The Bronze Altar
27:1 “You shall make the altar of acacia wood, five cubits long and five cubits broad. The altar shall be square, and its height shall be three cubits. 2 And you shall make horns for it on its four corners; its horns shall be of one piece with it, and you shall overlay it with bronze. 3 You shall make pots for it to receive its ashes, and shovels and basins and forks and fire pans. You shall make all its utensils of bronze. 4 You shall also make for it a grating, a network of bronze, and on the net you shall make four bronze rings at its four corners. 5 And you shall set it under the ledge of the altar so that the net extends halfway down the altar. 6 And you shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze. 7 And the poles shall be put through the rings, so that the poles are on the two sides of the altar when it is carried. 8 You shall make it hollow, with boards. As it has been shown you on the mountain, so shall it be made.
The Court of the Tabernacle
9 “You shall make the court of the tabernacle. On the south side the court shall have hangings of fine twined linen a hundred cubits long for one side. 10 Its twenty pillars and their twenty bases shall be of bronze, but the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver. 11 And likewise for its length on the north side there shall be hangings a hundred cubits long, its pillars twenty and their bases twenty, of bronze, but the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver. 12 And for the breadth of the court on the west side there shall be hangings for fifty cubits, with ten pillars and ten bases. 13 The breadth of the court on the front to the east shall be fifty cubits. 14 The hangings for the one side of the gate shall be fifteen cubits, with their three pillars and three bases. 15 On the other side the hangings shall be fifteen cubits, with their three pillars and three bases. 16 For the gate of the court there shall be a screen twenty cubits long, of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, embroidered with needlework. It shall have four pillars and with them four bases. 17 All the pillars around the court shall be filleted with silver. Their hooks shall be of silver, and their bases of bronze. 18 The length of the court shall be a hundred cubits, the breadth fifty, and the height five cubits, with hangings of fine twined linen and bases of bronze. 19 All the utensils of the tabernacle for every use, and all its pegs and all the pegs of the court, shall be of bronze.
Oil for the Lamp
20 “You shall command the people of Israel that they bring to you pure beaten olive oil for the light, that a lamp may regularly be set up to burn. 21 In the tent of meeting, outside the veil that is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening to morning before the Lord. It shall be a statute forever to be observed throughout their generations by the people of Israel. (ESV)
God is a master architect. Its amazing to read the detail in which God wanted the tabernacle built to. Do you ever look around and notice the detail in God’s creation? For instance take clouds, they are more than puffy white things in the air. Clouds are formed when excess water vapor condenses on onto microscopic dust or smoke particles, quickly forming non-precipitating water droplets about 0.0004 inch in diameter; most clouds have a density of about a thousand of these droplets per cubic inch. I could fill a couple of pages describing how detailed clouds are but that would be boring. The point is God cares about the little things in life. He cares about the little white lies we tell or the rude looks we give our parents. He cares when we help an old lady across the street or if we are nice to our siblings. Its important that we obey all of God’s commands. Remember God is always watching you every second. More like every nano second, He is very detailed you know!
Very astute observation JDogg! God is extremely precise in His instructions to us. And while Christians don’t have to build the tabernacle, since the Holy Spirit lives inside regenerate believers, He does want us to obey with our entire heart for His glory, not TO BE saved but BECAUSE He saved us and who He is. That slight difference in wording means everything to the God of precision. It’s good to seek God and have Him test our hearts to be certain we have repented and trusted only in Him.
Hmm. I think if i knew what a cubit was i probably would be able to build this thing! God has such precise instructions on how to build it! It’s amazing! And wow! John, that is crazy! I never knew clouds were so comlpex! That’s just another “signature” of God. All of creation just screams that there is in fact a God. Like John said, God pays attention to the details, no matter how small they may be.
8 Make the altar hollow, out of boards. It is to be made just as you were shown on the mountain.
OK, I’ve posted on the same thing for the past few days, so I’m just going to say something new. Wouldn’t it be so sweet for GOD to show himself to us as he did Moses? I hope and pray for the day we will be able to see him in the flesh. I wonder if Jesus’ disiples new how precious their time with him is?
20 “Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning.
21 In the Tent of Meeting, outside the curtain that is in front of the Testimony, Aaron and his sons are to keep the lamps burning before the LORD from evening till morning. This is to be a lasting ordinance among the Israelites for the generations to come.
