THE BRAZEN ALTAR.
Exo_26:1-8; Exo_28:1-5; Lev_6:7-13.
The word "altar" means simply "high place," or that which lifts up. The altar, with its sacrifice, is profoundly significant of Christ on the Cross (Joh_3:14). Through the altar Israel was lifted up into fellowship with God. The Cross of Christ is a ladder reaching unto Heaven. Like the ladder Jacob saw, it is the way of God-to God-set up on the earth. It lifts us up into communion with the Father. To come into contact with the altar was to come into touch with the claims and character of a Holy God through sacrifice. At the Cross the sinner comes into contact with the goodness and the severity of God-condemnation of the sin, but mercy for the sinner. This altar of burntoffering lifted up all that was laid upon it. The sacrifice was lifted up in the form of smoke by the consuming fire that burned continually thereon. Heart-searching truth! Are we willing that our bodies should be turned into smoke for the glory of God? Have I been lifted up, crucified with Christ? Is the fire of the Holy Ghost feeding upon my life? Am I wholly yielded up to Him? and is He causing my whole being to ascend as a sweet savour unto God? The sacrifice, being dead, was unconscious of its own virtue. Moses wist not that his face shone. Oh, for such a blessed state of unconsciousness! As He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was changed. But let us note further-
I. The Purpose of It. This brazen altar, standing at the gate of entrance, represented the claims of God. As a holy and righteous God He has claims that must be satisfied before He can, in mercy, meet with man and bless him. The altar must be filled before man can approach God in peace. The altar was filled, and all the demands of a holy God fully met when Christ cried on the Cross, "It is finished" (Joh_19:30). The great purpose of the altar was to burn sacrifices. Here the sin-offering was slain, then carried without the camp, but its blood was poured out at the "bottom of the altar." The value of the sin-offering lay in the blood. "The blood is the life," or, "The life is in the blood." This was left at the foot of the altar, laid down before God. Here we see Christ as the sinner’s Substitute, pouring out His soul unto death. "They overcame by the blood of the Lamb" (Rev_12:11).
The burntoffering, representing Christ as the wholly-devoted One, was entirely consumed upon the altar. Only the skin was saved; this was given to the priest for a covering -covered through sacrifice. Adam and Eve were naked, though clothed with leaves, till God made for them coats of skin. We are all naked till covered with the righteousness of God, which is unto all and upon all that believe.
II. The Position of It. It stood right in front of the gate. This reminds us that atonement is the first necessity in our approach to God. The first blessing our gracious God desires to give us is the forgiveness of our sins, but "without shedding of blood is no remission" (Heb_9:22). When the sense of sin is brought home to the heart, how eagerly, like Job, we long for a "daysman" to come between us and lay his hand upon both. Those who refuse "Christ and Him crucified" as their sin-atoning Substitute have no liberty of access to God. To approach God disregarding the altar meant death. Cain tried it; he ignored the blood, and brought the curse of God upon himself. "A sin-offering lieth at the door" (Gen_4:7). God hath laid it there; it is there for us. It has a voice, "Look unto Me, and be ye saved,… for I am God" (Isa_45:22). Do not trample on it.
III. The Materials of It. Singularly enough, it was composed of two different materials, "Shittim wood and brass," two distinct elements in one altar. Man would never have thought of putting wood in an altar had it not been revealed to Moses on the mount. The altar, like Christ, the Son of Man, must have a twofold nature. The type is perfect; the wood speaks of the truly human sympathy of Jesus, while the brass reveals the strong, enduring character of the Divine One-these two elements in One, and that for the salvation of man. That the human nature of Christ was not consumed in coming into such close relationship with the divine is a mystery as great, perhaps, as that the wood in the altar was not consumed. The divine fire was in the human bush, yet the bush was not consumed. Although the altar was partly wood, it was never called the wooden altar, but the brazen altar, one that was strong and mighty, so that when the sacrifice was laid upon it, it was indeed "help laid on One that was mighty."
IV. The Size of It. It would seem that by comparing the measurements given of the other vessels with that of the altar it had capacity enough to contain them all. This is very suggestive. All spiritual blessings flow out of the atoning death of Christ. "Delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things" (Rom_8:32). All the other vessels were sprinkled with the blood of sacrifice, and so connected with the altar (Heb_9:21-22). It is a precious truth that when we trust in Christ as a Sacrifice for us we may enter into all the blessings of His resurrection and life. This we can only do as we by faith are able to apprehend and appropriate. "Lord, increase our faith" (Luk_17:5).
V. The Horns. This altar was four-square; it stood solid and stable. At each corner was a horn. The horn is the symbol of power. They pointed in every direction, and spoke of power sufficient for the whole world. The sacrifices were bound to the horns of the altar before being slain (Psa_118:27). What bound our Great Sacrifice to the altar of the Cross? Not the nails, but the cords of a love that was stronger than death. "No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again" (Joh_10:18). These are His own words. As the horns of the altar looked every way, so the power of the Cross of Christ looks over this whole sin-benighted, sin-smitten world. The value of this Sacrifice is sufficient to meet the dying need of all men.
