Exodus 27:1-8 And you shall make an altar of shittim wood, five cubits long, and five cubits broad; the altar shall be foursquare… The altar was four-square, and it had four horns. The animals offered in sacrifice were horned animals, and were doubtless bound by their horns to the horns of the altar, and then slain (Psalm 118:27), so that the ground round about the altar would be always red and wet with blood. Life is in the blood; to shed the blood is to sacrifice the life; and the first thing that meets our eye as we enter the gate of the court, and look at the earth on which we are walking, is blood — sacrificed life. To this altar the sinner came leading his sin-offering. Here he stood before God, and his sins were confessed, and transferred or imputed to the unblemished and innocent animal, which had then to suffer and to die for sin, but not for its own sin. The innocent one died for the guilty one. These sacrifices were typical of Christ's sacrifice. He suffered, the Just for the unjust: on Him our sins were laid; He bore them in His body on the tree. He was made sin, or a sin-offering, for us, and by His stripes we are healed. His blood was shed for the remission of sins, and now it cleanseth us from all sin (1 Peter 3:18; Isaiah 53:5, 6; 1 Peter 2:24; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Matthew 26:28; 1 John 1:7). Christ is our Altar, our Sacrifice, and our Priest. He offered Himself for us. And having met most fully all God's claims, He now meets and supplies all the penitent believing sinner's need. Every saved sinner has come to this spot — has seen Jesus as the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world (John 1:29). We have seen Christ as the Redeemer, and as the Gate or Way to God, and now we see Him as the Altar, Priest, and Sacrifice. Here we stand with our hand of faith on His head, and we feel that as our Sin-offering He has suffered for our sin, and has put it away. Our life was forfeited, but Christ who loved us, and gave Himself for us, has sacrificed His own life to save us from eternal death (Ephesians 5:25; John 10:11, 15). (G. Rodgers.) Parallel Verses KJV: And thou shalt make an altar of shittim wood, five cubits long, and five cubits broad; the altar shall be foursquare: and the height thereof shall be three cubits. |
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