That’s pretty cool. The everlasting light shining forever, before the LORD from evening till morning. Keeping the lamps burning is a big responsibility that’s very important. “This is to be a lasting ordinance among the Israelites for the generations to come.” Let the Light Shine FOREVER.
The thing that has stood out to me over the past few days of reading God’s specific instructions to the Israelites about how to build the Tabernacle and all other worship related items is how SPECIFIC God is. He lets the Isrealites know excatly what His expectations are for all of the items they will use to worship Him. That got me thinking how blessed we are to worship a “specific” God. He makes it very clear to us in Scripture exactly what we need to do to be right with Him and exactly what we need to do to live obedient lives that glorify Him. Think of so many other religions where the people are not sure what they need to do to get eternal life or what to do to live lives that please God. So many religions make up their own rules so that they feel like they hve a specific plan to follow. We are so blessed that God outlines the right response to the gospel (repentance and faith) over and over again in His Word so that we have no coubt as to our standing with Him.
Beth I am going to echo what you said. God is SPECIFIC most importantly in what it means to be saved. Like Beth said other religions have to guess so to speak…most of them will say they “hope” they will go to heaven. But we can be confident. I like 2 Cor 13:5 because it reminds us we can test ourselves and be sure of our salvation: “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?”
NEW BLOG ON EPHESIANS 2:10
1 “Build an altar of acacia wood, three cubits high; it is to be square, five cubits long and five cubits wide.
I will never forget last year’s Good Friday service at Compass when Pastor Mike had a life sized altar there. I remember him saying that really it was a huge barbecue! As I read this I was thinking about what the altar was for–making sacrifices to God so the people could have their sins paid for to stand right before Him. They had to come often to do this and in the sacrifice of Christ all of my sins were paid for!
I encourage you to read Hebrews 9 after reading this chapter. It talks all about the tabernacle and sacrifices they made and says in v. 28, “so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”
Praise the Lord for He is holy and gracious! Specifically instructing the Israelites how to build the tabernacle as a place to come to Him and specifically instructing us today to come to Him through Christ in salvation!
1 “Build an altar of acacia wood, three cubits high; it is to be square, five cubits long and five cubits wide.
I agree with everyone else! John great comment, I didn’t think that the first time I read through it! God commands us to do specific things wheather it’s to build an altar or to go make disciples of all nations. I really like this quality of God of how specific He is! It’s all black and white, no grey areas!
this chapter i think reminds us that we need to do things the way god wants us too, not our own way!
God is amazing with his specific commands with how to build this altar, because He is a God that lets us know what he expects of us. That is why I love CBC and True North, because it is about the BIBLE, because this is God’s communication to us with His commands and expectations for how to live a Christian life. Without it, we have no basis for a religion and it is why it is important to spend time with it because this is what we have from God to learn and understand how we are to live.
Reading these chapters makes me realize how flippantly we approach God. In the Old Testament you could only approach God one way…His way. God had an exact way he wanted to be worshipped. The Tabernacle was constructed to very specific directions. When people in the OT did things wrong they died for it. In Leviticus 10:1 Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron offered up “strange fire” to the Lord. They offered incense that was different than what God had prescribed. Their punishment was death. If I saw someone die with fire from heaven because they worshipped in the wrong way I would be pretty scared and pretty careful how I approached God. This is a fear that we need to have of God. He is a holy, awesome God and is not to be approached flippantly.
As others have said God is very specific in his description of the altar and what is to be offered on the altar (see the book of Leviticus). In the OT the offering was animals, grain, etc, but in the NT the offering is human bodies. Not of course to be slaughtered (an dead sacrafice but as an offering of a life (living sacrafice). A life lived wholely and completely to God!
Romans 12:1 – “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrafices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.”
All the specifics definitely puts emphasis on how important this tabernacle is to God. It is not just another one of those tents or “buildings” that they have, it’s a place to meet God and worship him! It’s a shame that sooo many people don’t believe it is important to go to church, even though it is God’s desire for us to attend one… I’m very grateful that we have wonderful Compass Bible Church!! It is one of the BEST places to learn more about God through his scripture, and to fellowship together! :D
build us up to be strong in your word and help me to do what you say.
