Exodus 24:15-18
"Then Moses went up the mountain, and the cloud covered it. And the glorious presence of the Lord rested upon Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from the cloud. The Israelites at the foot of the mountain saw an awesome sight. The awesome glory of the Lord on the mountaintop looked like a devouring fire. Then Moses disappeared into the cloud as he climbed higher up the mountain. He stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
Chapter 25:8 (The words of Jehovah God) "I want the people of Israel to build Me a sacred residence where I can live among them."
Chapter 27:1-8
"Using acacia wood, make a square altar 7.5 feet wide, 7.5 feet long, and 4.5 feet high. Make a horn at each of the four corners of the altar so the horns and the altar are all one piece. Overlay the altar and its horns with bronze. The ash buckets, shovels, basins, meat hooks, and firepans will all be made of bronze.
Make a bronze grating, with a metal ring at each corner. Fit the grating halfway down into the firebox, resting it on the ledge built there. For moving the altar, make poles from acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze. To carry it, put the poles into the rings at two sides of the altar. The altar must be hollow, made of planks. Be careful to build it just as you were shown on the mountain.
Hebrews 10:1-10
"The old system in the law of Moses was only a shadow of the things to come, not the reality of the good things Christ has done for us. The sacrifices under the old system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared.
But just the opposite happened. Those yearly sacrifices reminded them of their sins year after year. For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. That is why Christ, when He came into the world, said, "You did not want animal sacrifices and grain offerings. But You have

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given Me a body so that I may obey You. No, You were not pleased with animals burned on the altar or with other offerings for sin. Then I said, ‘Look, I have come to do Your will, O God--just as it is written about Me in the Scriptures.’"
Christ said, "You did not want animal sacrifices or grain offerings or animals burned on the altar or other offerings for sin, nor were You pleased with them" (though they are required by the law of Moses). Then He added, "Look, I have come to do Your will." He cancels the first covenant in order to establish the second. And what God wants is for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.

In our previous lessons, we have closely observed the structure and layout of the ancient Tabernacle in the wilderness, the place that God instructed Moses to build so that He might have a residence among His people.
We have also given attention to the great spiritual types of that ancient place of worship and are seeking to show how they relate to our New Testament faith. For example, in our last lesson we considered the entrance or gate of the enclosure surrounding the Tabernacle and noted that there was only one way to enter when coming to present your sacrifice. We concluded that this one entrance represented Christ as the only way to God. In John 10, Jesus said that He was the Door! Christ also said that no one could come to the Father except through Him. "There is salvation in no one else! There is no other name in all of heaven for people to call on to save them." (Acts 4:12)
Observation! Much of the word of God as we find it in the Old and New Testaments becomes meaningless to us without a general knowledge, understanding and interpretation of that which pertains to the Tabernacle of Moses in the wilderness. Thus the reason of our study of this ancient dwelling of God. The item and its placement in the arrangement of this place of worship provides a picture of our journey of faith as New Testament believers. It starts with our reception of Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation. He is the only Door!
Today, let’s continue our journey into the Outer Court of the Tabernacle. We come face to face with the Brazen Altar, burning with its sacrifices being offered by the priests.

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In the beginning of time, when God created the first man and woman (Adam and Eve), there were no barriers between God and man. Adam and Eve enjoyed unbroken and continuous fellowship with their Creator. But an act of disobedience changed this wonderful relationship. Man sinned, disobeyed, and rebelled against God by partaking of the forbidden tree. "Now the serpent was the shrewdest of all the creatures the Lord God had made. "Really?" He asked the woman. "Did God really say you must not eat any of the fruit of the garden?" "Of course we may eat it," the woman told him. "It’s only the fruit from the tree at the center of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God says we must not eat it or even touch it, or we will die." (Genesis 3:1-2)
Disobedience brought about a tragedy! Man squandered the most important thing in the world; the care, fellowship, and guidance of Almighty God. At that moment, the door into God’s presence was slammed shut. Man was banned from entering into God’s presence and was destined to be separated from God forever!
But God had a plan for redemption and reconciliation. It was a plan that would allow man back into His presence again. It was a plan that took years to fulfill; nevertheless, God worked to carry out His plan down through the centuries. One of the first stages of God’s plan was revealed in the construction of the Tabernacle. Through the ministry that would take place in this ancient worship center, God allowed the Priests to stand in His presence for the people. But God’s people were still far removed from experiencing the close, intimate presence of God, for they could not approach God personally. They had to approach Him through a mediator and the presenting of a sacrifice to atone for their sins. But the Tabernacle was only a shadow of greater things to come. In God’s perfect timing, He planned to send into the world the One Person who could give open access to God anytime, anywhere. That Person is Jesus Christ. Christ alone is the way into God’s presence.
In our last lesson, as noted, we learned that Christ is the Door, the Truth, the Life. "And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. This is the new, life-giving way that Christ has opened up for us through the sacred curtain, by means of His death for us. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s people, let us go right into the presence

