you shall overlay it with bronze. 3 Also you shall make its pans to receive its ashes, and its shovels and its basins and its forks and its firepans; you shall make all its utensils of bronze. 4 You shall make a grate for it, a network of bronze; and on the network you shall make four bronze rings at its four corners. 5 You shall put it under the rim of the altar beneath, that the network may be midway up the altar. 6 And you shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze. 7 The poles shall be put in the rings, and the poles shall be on the two sides of the altar to bear it. 8 You shall make it hollow with boards; as it was shown you on the mountain, so shall they make it.

Exodus 27:1-8

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The brazen (bronze) altar is what most people are familiar with when they think of the tabernacle. It is where the sacrifices took place. Literally millions of animals were killed and burned on the altar. It was a bloody and gruesome sight. I'm not trying to be overly dramatic, but I do want you to get the picture of what occurred at this location. Sheep do not have weapons (horns) like goats. They cannot harm anyone or anything. They are innocent and yet these were the animals that were slain as a sacrifice for sins. For the poor, it was the dove that was sacrificed. Again, a defenseless animal. Not a rooster or a hawk, but a dove. Their blood was poured out on the altar and their body was broken in the sacrificial process.

When you study the history of Israel, these sacrifices were offered to mostly ungrateful and unrepentant people. The animal still died, but the people received no benefit from it. They kept living the same life they had always lived. They did what they wanted to do with no regard to God's laws. The sacrifice did not change anything. It got so bad that God had the prophet Isaiah say the following:

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What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. 12 “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? 13 Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. 14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. 15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.

Isaiah 1:11-15

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It is important to remember that the Tabernacle (and Temple) were object lessons of something greater that was to come. The writer of Hebrews makes this clear in chapter 8. He tells us that the tabernacle was a shadow of heavenly things and that Moses was taught this when he received the instructions for the building of the tabernacle (v. 5). So, what are we supposed to learn from this?

1. Bronze (brass) represents judgment: The lamb was sacrificed because of sin. The judgment for sin fell upon that animal. In Revelation 1:15, John saw Jesus as if he had feet of brass that were heated in fire. This was as he was about to judge the world for their sins.

2. The altar of bronze was the place of judgment.

3. The innocent died for the guilty. The lamb, who had no sins, was killed so that men could be forgiven their sins. The blood of lambs and rams, and bulls did not take away sins, but (if done properly) it demonstrated the faith of the offeror that a greater sacrifice was coming that would take away their sins.

4. The sacrifice on the altar was a picture of Jesus and His death on the cross when God's wrath was poured out on Him so that we could go free.

Father, there is so much more I want to say. I pray that Your Holy Spirit will open our eyes and our hearts to see the lesson You were teaching. We view this practice as cruel, and indeed it was, but it was because Your Son was going to die a cruel death that He did not deserve so that we could live. Thank You for proclaiming the gospel message all throughout history so that we are without excuse.