“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. 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. 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. 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. And you shall set it under the ledge of the altar so that the net extends halfway down the altar. And you shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze. 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. You shall make it hollow, with boards. As it has been shown you on the mountain, so shall it be made.
Comment: There have been modifications as the tabernacle became a temple (Solomon) and Jerusalem was ransacked on many occasions and rebuilt, but here is an artist’s concept, no doubt prepared after careful reading, of what the altar of sacrifice looked like. Thus far in the past few devotionals on Exodus (intermitted by a week in Proverbs) we have seen the outside of the whole system described, plus a tent on the back of the whole congregational area. This rather elaborate tent was divided into a portion for the appointed priests and an enclosed portion containing the ark which contained the ten commandments, on the lid of which sat the mercy seat, on which figuratively God sits. It was covered by golden angels with outstretched wings. It was rarely to be entered and the conditions for entering into this ‘Holy of Holies’ are described later. This passage describes the altar upon which people were to make sin and thanksgiving offerings. Later, particularly in the book of Leviticus, the Bible describes the sacrifices to be made and as we read the whole Bible we see these sacrifices are pointing to the sacrifice that Jesus made by dying for us on the Cross – and, in addition, the way that our lives are meant to be ‘living sacrifices’ in honour of Him! Here, however, much of the stress is on the portability of the structure as the Israelites proceeded to the Promised Land.
Prayer: Help to see Your reasons behind requiring of the Israelites much of what to us is strange but pointing to the coming Messiah and why He has come.
As I read it! 