The Tabernacle of the old testament involves the old covenant with the Lord and His people. The temple itself is highly symbolic of this and also provides us with a picture of the ‘new covenant’ that was fulfilled through Jesus Christ. Just as Gods plan was so specific in order for the Isrealites to attone for their sins, so is Gods plan for us. i think it is entirely too easy for us today to take for granted the gift of Jesus’ sacrafice on the cross. We have a God who humbled himself and not only became flesh, but also offered HIMSELF as a sacrafice for US! This is such a staggering thought that it is all at once hard to comprehend and sadly,easy to take for granted. My prayer is that we would fall on our faces before Him and THANK Him for suffering the death that WE deserve! Then in order to show Him our love, we should OBEY Him with a heart FULL of GRATITUDE. Obey continually…
The last couple verses of this chapter reminded me of this song we used to sing in high school choir that went, “Keep your lamps trimmed and burning…the time is drawing nigh.” Just like Aaron and the priests were always to keep those lamps burning, there is never a time when we can turn out the lights on our spiritual life. A relationship with God is a 24/7 thing. We must always keep our lamps burning by desiring to be close to the Lord and see him return!
Wow, it’s really amazing how specific God is in commanding the Israelites. He didn’t tell them “Well build whatever you want” or “You know best”, he’s very specific in telling them how He wants things. Just the same we should be living our lives the way that He tells us to, not how we think we should.
After being slaves in Egypt the Israelites nowbhave a place where they can worship God. They have a lot of reasons to praise him.
20 “Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning. 21 In the Tent of Meeting, outside the curtain that is in front of the Testimony, Aaron and his sons are to keep the lamps burning before the LORD from evening till morning. This is to be a lasting ordinance among the Israelites for the generations to come.
This verse made me think of a sermon Pastor Bobby did at Revival. He described Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, praying, shortly before His betrayal and arrest. Gethsemane means “oil press”. Christ Jesus was crushed for our iniquities Isaiah 53:5. He is also described as the light of the world in John 8:12. In Revelation 21:22-24 tells us that there will be no need for the sun or the moon in eternity because the glory of God will illuminate it, and its lamp is the Lamb. Since this verse speaks of both oil and lamps it naturally made me think of Jesus. I am so thankful to be out of the darkness, walking in the light of His salvation!
this really shows that we needto do what God commands us to do. that what he says goes, we might want to do other things but he might think differently, and probaly does. What he wants done we better go out and do. Thus saying that we need to do things his way, and not be on are own and do it for him. (Col.3:23)
C.T.S :)
Great comments! God is specific in His instructions, so we need to follow them specifically. We have no excuse, we know what He commands us to do…now do it. I love that verse Angela! We need to do things for the Lord and not man.
Good stuff! Now I know exactly what the tabernacle looked like. Definitely lots of insight in these comments.
yeahhh its cool to see a glimpse of how the tabernacle was made
21 In the Tent of Meeting, outside the curtain that is in front of the Testimony, Aaron and his sons are to keep the lamps burning before the LORD from evening till morning. This is to be a lasting ordinance among the Israelites for the generations to come.
God is sooooo Holy, that our prescence is like a stain on his brighlty bright “Clothing”. all throughout the old AND new testament, anyone who’d see the angels would be filled with awe and get scared cuz they think they’re gonna die or something. it’d be pretty awsome if we could see Jesus in person.
God had a bunch of stuff made in bronze because bronze represented sin and the Tabernacle was all about redeeming sin! It was a constant reminder that we are no where near perfect, but God will always forgive us and love us. Today, we don’t have very many reminders of the fact that we sin and we need to be forgiven. In my case, I pray many times that God will make it aware to me when I sin so that I will know not to do it etc. and it has worked! I’ve gotten close to gossiping several times, and then I remember that I shouldn’t be talking about that person etc (:
Christa I remember Pastor Mike’s sermon too!
I think it was just yesterday when I looked back on my notes from his sermon to refresh my memory on what he was saying. Seeing an actual alter in church gave me a more clear picture!
The alter was a centerpiece of Old Testament worship. It was very important! God was so specific in what he wanted it to look like. God is also very specific in how he wants us to live our lives. Yesterday Pastor Bobby encouraged us to look for verses where God gives us commands to follow. THERE ARE SO MANY! We are so blessed to have the bible to go to for wisdom, encouragement, and truth. The word of God is so powerful and the only way to gain knowledge and grow closer to the Lord is by reading it!
This chapter shows us how holy God is. It also is a reminder to us that we need to trust God with ALL our hearts. It reminds me of Proverbs 3:5-6, instead of trying to do things on our own, we need to trust God and rely completely and solely on Him alone!
