How does the altar's construction connect to New Testament teachings on sacrifice? The Finished Bronze Altar: a Frame of Redemption “the bronze altar with its bronze grate, its poles and all its utensils; the basin with its stand” (Exodus 39:39) • Moses records the altar as complete, sturdy, moveable, and ready for one purpose: constant sacrifice. • Everything about that altar pointed forward to a greater, perfect sacrifice that would culminate in Christ. Bronze and Judgment: Foreshadowing the Cross • Bronze in Scripture often signals judgment (Numbers 21:8-9; Revelation 1:15). • At the bronze altar, sin met judgment through substituted blood. • On the cross, judgment fell on Jesus: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf” (2 Corinthians 5:21). The altar’s metal anticipates the righteous sentence that Christ bore. Blood on the Horns: From Goat to God’s Lamb • The altar’s four horns received the sprinkled blood (Leviticus 4:7). • Horns symbolized power and refuge; grasping them could spare a guilty life (1 Kings 1:50-51). • Jesus fulfills both ideas—power to save and refuge for sinners (Hebrews 7:25). His blood was applied, not to horns, but to the heavenly mercy seat (Hebrews 9:11-14). Fire That Never Went Out: Picture of Jesus’ Once-for-All Offering • “The fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it must not go out” (Leviticus 6:13). • Endless flames hinted at the unceasing need for atonement—until Jesus. • “But when this Priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10:12). The perpetual fire met its match in the final, sufficient blaze of Calvary. Utensils and Poles: Accessibility Fulfilled in Christ • Utensils handled blood and ash; poles allowed the altar to travel with Israel. God came along on the journey. • In the New Covenant, Jesus “tabernacled among us” (John 1:14). Through Him we now “draw near with confidence” (Hebrews 4:16). • The portability of the altar foreshadows the Gospel’s reach beyond Israel—“to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). From Animal Offerings to Living Sacrifices • Once animals died daily; now believers live daily: “Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God” (Romans 12:1). • Because Christ “loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2), we become “a spiritual house…to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5). • The altar that stood in the wilderness has become an inner altar of the heart, where worship and obedience rise like incense. The bronze altar’s construction in Exodus 39:39 isn’t an isolated detail—it sketches the blueprint of redemption that the New Testament unfolds in Christ’s perfect, once-for-all sacrifice and in our ongoing, thankful surrender. |
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