Making the Altar, the Basin, and the Court

Today’s passage, as it continues the account of the construction of the tabernacle, focuses on the sanctuary’s exterior. In Exodus 38:1–20, we read about the crafting of the altar of burnt offering, the basin of bronze, and the walls of the tabernacle court. By making these things, the Israelites finished the work of fashioning God’s tent, having fully prepared all its components for final assembly. As we have come to expect, the people did the work just as the Lord had commanded (Ex. 27:1–19; 30:17–21).

Although much of today’s passage repeats earlier material, there is one interesting detail that we have not seen before. Exodus 38:8 reports that the basin was crafted “from the mirrors of the ministering women who ministered in the entrance of the tent of meeting.” The basin was to be made from bronze (Ex. 30:17–21), so this means that the mirrors were bronze and had to have been of a particularly high quality of the metal, polished and without impurities. Otherwise, they would not do the job of mirrors in providing a good reflection to the user. Since they were of such high quality, these mirrors would have been highly valued possessions of the women who donated them to the service of the Lord and an outward indicator of the depth of their devotion.

Women served at the entrance of the tabernacle for hundreds of years, for we read about these laborers again during the life of Eli, who lived about four centuries after the events recorded in today’s passage (1 Sam. 2:22). We do not know, however, exactly what these women did. Since they were not males and could not be priests, they would not have engaged in offering sacrifices, burning incense, or any of the other tasks assigned specifically to the priests, but the text is silent on their exact duties.

Because animals were killed and sacrificed in the courtyard of the tabernacle, the people had a constant reminder of the need for a substitutionary death in order to approach God, pointing ultimately to the final sacrifice of Christ on behalf of His people (Heb. 9:1–10:18). The bronze basin of water helped the people understand the necessity of cleanliness, specifically the need to be cleansed from sin. This cleansing is definitively achieved by the blood of Jesus shed for His people in His sacrificial death. It is signed and sealed to members of the new covenant in water baptism. Those who by faith rest in the promises of God given in baptism are cleansed of sin (1 John 1:7).