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of God, with true hearts fully trusting Him." (Hebrews 10:19-21)
"Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow could cleanse people’s bodies from ritual defilement. Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our hearts from deeds that lead to death so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered Himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. This is why He is the One who mediates the new covenant between God and people, so that all who are invited can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under the first covenant." (Hebrews 9:13-15)
In that Old Testament Tabernacle, the Brazen Altar would be the first and largest piece of furniture used for sacrifice. It symbolized the need for atonement, for reconciliation with God. "Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. (Hebrews 9:22) Thus when the ancient worshiper came to God’s dwelling place, he was immediately reminded that his sin must be dealt with and God had established that a sacrifice must be made. "For the life of any creature is in its blood. I have given you the blood so you can make atonement for your sins. It is the blood, representing life, that brings you atonement." (Leviticus 17)
The result of man’s disobedience brought death, thus in shedding of blood representing the giving of life, satisfied the payment for sin.
The word "atonement" means making amends, blotting out the offense, and giving satisfaction for wrong done; thus reconciling to oneself the alienated other and restoring the disrupted fellowship. The Brazen Altar was the place where the sacrifice was given and atonement was made for the sins of the worshiper.
There is another thing we must observe as we stand before this altar. First, it was made of wood, but covered with brass (bronze). Throughout Scripture, brass or bronze is generally seen in connection with evil, evil men or judgment upon the sin. It is the symbol of strength and judgment against sin. In Deuteronomy we find that one of God’s promises to His people was that if they were disobedient, the heaven would be as brass over their heads. (Deuteronomy 28:15-23)
In other words their communication with God would be cut off, and worse than that, the heavens which are the place of God’s throne

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would be characterized with judgment against the sin of disobedience and a broken law. To the obedient, God’s throne is a throne of mercy, but disobedience transforms it into a seat of judgment.
All of this speaks of our Lord Jesus Christ who became that One who was lifted up on a pole (the Cross) and judged for our sins. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:14-15)." Many have wondered how it was possible for the Holy One of God to be represented by a "serpent"--surely that was the last of all objects suited to portray Him who is fairer than the children of men! But no mistake was made! As a fact, the "serpent" was the only similitude of all created things which could suitably picture that particular aspect of the Redeemer’s death which was there foreshadowed. The "serpent" was the reminder of the "curse" (Genesis 3), and in Galatians 3:13 we are expressly told that Christ was "made a curse" for His people.
It was because that uplifted object, presented to the eyes of the bitten Israelites, pointed forward to the Lord Jesus as "made a curse" that it was designed in the form of a serpent. For the same reason, that serpent was made not of silver or gold, but of brass. As made a curse for us, the Judgment of God descended upon Christ, and the sword of Divine justice smote Him (Zechariah 13:7). The Brazen Altar, inside the Court, faced the door into the Tabernacle proper, and it was at this place Jehovah met with His people: "There will I meet with the children of Israel." (Exodus 29:42,43)
So the Cross is now the meeting-place between God and the sinner. It was the foundation of what was accomplished there that He can be just and the Justifier of everyone that believeth in Jesus. There is no other ground on which He can bring the sinner into His presence. If the Israelite rejected the Brazen Altar, he shut himself out for ever from the mercy of God, and in like manner, whoever rejects the cross of Christ, shuts himself out for ever from the hope of salvation. Inexpressibly blessed are the words of Exodus 29:37, "Everything that toucheth the altar shall be holy": so every sinner who, by faith, lays hold of Christ is cleansed (Mark 5:27-29).
Though the Brazen Altar has no "steps" up to it (Exodus 20:26), yet it is clear from Leviticus 9:22 that it stood on elevated ground, for there we read of Aaron ministering at the Altar, and then he "came down." Most

