Directions for the Bronze Altar

Sacrifice has been an essential part of the worship of God from the very beginning. God’s clothing of Adam and Eve with animal skins after the fall has often been seen as a reference to an atoning sacrifice to cover the shame of their sin (Gen. 3:21). Not long thereafter, Abel offered animal sacrifices from the best of his flock (Gen. 4:4). By substituting a ram for Isaac when Abraham went to offer up his son, the Lord established the principle that He would accept the life of another in place of a death He commanded (Gen. 22:1–19). The ancient Israelites sacrificed the Passover lamb and painted its blood on their door frames to escape the judgment of God as He exercised it in Egypt (Ex. 12:1–32). To enact the old covenant, the Israelites offered up oxen to the Lord (Ex. 24:1–8).

Animal sacrifices would continue in Israel once the old covenant was sealed, as the book of Leviticus makes clear. Before giving the instructions for the sacrifices themselves, however, God gave directions for the altar on which these sacrifices would be offered. We find these instructions in today’s passage, which narrates the plans that the Lord delivered for the bronze altar that would sit in the courtyard of the tabernacle and also explains how to make the various utensils necessary for conducting sacrifices (Ex. 27:1–8; 40:33).

Exodus 27 tells us that the altar was a large, flat square measuring about seven and a half feet square that was positioned on top of a base four and a half feet tall. It featured four horns, one on each corner, and it was made of acacia wood covered in bronze (Ex. 27:1–2). The horns helped keep the meat of the sacrifices from falling off the sides of the altar, and later people would flee to the altar and cling to its horns in the hopes of escaping death at the hands of another (see 1 Kings 1:49–53). Additionally, the Israelites were to make pots, shovels, basins, forks, and fire pans of bronze for collecting and disposing of ashes, manipulating the meat of the sacrifice on the grill, and so forth (Ex. 27:3). The top of the altar was a bronze grating, and under it was placed what was apparently a ledge made of solid bronze fashioned like a net (Ex. 27:4–5). This may have been where the burning wood for the sacrifice was placed.

Like the table of showbread, the altar had rings through which were inserted poles for the purpose of carrying it while Israel was traveling (Ex. 27:1–8; see Ex. 25:1–30). Given the reality of sin, the people needed a place to offer atoning sacrifices wherever they set up camp.