Exodus 27

Ex. 27 1 And thou shalt make the altar of acacia wood, five cubits long, and five cubits broad; the altar shall be foursquare: and the height thereof shall be three cubits. And thou shalt make the horns of it upon the four corners thereof: the horns thereof shall be of one piece with it: and thou shalt overlay it with brass. And thou shalt make its pots to take away its ashes, and its shovels, and its basons, and its fleshhooks, and its firepans: all the vessels thereof thou shalt make of brass. And thou shalt make for it a grating of network of brass; and upon the net shalt thou make four brazen rings in the four corners thereof. And thou shalt put it under the ledge round the altar beneath, that the net may reach halfway up the altar. And thou shalt make staves for the altar, staves of acacia wood, and overlay them with brass. And the staves thereof shall be put into the rings, and the staves shall be upon the two sides of the altar, in bearing it. Hollow with planks shalt thou make it: as it hath been shewed thee in the mount, so shall they make it.

30 17 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Thou shalt also make a laver of brass, and the base thereof of brass, to wash withal: and thou shalt put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein. And Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat: when they go into the tent of meeting, they shall wash with water, that they die not; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire unto the LORD: so they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they die not: and it shall be a statute for ever to them, even to him and to his seed throughout their generations.

38 8 And he made the laver of brass, and the base thereof of brass, of the mirrors of the serving women which served [or, the women which assembled to minister] at the door of the tent of meeting.

27 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 an hundred cubits long for one side: and the pillars thereof shall be twenty, and their sockets twenty, of brass; the hooks of the pillars

11 and their fillets shall be of silver. And likewise for the north side in length there shall be hangings an hundred cubits long, and the pillars thereof twenty, and their sockets twenty, of

12 brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver. And for the breadth of the court on

13 the west side shall be hangings of fifty cubits: their pillars ten, and their sockets ten. And

14 the breadth of the court on the east side eastward shall be fifty cubits. The hangings for the

15 one side of the gate shall be fifteen cubits: their pillars three, and their sockets three. And for the other side shall be hangings of fifteen cubits: their pillars three, and their sockets

16 three. And for the gate of the court shall be a screen of twenty cubits, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, the work of the embroiderer: their pillars four, and their

17 sockets four. All the pillars of the court round about shall be filleted with silver; their

18 hooks of silver, and their sockets of brass. The length of the court shall be an hundred cubits, and the breadth fifty every where, and the height five cubits, of fine twined linen, and

19 their sockets of brass. All the instruments of the tabernacle in all the service thereof, and all the pins thereof, and all the pins of the court, shall be of brass.

Ex. 38 1-20. Omitted, except verse 8, because identical with above text.

The religious system of the Hebrews contemplates as its ultimate end the obedience, homage, and worship due from men to God. As a prime means toward this end, it prescribes modes and forms of worship. It proposes to bring God near to men and men near to God; and for this purpose would cultivate in men the spirit of penitence and of faith—impressing them with a sense of their sins and suggesting to them how sin may be forgiven; and how, on the basis of God’s own provision for pardon, he can accept the humble, reverent worship of his people. These fundamental ideas respecting the sinner’s acceptance with God, the system now before us sought especially to develop by means of visible symbols—these symbols constituting the very elaborate and minutely described religious system of the Hebrews. This system, having long since “waxed old and vanished away,” is yet useful for the light it throws on the great and fundamental questions—How shall man—a sinner—become just before God? Is an atonement necessary? What are the fundamental ideas of “atonement”? How were they developed in the Mosaic system, and what light does this development bring to the atonement presented to view in the New Testament? With superlative wisdom God began to give lessons on this great subject very early in the history of our race. It was wise to give such lessons long and carefully before the great atoning sacrifice came in human flesh. It was also wise to give them largely by visible illustrations—by the aid of a system having so much of the external and the visible that minds not disciplined to abstract thought might see the truth and feel its power by means of sensible manifestations. H. C.

