Ezekiel 43:13

The description of the *altar begins here. And the *altar was the place where priests burned *sacrifices as a gift to God. Some *sacrifices were because of human *sin. The person who *sinned deserved to die. So that person offered an animal, for example a *bull or a sheep, as a *sacrifice. The priests killed that animal. So the animal died instead of that person. Then the priests burned it on the *altar. Its smoke rose into the sky, towards heaven. And so the people saw that God accepted that *sacrifice.

Because of *sin, people cannot *worship God in a proper manner. It was essential to deal with *sin so that the people could *worship God. That is why the *temple needed an *altar. And the *altar was in a very important place. It was in the inner area. And it was in front of the *temple building.

The first *altars were simple piles of large stones. But the *altar in the original *temple was impressive. It was *bronze, that is, brown metal. And it was 15 feet (4.5 metres) high (2 Chronicles 4:1). And the *altar that Ezekiel saw was even taller: nearly 20 feet (6 metres).

The measurements for the *altar used the special long *cubits that Ezekiel mentioned in 40:5. That is because ordinary human standards cannot deal with *sin. So even the measurements for the *altar need to use God’s standards.