Outlines of Lectures on the Tabernacle of Witness: the Brazen Altar

“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. And thou shalt make the horns of it upon the four corners thereof: his horns shall be of the same: and thou shalt overlay it with brass. And thou shalt make his pans to receive his ashes, and his shovels, and his basins, and his flesh hooks, and his fire pans: all the vessels thereof thou shalt make of brass. And thou shalt make for it a grate of network of brass; and upon the net shalt thou make four brazen rings in the four corners thereof. And thou shalt put it under the compass of the altar beneath, that the net may be even to the midst of the altar. And thou shalt make staves for the altar, staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with brass. And the staves shall be put into the rings, and the staves shall be upon the two sides of the altar, to bear it. Hollow with boards shalt thou make it: as it was showed thee in the mount, so shall they make it.”
And thou shalt make an altar. (Or, more literally, the altar. Compare chapter 38: 1.) And he made the altar of burnt offering.) The sin-offering was burnt, or consumed, without the camp: the burnt, or ascending offering, was converted into a sweet savor on the altar of burnt offering, by the fire which came originally from God, and which was kept always burning in it.
In the one case we see Jesus, who knew no sin, made sin for us, and putting sin away by the sacrifice of himself.
In the other, Jesus, the spotless victim, offering up himself as a sweet savor unto God, and his acceptance manifested by his resurrection from the dead, and ascension to the right hand of the Father.
Outside the camp it is wrath consuming, and forever setting aside the sins which Jesus bore.
At the brazen altar it is justice and holiness feeding with complacency on the excellency of the victim.
At the golden altar it is holiness delighting itself with the preciousness of him who lived and died for, us. The altar of burnt offering, cleansed, anointed, sanctified—an altar most holy, on which the fire was always burning, and the sacrifice always consuming, was the place of communion between God and his people, and between the people and their God. (See Exodus 29:36-46.)
It sets forth Christ, through whom we draw nigh to God, and through whom God draws nigh to us, on the ground of his atoning work, and of his accepted sacrifice; a sweet savor of rest, on which every perfection of the Godhead reposes with infinite satisfaction and delight.
The Material.
Thou shalt make the altar of shittim wood. “Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith... a body hast thou prepared me.” (Hebrews 10: 5.).