Many of the most precious Gospel declarations of Christ and the apostles would be unintelligible hieroglyphics without the key of Moses. It is the manner of these great teachers to express spiritual, gracious, and eternal things in terms of the temple and the altar; and this in conformity with a system, planned from the beginning, in which all the type and symbol of the Mosaic economy is a preparation for the clear light of the latter day. Those, therefore, are the most deeply taught and richly experienced believers who, after having learned the simple principles of evangelical truth in the New Testament, go back with them to the Old Testament, and behold a hundredfold more beauty and majesty in the same truths as arrayed in the forms and laws of the Jewish service. And in our endeavor to find the cross in the Holy of Holies, and the Gospel in those smoking altars, we have our best aid in the Epistle to the Hebrews, which might be named a Key to the Tabernacle, or the Old Testament explained by the New. J. W. A.

The great altar which stood in the court in front of the tabernacle was commonly called the ALTAR OF BURNT-OFFERING, because on it were burned the whole burnt-offerings, and all those parts of the other animal sacrifices which were offered to the Lord. It was also called the BRAZEN ALTAR, because it was covered with bronze, in distinction from the golden altar, or altar of incense. As sacrificial worship was no new thing, there is nothing said or intimated as to the purpose of the altar, either in the instructions for the sanctuary or in the record of its completion. It was a hollow casing, formed of stout acacia planks covered with plates of bronze, seven feet six in length and width and four feet six in height. The shelf round the sides was required as a stage for the priests to enable them to carry on their work conveniently on the top of the altar. Clark.

The altar of burnt-offering formed the central point of the outer services, in which the people had a part. On it all sacrifices and oblations were presented, except the sin-offerings, which were burned without the camp. It was overlaid with plates of brass, and had a grating of brass in the middle to place the wood upon, and rings to lift the grating. Like the ark, the altar of incense, and the table of shew-bread, it was furnished with rings, through which were passed bars to carry it when the people were on the march. P. S.

This altar was emphatically the meeting-place between God and men—the one as infinitely holy and good, the other as sinful—that they might transact together respecting sin and salvation, that the fallen might be again restored, or if already restored, might be enabled to grow in the fellowship and blessing of heaven. The distinctive name for it was misbeach, the slaughtering-place, or the place where slaughtered victims were to be brought and laid as it were on the table of God. This denoted how preeminently the communion between God and sinful men must be through an avenue of blood, and the sentence of death must ever be found lying across the threshold of life. It was furnished with projecting horns at each corner, which were to have the appearance of coming out of it. These horns were undoubtedly to be regarded as shaped like those of oxen, and, according to the emblematic sense ever ascribed in Scripture, were intended to symbolize that Divine strength which necessarily distinguishes the place of God’s manifested grace and love, and which forms, in a manner, its crowning elevation. Hence to lay hold of the horns of the altar, if only it were warrantably done, was to grasp the almighty and protecting arm of Jehovah. P. F.—The horns of the brazen altar were an expression in the first place of the Divine majesty and strength, and then of the communication of these to the true worshipper. It is in harmony with this interpretation that the blood of the sin-offering had to be sprinkled upon them, and that, as in the cases of Adonijah and Joab, those who fled from the vengeance of their enemies to the sanctuary “caught hold on the horns of the altar.” Milligan.—It is probably in real, though latent allusion to the horned altar and its pacifying character that God says through the prophet (Is. 27:5), “Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.” Bush.