God is very specific in the ways he wants us to do things, whether little or big. It’s just not building the tabernacle. He gives us a specific set of rules for us to follow, the Bible. And just as God says for his tabernacle to be built in a certain way, he wants us to live you lives in a certain way:to glorify him.
God’s instructions for us are clear and precise. Let us read the Bible and find out what these instructions are –and even better, let’s do them. God’s Word is not ambiguous, even though people say it is that way. It is not written to confuse us; it is written to make plain exactly what we are commanded to do.
I love how God is putting everything in place, hes such an orderly guy. :) also I love how they actually listened to him, YAY!!!
God had a very intricate plan laid out for this, and He expected it to be followed. he would not have tolerated deviation from this plan. But if this is the attention God pays to His physical dwellings, how much more does He expect his commands for His Church to be followed? We need to make sure that we do not blow off His instructions or treat them as unimportant, but make obedience to Him our number one priority!
1 “Build an altar of acacia wood, three cubits high; it is to be square, five cubits long and five cubits wide
God wants us to follow His specific and precise instructions. Whether it is big or small or complex or nothing we need to do it with a willing faithful heart. Through the specific instructions we can glorify God through it.
God put many beautiful things like gold and silver and trees on the earth for our enjoyment, because He loves us. All these things seem so great but they are temporary, imagine how beautiful it is in heaven, the few that have been there and back can’t even describe it. God works in very mysterious and wonderful ways.
I think the passages we have been reading the past few days have something in common. They all are specific instructions that God is telling us. I think this can relate to how Christianity is. That God is giving us these specific instructions (in the bible :)) and that even though we know what to do, its not easy and it will be difficult to fulfill. But once we complete it we will be amazed by the outcome; Like this finished altar, or the fact we will go to heaven.
The specificity and the work required must have been tremendous for those fortunate who created the dwelling place of God’s glory. like Pastor Bobby talked about tonight, we need to do everything with all our heart. like these workers who are getting the instructions from Moses from God, we need to do our work (specifically homework) with all our hearts as working for our Redeemer
God’s instructions for the tabernacle was very specific and he expected them to be obeyed. I loved Bobby’s challenge yesterday as he encouraged us to find a specific command to obey (as God’s Word is full of them). I wanted to carry that over into today… After Bobby’s homework sermon tonight, I was convicted to truly give myself 100% in whatever I do. Colossians 3:23 reminds us to work at all things with ALL our hearts for the LORD. If we truly worked at all things (homework, jobs, chores, ect) for the Lord, it would drastically change the way we act each day. Let’s start giving 100% today!
Back then they could only come to God by giving sacrifices to be forgiven of their sins. We don’t have to do that now. The fact that Jesus Christ took the ultimate sacrifice for our sins is something to be truly grateful for. Now we can come to God With our sins and openly talk to Him whenever we want.
True North United was awesome!
Everything is so intricate and detailed in this chapter– just like our lives! As Christians, it’s our LIFESTYLE to live a life pleasing to God by obeying everything He wants us to do. Whatever the task is, no matter how great or small, we need to have a JOYFUL attitude of obeydiance. This ties into Pastor Bobby’s message on homework tonight! When we do our homework, our first priority needs to be that we’re doing it for Jesus, and no one else! Colossains 3:22-24!!
when reading all these chapters about the tabernacle and about how God wants to be worshiped, not once do we see him say hey guys just worship me however you like. Just do what makes you feel good and that is allright with me. Rather he has specific requirments for him to be served and worshiped. Today there are so many churches and people who think well it is all about making the people feel right in church and durring worship, everyone worships God in there own way. Now, why that is true that we all use our specific gifts and areas God has blessed us with to worship God, that doesn’t mean that we are all like well you know I think this way is more fun to me so I am going to do it that way. God calls us to worship him in many different ways throughout the Bible, with the main heading of in Spirit and in Truth. If our worship is so focused on what makes us happy instead of what is right in the eyes of God we have failed to meet the standard.
this is another good chapter reminding us to do what God commands us and live for him and for us because this life is temporary and really short compared to eternity!
I echo what so many people have said but I will repeat it. God is SO specific! It is amazing see Gods wisdom and precise thinking. This makes me want to do it Gods way and not follow my own plan because through this chapter it shows Gods great wisdom and reason for us to completely trust in him.
CST
Wow God is so specific with His commands on how to make the tabernacle and alter! They were building a place of meeting with God and a place to sacrifice to Him along with the ark of the covenant inside which was in the Holies of Holies. God is holy which is something to constantly be thinking about! When we meet with Him in Bible reading or prayer do we take it seriously as we should and think of God’s power and holiness?