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probably the ground in the Outer Court was made to slope upwards, and on the top of this ascent stood the Altar. How this reminds us of the "lifted up" Saviour upon that Hill called Golgotha!
Let us summarize.
The Brazen Altar was the place where sin was judged and its wages paid. If the Veil told of separation because of sin, the Altar says, death is the consequences of sin. But the Altar also speaks of sin remitted. Nature knows nothing of this: break her laws, and you must suffer the consequences; repent but she knows no mercy and shows no pity. Science is equally powerless: it endeavors to relieve the effects entailed, but has no remedy for the disease itself. Divine revelation alone made known an adequate provision--the Cross of Christ. There the uncompromising judgment of God dealt with sin; not by punishing the sinner, but by smiting the sinner’s Substitute--"Who His own self bear our sins in His own body on the tree, that we (believers) being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness by whose stripes we are healed." (1 Peter 2:24)
Man needs a Savior, a Savior-Substitute, who will sacrifice Himself for sinner-man, for no one can approach God apart from a Savior! The life of the pure, perfect sacrifice has to be given and substituted for man. Blood has to be shed for there is no remission from sin without it. This is the only way of salvation, and Jesus Christ fulfills the message and symbol of the Brazen Altar when He sacrificed His life at Calvary.
"Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation [behavior, conduct] received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish and without spot." (1 Peter 1:18-19) "But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John 1:7)
"For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Hebrews 9:13-14)
"Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him!" (Romans 5:9) Jesus said, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the

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forgiveness of sins." (Matthew 26:28)
"All praise to Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding His blood for us. He has made us His kingdom and His priests who serve before God His Father. Give to Him everlasting glory! He rules forever and ever! Amen!" (Revelation 1:5-6)
Old Testament religion...the Brazen Altar!
New Testament gospel...centered in the message of forgiveness provided by Christ by dying on the Cross!
Our thoughts are to turn now to Calvary, the holiest spot in all the earth, which none dare approach save in the deepest reverence. In this the Gospel writers themselves are our best example. Feeling that here they were handling a theme too high and deep for human words, the Evangelists have given us a narrative marked by noble reticence and perfect restraint. With perfect reverence the Gospels lead us into the holy of holies of our Lord’s last hours; and in the writers’ simple, unadorned words, all Christendom has found ‘thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.’
Jesus was put to death by a coalition of definite historic forces. Church and State and people all combined to destroy Him! But it would be a profound mistake to suppose that these historic forces were the final, determining factor. Jesus was not driven to death. He went in the freedom of His own unconquered soul. It was no helpless victim of cruel circumstances who died on Calvary; for in that sacrifice, as the New Testament from first to last insists, Jesus Himself was Priest, and willingly laid down His soul upon the altar.
From the beginning Jesus had undertaken His work of world-redemption with His eyes open, knowing full well the price, and willingly accepting it!
Hence His amazing calmness and self-possession as the end drew near. Never was fancy further from fact than when His judges imagined themselves master of the situation at last and controllers of His destiny. Jesus, who from His Galilean days had mastered life, circumstance and every new emergency, was supremely master in that hour when He went, not beaten by human malice or dragged helplessly at the chariot-wheels of fate, but voluntarily and victoriously to the glory of His finished work. This was ‘the weakness of God’ which ‘is stronger than men.’ (1 Corinthians 1:25)
Devised in the first instance in semi-barbaric Oriental lands, death by crucifixion was reserved by the Romans for slaves and for criminals of the most abandoned kind.

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But everything which Christ touched—the Cross included—He adorned and transfigured and haloed with splendor and beauty; but let us never forget out of what appalling depths He has set the Cross on high!
Pause with me for moment and listen and view the scene of the Cross. Listen to those who mock Him..."He saved others; Himself He can not save." From the ignorant reviling of the passersby, who have caught up the charges against Jesus at the trial, to the reverent exclamation of the centurion, and the adoring appeal of the malefactor, we have the full range of the thoughts of men concerning the Cross of Jesus. But when the chief priests and scribes mocked Him with the words, "He saved others, Himself He cannot save," it surpassed the keenness of its mockery and virulence. We are shown these men in their hour of glutted revenge. They are pacing up and down before the Cross. They do not look up at Jesus, but speak "among themselves," so that He may hear. This is the bitterest and basest of all their taunts. It is the last in an evil succession. We catch the echoes of the often whispered and murmured taunts leveled at Him throughout His ministry, in such words as "Is not this the carpenter?" "A friend of publicans and sinners." "This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them." That He saved others, they now recall. This taunt, set now in the light of the Cross, holds a truth these blind persecutors could not see.
We wonder that with the lamb already prepared for sacrifice some glimmer of what they were so unconsciously stating did not dawn upon them. "He saved others; Himself He can not save," asserts in the concisest terms the necessity of sacrifice in salvation. That lamb awaiting the red hot fires of the Brazen Altar in the wilderness was dying so that his offerer-sinner could live!
If a man will save others--in any salvation whatsoever--the law he must obey, the stern condition he must fulfill, the lot he must accept is that he cannot save himself. When Jesus would consummate this great salvation, there was no other way but to lay down His life on the Cross. "Thus it behooved Christ to suffer." "Once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself."
"Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain--He washed it white as snow." So I'll cherish the old rugged Cross, till my trophies at last I lay down; I will cling to the old rugged Cross, and exchange it some day for a crown."