This altar was the foundation of all the tabernacle worship. The priests could not enter into the Holy place except on the ground of sacrifice presented on the brazen altar. Nor could the high-priest on the great atonement day enter the holy of holies without having first offered not only the ordinary sacrifice, but an additional sin-offering on the altar in the court. Not only was the Shechinah glory within the veil impossible of access; but the bread of the presence, the light of the lamps, the privileges of the altar of incense, were all closed until a sacrifice had been offered upon the altar. Thus were the children of Israel taught and thus too are we taught, that the first thing for the sinner to do, before he can taste the heavenly bread, before he can see the heavenly light, before he can even pray with acceptance, is to avail himself of the atonement which God has provided. The altar was the people’s place of meeting with God. Only the priests could enter the Holy place. Only the High-priest could enter the Holy of Holies. But the altar was free to all. The call was addressed to every child of Israel: “Come into his courts and bring an offering with you.” The atonement which God provides is free to all without exception and without distinction. J. M. G.

No function of the officiating priest could be discharged, no act of worship on the part of the waiting people could be accepted, till there had first been the intervention of the blood from this altar. And it is precisely so with that which this significant shadow typified. “Accepted in the beloved,” is the great underlying doctrine of the Gospel. Our prayers, our praises, our tears, our repentance, our faith, our words, our actions, our labors, our sufferings, our vows, our alms-givings, our sermons, our sacraments—all things that may be crowded into the entire circle of our services—have worth or merit not in themselves, but only as they stand connected with the sacrifice which

Jesus offered on the cross, and are sprinkled with his atoning blood in all its prevailing efficacy. This lesson is taught us by the relation which the brazen altar bore to every other part of the tabernacle. R. Newton.

Such was the altar of burnt-offering, the peculiarly chosen and consecrated place where Jehovah condescended to reveal his grace to sinners, and accept the offerings they brought in token of their self-dedication to him. These offerings were to be consumed there, in part by his appointed representatives, and in part by fire. Thus consumed the sacrifices were owned to be in accordance with God’s holiness (which the fire symbolized) and stamped with his approval. Hence the expression so commonly used of those offerings by fire, that they were a sweet-smelling savor, ascending up to the region of his presence like a grateful and refreshing odor. P. F.

The court, or open enclosure, in which the tabernacle stood, was of an oblong figure of a hundred cubits (about one hundred and fifty feet) long, by fifty cubits (about seventy-five feet) broad; and the height of the enclosing curtain was five cubits, or seven feet and a half, being half the height of the tabernacle. The enclosure was formed by a plain hanging of fine twined linen yarn, which seems to have been worked in an open texture so that the people without might freely see the interior. The door curtain was of “fine twined linen,” embroidered with blue, purple, and scarlet. It was furnished with cords, by which it might be drawn up or aside when the priests had occasion to enter. The curtains of this whole enclosure were hung upon sixty pillars of brass, standing on bases of the same metal, but with capitals and fillets of silver. The hooks, also, to which the curtains were attached, were of silver. The entrance of the court was at the east end, opposite that to the tabernacle; and between them stood the altar of burnt-offering and the brazen laver. J. C.

The place of the tabernacle we hold to be not exactly in the middle of the court, as Josephus may be construed to mean, but as Philo explains, twenty cubits from the west, north, and south sides of the court. In this way a perfect square of fifty cubits is left in front to be occupied by the great altar and the laver with the company of officials and worshippers. M.—The tabernacle, with its surrounding court, was appointed to stand with the entrance fronting the east; so that the two sides looked, the one toward the north, the other toward the south,

THE COURT, INCLUDING THE TABERNACLE AND ITS FURNITURE, THE LAVER AND THE ALTAR OF SACRIFICE. (GROUND PLAN.)

and the end, containing the most holy place, toward the west. That in the general position a respect was had to the four quarters of the earth, as emblems of universality, may readily be conceived: the sacred structure, however limited in dimensions, was still the habitation of him to whom the earth and all its fulness belongs, and whose kingdom, spiritually as well as naturally, must rule over all. P. F.

