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The Altar –מזבח
5 x 5 x 3
Exodus 27:1-8 “You shall make the altar of acacia wood, five cubits long and five cubits broad. The altar shall be square, and its height shall be three cubits. And you shall make horns(קרנת, karnot) for it on its four corners. Its horns shall be of one piece with it, and you shall overlay it with bronze (נחשת, nachashet). You shall make pots for it to receive its ashes, and shovels and basins and forks and fire pans. You shall make all its utensils of bronze. You shall also make for it a grating, a network of bronze, and on the net you shall make four bronze rings at its four corners. And you shall set it under the ledge of the altar so that the net extends halfway down the altar. And you shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze. And the poles shall be put through the rings, so that the poles are on the two sides of the altar when it is carried. You shall make it hollow, with boards(לחת, luchot). As it has been shown you on the mountain, so shall it be made.
Three Insights:
#1: Bronze Altar = Transformation
Numbers 21:8-9 And Adonai said to Moses, “Make a fiery [serpent] and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent(נחש נחשת, nachash nachashet) and set it on a pole. And if a serpent(נחש, nachash) bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
#2: The Altar = The Place of Redemption
8 – “hollow with boards” = לחת (luchot) = “tablets”
Romans 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your logical service of worship.
Leviticus 7:8 And the priest who offers any man’s burnt offering shall have for himself the skin of the burnt offering that he has offered.
#3: Solomon’s Example
2Chronicles 6:12-13 Then Solomon stood before the altar of Adonai in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands. Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, and had set it in the court, and he stood on it. Then he knelt on his knees in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven…
Exodus 27:9-19 The Courtyard
Exodus 28 The Priests’ Clothing
Exodus 29 The Inauguration Ritual
Exodus 30:1-10 THE GOLDEN ALTAR OF INCENSE
Exodus 30:11-16 The Half-Shekel Tax
The Laver –כיור
Exodus 30:17-21 Adonai said to Moses, “You shall also make a basin of bronze, with its stand of bronze, for washing. You shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it, with which Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet. When they go into the tent of meeting, or when they come near the altar to serve, to burn a food offering to Adonai, they shall wash with water, so that they may not die. They shall wash their hands and their feet, so that they may not die. It shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his offspring throughout their generations.”
Exodus 38:8 He made the Laver of bronze and its base of bronze, from the mirrors of the legions (f.) who mustered at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.
The Word Reflects:
James 1:22-24 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.
The Word Purifies:
Ephesians 5:26-27 …that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that He might present the assembly to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
Exodus 25:22 “There (שם) I will meet with you; and from above the ark cover, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak to you about all that I will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel.”
FIRE (ש) & WATER (מ)
Ephesians 5:27 … that He might present the assembly to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
REFERENCES:
Verse 1
Psalm 118:27 Adonai is God, and He has made His light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns (קרנת, karnot) of the altar!
Leviticus 1:16 He shall remove its crop with its contents and cast it beside the altar on the east side, in the place for ashes.
“The other vessels caused the Divine Presence to rest on the Tabernacle, whereas the laver served to prepare the Kohanim to carry out their mission.” (Sforno)
Exodus 31:18 And He gave to Moses, when He had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets (לחת, luchot) of the testimony, tablets (לחת, luchot) of stone, written with the finger of God.