20 “Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning.
Going off this verse and what Ben said, this also reminded me of another song that goes something like “Give me oil in my lamp. Keep me burning, burning, burning. Give me oil in my lamp I pray.” I personally like the verse that my dad does that goes “Give me wax on my board. I’ll be surfing for the Lord. Give me wax on my board I pray.” Anyways, these verses and songs further go to prove a point of tonight’s sermon that we need to use what God has given us for Him. Whether God gives us wax for our board or a brain to do HOMEWORK with, we need to do everything for His glory.
Everything that the Lord says has a purpose. We need to be listening to his commands and following them exactly how he tells us to do them. We need to be giving 100% to everything we do, and give our entire hearts.
That was a great sermon tonight at True North United Bobby
(:
True North United wuz sooooooo much FUN!!! Lucky Charms, their magically delicious! :D
Our Lord knows what he wants. He specifically told the Isrialittes in detail of what he wants in the tabernacle. God is very precise in what he expects from us in our daily lives. This also made me think of how he made us so unique and crafted us precisly the way he wanted us and to give honor to Him. Also God specifically gave us the ten commandments in which we are to live by. God is sooooo awesome! He knows every little detail in everything!
Hey if you missed True North United your cRaZy!!! IT was awesome and we need to remember that SOTD can be included in our homework section of life. Pastor Bobby is one of our teachers(a cool one though :]) and he gives us the chance to do SOTD and we need to do it for CHrist Jesus. :]
Oh and I liked this chapter in Exodus because God will soon have a way to be with His people on earth(even though He always was, is, and is to come) :]
***REMEMBER do your homework for JESUS!!!***
I am going to have to agree with what everyone basically said! God is so amazing and his directions for building the alter amazing! He gave his people specific directions, and they obeyed him even though it was tough! we need to remember to always obery God no matter what!
CST :)
I think it would be sooooooo cool to be able to view the ark of the covenant. I would be an amazing thing to see. I wonder if God will reveal it…
God is very exact- he knows what he wants from us and its our job to follow his will!
Like a lot of people are saying, this is being described with such vivid detail and every little bit of it has to be made the right way. This could kinda relate to our lives because it order for us to be made perfect, we need every perfect thing, which would be obeying God’s commands and keeping the fruits of the spirit. Lets Try to do that every day!
Not only are God’s direction very specific on how He wants the tabernacle to be built, with such and such cubits and so forth, but He also says that everything needs to be made out of special materials like bronze, purple linen, silver, etc. The tabernacle was going to be the dwelling place for God, and the Israelites had to be willing to give of themselves to set it apart. This just made me think of how much we actually are giving in devotion to God. The Israelites gave the best of the best, but sometimes we take God’s presence for granted. Instead, our lives need to be an offering to Him as we obey His commands and look for every opportunity to bring Him glory.
Great to see so many of you at True North United tonight! We missed the rest of you!
21 In the Tent of Meeting, outside the curtain that is in front of the Testimony, Aaron and his sons are to keep the lamps burning before the LORD from evening till morning.
I like the old song Beth Williams quoted. We need to keep ourselves living for the Lord 24/7 as represented here by the burning lamps!
Exodus 27
For the Israelites to approach God they must do so by way of sacrifice. For us Christ was the living sacrifice for all who are in Him. For Christians Christ is the everlasting sacrifice thru which atonement is satisfied. Christians are able to approach God directly at anytime without intercession by man or by way of sacrifice. We should not grumble when it comes to doing our homework for the Lord. If we find ourselves grumbling about reading or studying the Bible or even posting a comment on Scripture of the Day than our hearts are not right. Check your heart and make sure that nothing takes precedence over your relationship with God. Our lives should be lived as a living sacrifice to the Lord.
Rom 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
I love the last few chapters we have read. God had in mind the perfect and worthy design to be put on the earth. He gave specific commands and anything less wouldn’t be worthy to be know as His Holy House.
This thing is huge! A cubit is like 1.5 feet!
9 “Make a courtyard for the tabernacle. The south side shall be a hundred cubits long and is to have curtains of finely twisted linen,
That’s 150 feet long. Again these last few passages have reminded me how God should be given the most space in our hearts. We shouldn’t put Him in a small little corner of our heart. We should make our life all about God and use our selves as a way to show God’s grace.
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