The walls of the court were like the rest, curtains or hangings, made according to the appointment. This represented the state of the Old Testament Church; it was a garden enclosed; the worshippers were then confined to a little compass. But the enclosure being of curtains only, intimated that the confinement of the Church in one particular nation was not to be perpetual. The dispensation itself was a tabernacle dispensation, movable and mutable, and in due time to be taken down and folded up when the place of the tent should be enlarged and its cords lengthened to make room for the Gentile world, as is foretold (Is. 54:2, 3). The Church here on earth is but the court of God’s house, and happy they who tread these courts and flourish in them; but through these courts we are passing to the holy place above; Blessed are they that dwell in that house of God, they will be still praising him. H.

The tabernacle is the type of heaven (Heb. 9:24), the court is the figurative semblance of the earth. And the manifold connections between them, as well as the presence of the altar in the court, indicate the design that the earth should eventually become a constituent part of the kingdom of heaven. M.

Ex. 27 20 And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee pure 21 olive oil beaten for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continually. In the tent of meeting, without the veil 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 throughout their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel.

Lev. 24 4 He shall order the lamps upon the pure candlestick before the LORD continually.

Ez. 30 11 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel, according to those that are numbered of them, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the LORD, when thou numberest them ; that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them. This they shall give, every one that passeth over unto them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary : (the shekel is twenty gerahs :) half a shekel for an offering to the LORD. Every one that passeth over unto them that are numbered, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the offering of the LORD. The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when they give the offering of the LORD, to make atonement for your souls. And thou shalt take the atonement money from the children of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the service of the tent of meeting ; that it may be a memorial for the children of Israel before the LORD, to make atonement for your souls.

22. Moreover the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Take thou also unto thee the chief spices, of flowing myrrh five hundred shekels, and of sweet cinnamon half so much, even two hundred and fifty, and of sweet calamus two hundred and fifty, and of cassia five hundred, after the shekel of the sanctuary, and of olive oil an hin : and thou shalt make it an holy anointing oil, a perfume compounded after the art of the perfumer : it shall be an holy anointing oil. And thou shalt anoint therewith the tent of meeting, and the ark of the testimony, and the table and all the vessels thereof, and the candlestick and the vessels thereof, and the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt offering with all the vessels thereof, and the laver and the base thereof. And thou shalt sanctify them, that they may be most holy : whatsoever toucheth them shall be holy. And thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and sanctify them, that they may minister unto me in the priest’s office. And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, This shall be an holy anointing oil unto me throughout your generations. Upon the flesh of man shall it not be poured, neither shall ye make any like it, according to the composition thereof : it is holy, and it shall be holy unto you. Whosoever compoundeth any like it, or whosoever putteth any of it upon a stranger, he shall be cut off from his people.

34. And the LORD said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum ; sweet spices with pure frankincense : of each shall there be a like weight ; and thou shalt make of it incense, a perfume after the art of the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy : and thou shalt beat some of it very small, and put of it before the testimony in the tent of meeting, where I will meet with thee : it shall be unto you most holy. And the incense which thou shalt make, according to the composition thereof ye shall not make for yourselves : it shall be unto thee holy for the LORD. Whosoever shall make like unto that, to smell thereto, he shall be cut off from his people.

Ez. 37 29 And he made the holy anointing oil, and the pure incense of sweet spices, after the art of the perfumer.

Lev. 24 5 And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof : two tenth parts of an ephah shall be in one cake. And thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the LORD. And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row, that it may be to the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto the LORD. Every sabbath day he shall set it in order before the LORD continually, it is on the behalf of the children of Israel, an everlasting covenant. And it shall be for Aaron and his sons ; and they shall eat it in a holy place : for it is most holy unto him of the offerings of the LORD made by fire by a perpetual statute.

The offerings for the service of the holy place consisted of the holy oil for the daily replenishing of the lamps of the golden candlestick ; of the ransom or atonement money for the expenses of the sanctuary service ; of the incense daily burned upon the golden altar ; of the holy anointing oil ; and of the twelve loaves, arranged in rows, with frankincense and libations of wine, for the table of shew-bread. B.