Reflections on Exodus 27

 

Exodus 27 (Contemporary English Version)

1. Use acacia wood to build an altar seven and a half feet square and four and a half feet high,
2. and make each of the four top corners stick up like the horn of a bull. Then cover the whole altar with bronze, including the four horns.
3. All the equipment for the altar must also be made of bronze--the pans for the hot ashes, the shovels, the sprinkling bowls, the meat forks, and the fire pans.
4. Midway up the altar build a ledge around it, and cover the bottom half of the altar with a decorative bronze grating. Then attach a bronze ring beneath the ledge at the four corners of the altar.
5. (SEE 27:4)
6. Cover two acacia wood poles with bronze and put them through the rings for carrying the altar.
7. (SEE 27:6)
8. Construct the altar in the shape of an open box, just as you were shown on the mountain.
9. Surround the sacred tent with a courtyard one hundred fifty feet long on the south and north and seventy-five feet wide on the east and west. Use twenty bronze posts on bronze stands for the south and north and ten for the west. Then hang a curtain of fine linen on the posts along each of these three sides by using silver hooks and rods. Place three bronze posts on each side of the entrance at the east and hang a curtain seven and a half yards wide on each set of posts.
10. (SEE 27:9)
11. (SEE 27:9)
12. (SEE 27:9)
13. (SEE 27:9)
14. (SEE 27:9)
15. (SEE 27:9)
16. Use four more of these posts for the entrance way, then hang on them an embroidered curtain of fine linen ten yards long and woven with blue, purple, and red wool.
17. The curtains that surround the courtyard must be two and a half yards high and are to be hung from the bronze posts with silver hooks and rods.
18. (SEE 27:17)
19. The rest of the equipment for the sacred tent must be made of bronze, including the pegs for the tent and for the curtain surrounding the courtyard.
20. Command the people of Israel to supply you with the purest olive oil. Do this so the lamp will keep burning
21. in front of the curtain that separates the holy place from the most holy place, where the sacred chest is kept. Aaron and his sons are responsible for keeping the lamp burning every night in the sacred tent. The Israelites must always obey this command.

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Moses had gone back up the mountain, following the acceptance of the covenant with God, for God to give the design for the tabernacle and everything related to it. To this point God had given the design of the furniture to go in the tabernacle and of the tabernacle structure. In this chapter the design instructions move outside the tabernacle. They include the altar, located just outside the tabernacle, and the courtyard surrounding the tabernacle. Moses is also given instructions concerning a perpetual supply of olive oil for the lampstand.

The altar, used for the burnt offerings to the Lord, illustrated that one can approach God only through sacrifice to atone for sin. It was the first object in the courtyard one saw when going to the tabernacle to worship God, serving as a reminder of this need for atonement. It both pictured Christ's death as the ultimate sacrifice and demonstrated the need for His sacrifice which would end all sacrifices. Those sacrifices on the altar of the tabernacle had to be offered over and over, never fully atoning for man's sin. But Christ's sacrifice was sufficient once and for all.

A courtyard surrounded the tabernacle enclosed by a wall made of linen curtains. Its dimensions were 75 feet by 150 feet. With just one entrance to the courtyard, located on the east side, one could enter the tabernacle only by first approaching the altar.

The final instructions given in this chapter concerned oil for the lampstand. It was to be kept burning continuously requiring a constant supply of olive oil. The Israelites were to supply this oil. Once they were established in their new land and had vineyards, it would not have been difficult to supply the needed oil, but during their wilderness journey it may have been no easy task.