And he made the altar of burnt offering of shittim wood: five cubits was the length thereof, and five cubits the breadth thereof; it was foursquare; and three cubits the height thereof. And he made the horns thereof on the four corners of it; the horns thereof were of the same: and he overlaid it with brass. And he made all the vessels of the altar, the pots, and the shovels, and the basons, and the fleshhooks, and the firepans: all the vessels thereof made he of brass. And he made for the altar a brasen grate of network under the compass thereof beneath unto the midst of it. And he cast four rings for the four ends of the grate of brass, to be places for the staves. And he made the staves of shittim wood, and overlaid them with brass. And he put the staves into the rings on the sides of the altar, to bear it withal; he made the altar hollow with boards(Ex. 38:1-7).
The the altar of burnt offering was as meticulously planned and as painstakingly constructed as every other aspect of the Tabernacle of the Lord. It was a thing of symmetry and beauty, designed by God to serve as the initial contact point between sinful man and their righteous Lord. It was before this altar that a man would come to lay his hand upon the head of an innocent animal and symbolically transfer his sin. It was upon this altar that the innocent would be executed in place of the guilty, covering the cost of the specified sin and temporarily justifying the sinner before God. For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified (Rom. 2:12-13).
The grace supplied through this process was narrow in scope and conditional in nature. It applied to nothing more than the named sin(s); it did nothing to permanently justify or sanctify the sinner. For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect (Heb. 10:1). For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins (10:4). Nevertheless, it was all that existed at that time to bridge the gap of sin between man and God, and its strength and durability of construction attested to the anticipated longevity and frequency of use by the Israelite people.
The altar of burnt offering typifies the cross upon which Christ was crucified. Yet unlike the altar, little is known of the cross, save that it was so heavy and unwieldy to bear that the soldiers driving Christ to Golgotha at some point enlisted a bystander to take the cross from Christ and carry it to the crucifixion site (John 19:17; Matt. 27:32; Luke 23:26). Nothing is known of the cross because we have no need to know of it. Unlike the altar of burnt offering, which was an essential component of the ongoing ritual of substitutionary sacrifice, the cross was merely a tool Christ made use of as he fulfilled the law of sacrifice and definitively paid the cost of sin and justified man before God. Jesus willingly shed His innocent, human blood in our stead. Love, not carefully constructed ritual, is the source of our salvation.
By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all(Heb. 10:10).
Thought for Today: God devised ritual sacrifice to teach us of our need for Him; neither our need nor His lesson has changed, but Christ’s fulfillment of the law has rendered visual aids obsolete.
Christ Revealed:Through the Golden Altar and its incense – representing prayers going up to heaven (Ex. 39:38; also Rev. 5:8; 8:3-4). Christ prayed for us. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word (John 17:20).
Word Studies:39:2 ephod = high priest's outer garment, apron; 39:15 wreathen work = braided cords; 39:20 curious = intricately woven; 39:39 laver = large basin used for washing before entering the Tabernacle
Pray For StaffJennifer Palafox • Government Official:Rep. Kevin Kiley(CA), Rep. Mike Johnson(LA) • Country: Portugal (10,813,834) Southwestern Europe • Major Languages: Portuguese, Mirandese • Religious Freedom • 81% Roman Catholic; 3.3% Other Christian; 0.6% Other; 6.8% None; 8.3% Unspecified • Prayer Suggestion: Pray in secret before God, not seeking human praise (Matt. 6:6).
Optional Reading:Mark 2