VI. The Grate. Right in the middle of the altar was a grate, on which the fuel and the offerings were laid. The ashes fell through the grate into pans underneath. It is most significant to notice that the grate, although halfway down in the altar, was still as high as the mercy-seat (one and a half cubits). Who would have thought of this? Yet how could we think of an atoning sacrifice below the lever of the mercy-seat of a Holy God. The mercy-seat was the throne of God, the sacrifice must be equal to it. Glorious truth! Marvellous grace! The Cross of the crucified Son of God is on a level with the righteous throne of God. The life and death of Jesus Christ are equal to the demands of the holy law, and of the just claims of a righteous God; and all this on our behalf as sinners before Him. Oh, self-righteous one, except your righteousness is equal to and on a level with the righteousness of God you have no hope! To offend, or come short in one point, is to be guilty of all. In the death of Jesus there is enough to satisfy God. Is there not enough to satisfy you?
VII. The Ashes. What about them? Cast them outside, anywhere, and let the winds scatter them abroad. Yes, if human wisdom is to decide. But everything is sacred here; nothing is to be lightly esteemed. The ashes are a precious morsel in the priest’s eyes, because of the value attached to them by Jehovah. The ashes speak of a sacrifice made, and more especially of a sacrifice accepted by God through the consuming fire. The ashes were the evidence that "It was finished," that the offering was accepted in the sinner’s stead. It was the last thing they saw of the sacrifice. The last word heard from Christ on the Cross was, "It is finished;" the work of suffering and death was done; atonement was accomplished. The dead body of the Son of God (the ashes) declared that all was done that could be done.
But what was to be done with the ashes? They were to be "carried out" and laid in a "clean place." The carrying forth of the ashes was in the sight of Israel a solemn funeral. They were precious, because they were to be used for the "sprinkling of the unclean." In them lay the merit of the sacrifice. This was applied to the cleansing of the leprous. How suggestive! The body of Jesus was carried forth and laid in a clean place, "a new tomb, wherein never man before was laid" (Luk_23:53). Now the merit of His death and resurrection is for the sprinkling of the unclean, the cleansing away of sin. The sprinkling process was a very personal one. The value of the ashes does not lie in what we think of them, but in the high estimate set upon them by God Himself. Let us ponder this and praise Him.
VIII. The Blood. The blood of the offering was poured out at the bottom of the altar. "The life is in the blood" (Lev_17:11); thus the life of the devoted one was symbolically poured out before God. "All that a man hath will he give for his life" (Job_2:4). But when a man gives his life he gives all that he hath. Our blessed Lord gave His life, poured it out before God, and in giving His life He gave all that He had. How much was that? "Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich" (2Co_8:9). Oh, how poor He became! Oh, how rich we may become! The blood, the life of the sacrifice, was for God; the ashes, the fruit of the sacrifice, were for man. The death of Christ had a double aspect; it had to make atonement to a Holy God and cleanse a guilty man. The Hebrew word for "atonement" is used in three different aspects: (1) To cleanse (Lev. 16); (2) to cover (Gen_6:14); (3) to appease (Gen_32:20). It has an appeasing power towards the righteous Jehovah. "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Mat_3:17). As a holy and just God no man can come before Him empty-handed. As sinners we must have our hands filled with His offering and our hearts cleansed by His blood. The atoning death not only appeases God, but also cleanses and covers the believing man. "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered" (Psa_32:1). Think much of the blood, the precious blood; the mercy of God is only through the blood.
IX. The Fire. The fire on the altar was to "burn continually; " it "was never to go out." Where did this eternal fire come from? From Lev_9:24 we may believe that it came directly from God Himself, from the Shekinah Glory, or visible presence, which rested upon the mercy-seat within the vail. It came from God; it was the symbol of the holiness of God, and the visible token on the altar of His presence with them. "Our God is a consuming fire" (Heb_12:29). This fire is an awful element in an awful place. Let those who deny that God demands atonement for sin meditate upon it. Abraham went up the mount to offer a sacrifice with the knife and the fire in his hand (Gen_22:6). Every burntoffering had to come into contact with the knife of the priest and the fire of God. Here the sinner’s Substitute must face, not the mercy or love, but the fire of God. The fire must be satisfied on the offering before the "ashes of sprinkling" could be taken or used. The justice of God must first be fully met before the mercy of God can freely flow.
The continual fire on the altar taught the Israelite that God was always ready to receive them through sacrifice. There was no other way. Christ, our Sacrifice, has been offered once for all. Through Him God is always ready to accept and forgive all who come (Heb_7:25). The fire that was never to go out also proclaimed emphatically that the demands of God, as the Holy One, would never be lowered or changed. The continual burning demanded a continual sacrifice. Let us give thanks unto God that this incessant and inexorable claim has been, and is now, being fully met in Jesus Christ, who died, and is now in Heaven with the marks of the altar (the Cross) in His hands and feet; whose blood constantly speaks, and who maketh continual intercession for us. The fire of God’s holiness is receiving eternal satisfaction through the glorified Son of Man at His own right hand.
There was no other altar for Israel. Private altars were of no value, there was no God-given fire on them. "There is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Act_4:12).
Autor: James Smith