Exodus 27:1-21
1 And thou shalt make an altar of shittim wood, five cubits long, and five cubits broad; the altar shall be foursquare: and the height thereof shall be three cubits.
2 And thou shalt make the horns of it upon the four corners thereof: his horns shall be of the same: and thou shalt overlay it with brass.
3 And thou shalt make his pans to receive his ashes, and his shovels, and his basons, and his fleshhooks, and his firepans: all the vessels thereof thou shalt make of brass.
4 And thou shalt make for it a grate of network of brass; and upon the net shalt thou make four brasen rings in the four corners thereof.
5 And thou shalt put it under the compass of the altar beneath, that the net may be even to the midst of the altar.
6 And thou shalt make staves for the altar, staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with brass.
7 And the staves shall be put into the rings, and the staves shall be upon the two sides of the altar, to bear it.
8 Hollow with boards shalt thou make it: as it was shewed thee in the mount, so shall they make it.
9 And thou shalt make the court of the tabernacle: for the south side southward there shall be hangings for the court of fine twined linen of an hundred cubits long for one side:
10 And the twenty pillars thereof and their twenty sockets shall be of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver.
11 And likewise for the north side in length there shall be hangings of an hundred cubits long, and his twenty pillars and their twenty sockets of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver.
12 And for the breadth of the court on the west side shall be hangings of fifty cubits: their pillars ten, and their sockets ten.
13 And the breadth of the court on the east side eastward shall be fifty cubits.
14 The hangings of one side of the gate shall be fifteen cubits: their pillars three, and their sockets three.
15 And on the other side shall be hangings fifteen cubits: their pillars three, and their sockets three.
16 And for the gate of the court shall be an hanging of twenty cubits, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework: and their pillars shall be four, and their sockets four.
17 All the pillars round about the court shall be filleted with silver; their hooks shall be of silver, and their sockets of brass.
18 The length of the court shall be an hundred cubits, and the breadth fiftya every where, and the height five cubits of fine twined linen, and their sockets of brass.
19 All the vessels of the tabernacle in all the service thereof, and all the pins thereof, and all the pins of the court, shall be of brass.
20 And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burnb always.
21 In the tabernacle of the congregation without the vail, which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning before the LORD: it shall be a statute for ever unto their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel.
Exodus 27:1. Make an altar. The altar, says a living author before mentioned, seems to have been intended only for the present purpose, until further orders were given; and especially for those sacrifices with which the national covenant was ratified. Exodus 20:24.
Exodus 27:2. Horns. The horns were ornamental turrets, which prevented the victims from falling off; and to these they were sometimes bound when about to be sacrificed. Psalms 118:17. The horns seem to have been long, that culprits might take hold of them, as Joab did, when he fled from the wrath of the king. The gentile altars had the same kind of horns. The altar was entirely covered with thick plates of brass, with a place to receive the fuel and lay the flesh upon, very curiously formed, to prevent the wood being consumed by the fire. Neither could the human nature of Christ have supported the fire of divine wrath for sin, had it not been in union with his divinity.
Exodus 27:3. Basons. In these was received the blood of the sacrifices, in order to its being sprinkled.
Exodus 27:20. Cause the lamp to burn always. The LXX amplify this reading. The people are required to bring pure oil, “that the lamp may burn always in the tabernacle of testimony without the veil.” The heathens had much the same ritual; their lamps burned, and their fires on the altar were guarded by the priests, and in many places by vestal virgins. The American Indians had fires likewise in their temples. In 1727, the French at the Mobile were massacred by the Indians. Chepar, the governor, having cruelly treated the Natchees, they convened a meeting of the neighbouring tribes; and having fixed on one moon for preparation, the priest delivered a bunch of thirty rods to each tribe, with instructions to burn one rod every day upon the altar. But Braspike, the chief's mother, being connected with a French officer, had the address to steal one of the rods, which occasioned the Natchees to begin the massacre on the 28th of December, instead of the 29th, which gave the French in other places, one day of alarm. The similarity of these customs of lamps and fires demonstrates that Noah had handed down those institutions to his sons. The ritual was of divine and primitive authority.
REFLECTIONS.
Oh altar, altar, most instructive, tragic, and atoning altar! How many trembling culprits take hold of thy horns! How many trembling victims bleed at thy foot, and are consumed in thy flames! How awful is the character of justice, whose sword is unsheathed, and who seems to cast a disdainful look on the sinners, as well as on their victims, until a voice is heard from the mercy-seat, “sacrifice and burnt-offering thou wouldest not; mine ears hast thou opened, a body hast thou prepared me. Lo I come, as it is written of me, in the volume of the law and the prophets. Thy law is within me: I delight to do thy will, oh God.” Psalms 40:6.
This beautiful tabernacle, seen by day from afar by its splendid colours, and by night by its flames, is a striking figure of Jews and Gentiles mixed in its outward court. Also of the true church, within the tabernacle; and of heaven itself, by the most holy place. May the Lord count us worthy to follow from the outward to the inner court, and then to the holy of holies in the paradise above.
We see here the fire of the altar, ever burning to take away the daily faults of an offending people, for the love of Christ ever glows with compassion towards them.
The lamps, ever burning in the temple, adumbrate the light of the Lord shining forth in the glory of the gospel, rising with beams of grace and righteousness on the church, and with the light of life in every believer's heart. Zion has often been under an exterior cloud, but she has always light within. Christ still walks amid the golden candlesticks, and causes the church to shine by reflection, with beauties enhanced, as a city set on a hill. It is the portion of the finally impenitent to be thrust into outer darkness.