Directions having now been given regarding everything within the tabernacle except the golden altar, we might naturally expect that that would be the next thing treated of, but three long chapters intervene. We must not think however that there is any lack of order here: the lightning may move (to apply a figure of Dr. Holmes) in a zigzag way as if undecided, but it knows perfectly well where to strike. The order in which the scripture comes is one of the most powerful evidences of its divine origin; and we shall find ample reasons why, instead of our going on to the golden altar, we are led abruptly outside into the court to the brazen altar to learn that the foundation of all this fabric of worship is in the Atonement.
That which is appropriately called the “religious world” would naturally omit this part, constructing a religion without a basis, a house without foundation. The atonement is becoming ignored or else characterized as a slander upon God. If however we take anything direct from God's own word we can be in no danger of receiving any such slander. But the present increasing surrender of the doctrine of the atonement is a natural reaction against those strained and irreverent analyzes of this awful and sacred theme by scholastic disputants who have contended over such hard and artificial subtilties as Objective and Subjective, Crypto-dualistic, Dynamic or Organic atonement and the like. From such hard and barren theories it is not surprising that the “religious world” should oscillate to a religion which its leaders define as “morality touched with emotion,": a stream of tendency,” &c., &c., where there is no need of a brazen altar at all, and only need of an altar of—say, Britannia metal or German silver—in order that men might burn incense to one another. For they reverse the maxim of old King George, who indignantly said to the fulsome preacher that he had come to his “place of worship” to hear the praises of God and not his own.
The religion that omits the brazen altar is bloodless and consequently lifeless, for the life is in the blood; and it bears the same relation to the religion which God has inspired that the corpse on a dissecting table bears to the man who is examining it. The parts and arrangements are similar; nothing is wanting but the vital principle—the blood. It was said that the war-horse of the Paladin Orlando was in every respect perfect but for one fact—it was dead. And even a dead horse is of more value than a dead religion, for though it may be given a spasmodic semblance of life, such as that which the magnetic current gave to Galvani's frog, yet it is only for a time.
But in the divine plan the brazen altar is an all-essential part. It represents Christ as the means by which a sinful being can approach the holy sanctuary of God—a seeming impossibility; and by which he can whilst thus approaching become divested of his polluting guilt and absolved from sin's tremendous curse and penalty—a still greater seeming impossibility. For it is natural to expect that as a sinner approached God, his sin would be but the more fastened on him, and his penalty the more imminent and threatening: all of which would assuredly be true if this brazen altar were not found on the way. Now the thought is familiar, that the sacrifice on the altar typifies Christ offered, suffering and slain as the atoning Victim; but we have to see in the altar itself which supports the sacrifice the same divine Being in another aspect. The wood of its symbolic humanity was covered by the flame-enduring metal, which represents that our Lord's infinite capacity to support and endure the fire of judgment is the basis on which His sacrifice rests. Being infinite, His atonement was infinite, because His sufferings were infinite. That is why the brazen altar is larger than the other appointments of the tabernacle. The number of those who are illuminated by the sacred candlestick, or represented on the table of shewbread, or permitted to approach the golden altar, is limited; but in respect of the sacrifice at the brazen altar we read, “He tasted death for every man.” The measurements of these former are in restricted numbers, 11/2, 21/2, &c.; but the circumference of the brazen altar is in fives; the number of human responsibility, universally quadrupled. And, while the brazen altar is double the height of the ark and table and even a cubit higher than the golden altar, he grating on which the sacrifice is laid is adjusted to exactly the height of the mercy-seat. There is to be round this altar no crown, nor attraction, nor ornament—nothing but a terrible presentation of judgment and suffering.
And how much there may be in all of the details! Its “horns” are the symbols of the authority by which it claimed, and the power by which it held, the destined victim of its terrible purpose. “Bind the sacrifice with cords, even to the horns of the altar.” In the Antitype this power was exercised by Himself in deliberate self-surrender and solemn self-dedication. It is “hollow with boards:” He emptied Himself. The staves signify its earthly and present character: that wherever the people of God are, they are seen associated with that infinite atonement. “And thou shalt make his pans to receive his ashes, and his shovels, and his basins, and his flesh-hooks, and his firepans; all the vessels thereof thou shalt make of brass.” To trivial minds alone such words are trivial: for others they contain suggestions of an infinite pathos, thoughts that “lie too deep for tears.” Each figure is a hieroglyphic of suffering; each implement a symbol of pain and death. The same God that gave solemn directions concerning the ashes of the sacrifice ordained that the dead Christ should be tended and shielded from insult by reverent hands and loving hearts.