The Brazen Altar

As with the veil, so with the altar of Burnt Offering, the Holy Spirit gives us but one verse concerning it in the Book of Chronicles. In the Book of Exodus fifteen verses are devoted to its predecessor in the Tabernacle, and in Ezekiel many verses are appropriated to the altar and its service in the Millennial Temple. Solomon “made an altar of brass; twenty cubits the length thereof, and twenty cubits the breadth thereof, and ten cubits the height thereof” (2 Chron. 4:1). Here we have no description whatever of this most essential vessel. But its great size is noted. In length and breadth it was four times as large as the altar in the Tabernacle. It was approximately 30 feet long, 30 feet broad, and 15 feet high! Its measurements in length and breadth exactly corresponded to the Oracle, “the most holy house” (2 Chron. 3:8), thus giving us the sweet assurance that the sacrifice of Christ is equal to all the demands of the holiness of God. What rest and peace this gives to conscience and heart!
The altar of Burnt Offering was made of brass. Bronze or copper is perhaps the correct word for the metal used. Here is a quotation from a departed friend: “Gold is the righteousness of God for drawing near where God is; brass is the righteousness of God for dealing with man’s evil where man is” (W. Kelly). This being so, the vessels within the house were made of gold, and those outside―altar, molten sea, bases and lavers, were made of brass.
The brazen altar leads us in thought to “the wondrous cross on which the Lord of glory died.” No vessel in the Temple compared with the altar for size. Truly, there is nothing like the cross. When the great sacrifice was drawing near, “Jesus said, Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him” (John 13:31-32). Man’s side of the cross―the shame and spitting, is not in view in these words. (1) The cross was the glory of the Son of Man. Perfect love and perfect obedience were expressed there. (2) God was glorified. All that He is shone out in the cross of Jesus―His righteousness, holiness, truth, grace, and love. In no other way could God have thus displayed His glory. (3) As surely as the Son of Man delighted to glorify God at all cost to Himself, so God delighted to glorify Him. He has not to wait for the day when He will sit upon David’s throne, God “straightway” glorified Him at His own right hand in heaven.
Every sacrifice offered upon the brazen altar spoke to God of Christ. All the offerings prescribed in Leviticus 1-7 found their perfect and final answer in His death upon the tree. Calvary’s cross became for Him, in His wondrous grace, the altar of sacrifice. The fire of God’s judgment went forth against Him in the day of His grief, and the whole dread question of sin was settled by His sacrifice never to be raised again with those who believe in His name.

The GOLDEN ALTAR, upon which incense was burnt daily (Luke 1:9), is only mentioned incidentally in the Temple instructions, no description at all being given in the three brief notices of it (1 Kings 6:22; 7:48; 2 Chron. 4:19). Yet fourteen verses are devoted to the golden altar in the Tabernacle. For the Millennial Temple, no golden altar is indicated in Ezekiel.
In close proximity to the altar of Burnt Offering in Solomon’s Temple stood the molten sea. Atoning blood characterized the one, and water for cleansing characterized the other. This recalls two utterances from the lips of the Lord Jesus on the night of His betrayal. As He sat down with His disciples at the Supper Table, having first washed their feet, He said:
“He that is washed (bathed) needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit” (John 13:10).
After supper, He took up, not the basin again, but the wine-cup, and said:
“This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matt. 26:28).
The water and the blood! thus meeting our whole need as guilty before God, and also in nature unfit for His holy presence. Nothing but the blood could make expiation for our sins. Solomon’s multitudinous sacrifices were not sufficient to remove even one sin (1 Kings 8:63; Heb. 10:4); but they spoke eloquently to God of the coming sacrifice of His beloved Son, by which He made an end of our sins once and forever. In virtue of His one offering God is able to say to His people, “Your sins and iniquities will I remember no more,” and we stand before Him “sanctified” and “perfected forever” (Heb. 10:12-17).
But this applies to our guilt. More than this, we are in nature evil irremediably. The life inherited from the first fallen man is corrupt. “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing” (Rom. 7:18). A new life as well as pardon, for sins, is necessary ere any man can dwell with God. Blessed be His name, our whole need is met in the death of Christ. He died for the sinner as well as for his sins, and faith can say “our old man has been crucified with Him” (Rom. 6:6). The Word of God brings this home with power to heart and conscience, and the believer henceforth lives before God in the life of the risen Christ. He “is our life” (Col. 3:4). The proof of this is seen in new tastes and aspirations. The things once loved are no longer wanted, and the things once despised are the objects of deep delight. It is a moral purification—new birth. This can never be repeated. Hence the Lord’s words to the impulsive Peter, who first refused to allow Him to wash his feet, and then said, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head, He that is washed needeth not, save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit” (John 13:9-10).
Aaron and his sons on the day of their consecration were washed with water by Moses at the door of the Tabernacle (Lev. 8:6). This typified new birth, and was never repeated. Hebrews 10:22 applies the reality of this to Christians. But Aaron and his sons needed daily cleansing, and for this they had recourse to the laver. In like manner we need continual cleansing for our feet, for we walk in a sinful world, and for this there is “the washing of water by the Word” (Eph. 5:26).
The efficacy of the blood of Jesus has been applied to us by the Holy Spirit, and it abides. There is no repetition of it, for our guilt has been canceled forever. But the water, by means of which Christ and His great work wrought on our behalf is brought before us, is a daily and hourly necessity. Only thus can we walk with God in unclouded communion.