(Read Ex. 27:1 to 8)
We step outside now, and find ourselves in the Court that enclosed the Tabernacle. Passing through the entrance of the Court from the outside, the first thing that met the gaze was the Brazen Altar. It was an arresting figure. A comparison between the measurement of the Ark and the Brazen Altar is interesting.
THE ARK THE BRAZEN ALTAR.
2.5 cubits long 5 cubits long
1.5 cubits broad 5 cubits broad
1.5 cubits high 3 cubits high
It will be seen that the Brazen Altar was much larger than the Ark, and twice its height. God would impress upon men the necessity of atonement, if He has to do with sinful men in blessing. Would that this lesson were burned more deeply in every heart.
Unlike the Ark and Table of Shewbread, which were made of Shittim wood covered with pure gold, the Brazen Altar was made of Shittim wood, covered with brass. Brass, or more correctly copper, is the most fire-resisting of all the metals. The ancients had some process for hardening copper to a very high degree, the secret of which is unknown to-day. Brass (or copper) sets forth the fierceness of God's wrath against sin. " Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto My sorrow, which is done unto Me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted Me in THE DAY OF HIS FIERCE ANGER " (Lam. 1:12). As another has said,
Gold is the righteousness of God for drawing near where God is; brass, the righteousness of God for dealing with man's evil where man is."
The Brazen Altar was the place where the sacrifices were offered, the Burnt Offerings and Peace Offerings. The hands of the offerer were placed on the head of the Sacrifice, and the Sacrifice killed by the offerer, and its blood sprinkled by the priests upon the Altar.
The size of the Brazen Altar was arresting, as if God would make it very plain that there can be no approach to Him save through an atoning sacrifice. " Without shedding of blood is No remission " (Heb. 9:22). Further, the Brazen Altar was foursquare, setting forth that the Gospel message is for the whole world, north, south, east, west, for Jew and Gentile, to white, red, copper and black skins; to princes and beggars; to learned and ignorant; to religious and irreligious, to rich and poor; to young and old. So our Lord's instructions were, " Go ye into ALL the world, and preach the Gospel to EVERY creature " (Mark 16:15).
The four horns upon the Altar, made of Shittim wood covered by brass, symbolize the strength of the Altar. It is as if God would assure the heart of the one, who seeks to get right with Him. We remember how Joab, fearing the result of his treachery to King Solomon, fled unto the Tabernacle of the LORD, and caught hold on the horns of the Altar " (1 Kings 2:28). He thought he had got to a safe asylum, but He did not come with sacrifice and blood, and the Altar was against him, and he died.
The pans, shovels, basins, flesh-hooks, firepans pertaining to the Brazen Altar, were all made of brass, typically showing that God will not allow us to get away from the thoughts of His holiness, His righteousness, His claims. These are met only by what the sacrifice on the Altar typifies.
A grate of network of brass was made, which fastened to four rings in the four corners of the Altar, was so placed, that the net should be held securely in the midst of the Altar. There was thus to be no escape for the victim. Right in the heart of the Altar the sacrifice was securely placed, there to be consumed by the fire.
We remember when Abraham was bidden by God to sacrifice his son upon the altar on Mount Moriah, that just as the knife was held aloft to descend quickly to do its deadly work, God graciously held back Abraham's hand, and told him there was a ram caught in the thicket by its horns, which he could slay instead of Isaac. But when our Lord was placed upon the cross, there was no substitute for Him, no escape from the ordeal of the cross.
In the garden of Gethsemane the Lord Jesus cried out in bitterest anguish of soul, sweat like drops of blood falling to the ground, " O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me " (Matt. 26:39), but there was no escape for Him, if atonement were to be made, which none but He could accomplish. He alone could do the mighty work. In His perfection He would add, " Nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt." The network of brass was indeed a reality.
A striking attestation to all this is found in Num. 16. When Korah, Dathan and Abiram rebelled against the priesthood, Moses instructed the rebels and Aaron his brother, to take their censers, and incense and fire, and come before the Door of the Tabernacle of the congregation. God soon answered their presumption by causing a new thing to happen, the earth opened her mouth and swallowed the rebels alive. Fire came from the Lord and consumed the two hundred and fifty men, who had offered incense. Moses then said to Eleazar, " Take up the censers out of the burning, and scatter thou the fire yonder; for they are hallowed. The censers of these sinners against their own souls, let them make them broad plates for a covering of the Altar; for they offered them before the LORD, therefore they are hallowed; and they shall be a sign unto the children of Israel " (Num. 16:37, 38).
The censers beaten into broad plates, placed as a covering on the Altar, were ever the solemn sign that God could only be approached in the way of His own ordering. There are multitudes to-day, who perish " in the gainsaying of Core [Korah] (Jude 11). Think of the Seventh Day Adventists, Millennial Dawnists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Scientists, Christadelphians, and the like, who are traveling on this deluded path with its terrible end of eternal punishment. Think of those, who teach the Mohammedan notion that death in battle saves.
Look at those censers, beaten into broad plates for a covering of the Brazen Altar, and think of the end of the men who dared to come into God's presence other than by His appointed way. Let their be no weakening of the truth of the absolute necessity for the one and only Sacrifice, that has sufficed for the meeting of God's claims.
Finally, staves of Shittim wood, overlaid with brass, remind us of the wilderness character of this present time. Thank God, the wilderness is not forever. The Father's house lies invitingly before each believer on the Lord Jesus Christ.