The Meeting Place

Series on Exodus

VIII. The Covering of God’s People

C. Pattern of the Tabernacle

7. The Altar of Burnt Offering, Text: 27:1-8,38:1-8

Title: The Meeting Place

Introduction

Here we come to the outermost furnishing of the tabernacle, the brazen altar in the court. Made of bronze like the laver because, actually, brass was unknown to these people being a combination of copper and zinc whereas bronze is copper and tin. Though it was the outermost it could be considered the most important. Nothing could be done without the altar of sacrifice whether in daily ministration or in festivals. All approach to God must come first through this altar of sacrifice, just as no one today can come to the true God apart from the cross of Christ. This was the meeting place of God and man. if we go back in the history of the Bible we can recall that Abel’s sacrifice pleased God because it was a lamb whereas Cain’s sacrifice of the fruits of the ground displeased God. This was due to Cain’s attitude but that impenitent attitude was reflected in the nature of the sacrifice. The altar of sacrifice is always the only acceptable meeting place of God and sinful man. As we look at the father of our faith, Abraham, we discover that he and his family who followed him built altars to the Lord wherever they sojourned. There they called upon the name of the lord. This is a way of expressing their saving relationship to God because whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Right from the beginning this is evident. Genesis 12 records the initial call of Abraham in verses 1-3, and then we read in verse 8, From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD. The altar building continued throughout Abraham’s pilgrimage in Genesis 13;18, 26:25,and 33:20. All of this is the background to the brazen altar in the court of the tabernacle. We shall look in this study at three aspects of the brazen altar that bring out its meaning as the meeting place of God and man: the simplicity of construction, the sacrifice of blood, and the substitution of the victim.

I The Simplicity of Construction

The general directions given for the building of an altar left no room for the exercise of any art. The ideal was a kind of rude mound rather than a regular structure, according to Exodus 20:24,25, Make an altar of earth for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats and your cattle. Wherever I cause my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you. If you make an altar of stones for me, do not build it with dressed stones, for you will defile it if you use a tool on it. Considering the expenditure of costly materials and artistic effort on the tabernacle in general this was a strange prohibition. However as the meeting place between God and man, although the altar was raised, because of the unworthiness of the worshippers in the sight of a holy God, the simplicity of the altar of sacrifice had to be maintained. It could not be thought that the man was contributing anything to this arrangement other than the sacrifice itself. In fact it was a condescension on God’s part that he appointed any place in this sinful world as appropriate for worship and sacrifice. The name for the altar in Hebrew therefore is “misbeach” which means the place of slaughter or sacrifice. pomp and ornament were out of place. however the altar in the tabernacle needed a regular form, so you read the description in Exodus 27:1-8, Build an altar of acacia wood, three cubits high; it is to be square, five cubits long and five cubits wide. Make a horn at each of the four corners, so that the horns and the altar are of one piece, and overlay the altar with bronze. Make all its utensils of bronze —–its pots to remove the ashes, and its shovels, sprinkling bowls, meat forks and firepans. Make a grating for it, a bronze network, and make a bronze ring at each of the four corners of the network. Put it under the ledge of the altar so that it is halfway up the altar. Make poles of acacia wood for the altar and overlay them with bronze. The poles are to be inserted into the rings so they will be on two sides of the altar when it is carried. Make the altar hollow, out of boards. It is to be made just as you were shown on the mountain. Note that we are talking about a simple framework. The grate was located around one half way up the altar. The horns of the altar were symbolic of the strength of the Lord manifested in grace and love. It was thought to be a refuge as in I Kings 2:28, When the news reached Joab, who had conspired with Adonijah though not with Absalom, he fled to the tent of the LORD and took hold of the horns of the altar.

II The Sacrifice of Blood

This of course was the obvious purpose of the altar. Leviticus 17:11 says, The soul (or life, Hebrew “nephesh”) of the flesh is in the blood and i have given it to you upon the altar to atone for your souls, it is the blood that makes atonement. And of course Israel was forbidden to eat the blood in the meat which is what we mean by kosher meat. it is the actual blood of the sacrifice which is the matrix of its life which makes the atonement because it is the symbol of the death of the victim. In one sense this was a suitable offering because of the innocence of the victim, but in another it was unsatisfactory because of the difference between the victim and the offeror. How far was this perceived by the worshipers? We can’t go back and read their minds, but suffice it to say that Rabbis of later times speak almost as expressly as the New Testament with regard to the inadequacy of the sacrifices. Just to quote two: Schoettgen says, “In the times of Messiah all sacrifices will cease, but the sacrifice of praise will not cease,” and Bahr says, “Messiah will pour out his soul unto death and his blood will make atonement for the people of God.” Of course many have had contrary views but this points out that the inadequacy of those sacrifices was perceived at least by some Jews.

III The Substitution of the Victim

We have already implied that the victim is the substitute for the worshipper, taking his punishment for sin. The procedure points this up. First the offeror was to select the victim from his herd or flock. They were his animals, clean animals without any blemish. This brought the victim and the offeror into close contact. Secondly the offeror was to lay his hands upon the head of the victim indicating that something in the person was being transferred or imputed to the victim. That something is sin and guilt. Thirdly the offeror, not the priest was to slay the animal according to Leviticus 1:3-5, If the offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he is to offer a male without defect. He must present it at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting so that it will be acceptable to the LORD. He is to lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. He is to slaughter the young bull before the LORD, and then Aaron’s sons the priests shall bring the blood and sprinkle it against the altar on all sides at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. In the fourth place the blood was sprinkled on the altar as we read. The sprinkling of the blood signified God’s acceptance of the sacrifice as Peter tells us in I Peter 1:2 We are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the father, through the sanctifying work of the spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood. The sprinkling of blood speaks of His favor. We have already commented on what the Jewish believer may have thought about the sufficiency of this sacrifice. Let us secure two facts that we do know. First these sacrifices, though insufficient in themselves, were grounded in God’s saving purpose of bringing his only Son the Lamb of God into the world to die for our sins. Thus they were efficacious to those people though their understanding may have been limited. Secondly, since these sacrifices were insufficient of themselves only the blood of a sufficient sacrifice could take away their sin or ours. Thus Jesus came and shed his own blood so we could be saved. As intimate as those Old Testament believers’ contact with their sacrifices was, when we believe in Jesus our connection to Him is greater. We, as it were choose him, lay our hand upon him to transfer our guilt, and we slay him in our place, but we do all this by faith as we believe.