02.16. Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen The Brazen Altar

It was twenty cubits square, ten cubits in height (2 Chronicles 4:1-22), commensurate in length and breadth with the Holiest of all (the atonement is coextensive with the holiness of God), equal in height to the cherubim, which stood ten cubits high, whose wings met over the propitiatory. The fire was to be ever burning (Leviticus 1:7-13; Leviticus 4:12-13). Upon this the daily lamb was to be laid in order (Exodus 29:39). The other sacrifices were laid upon the burnt offering (Numbers 28.). The immense size of Solomon’s altar, the orderly disposition of the wood and sacrifices, would render it necessary that the approach should be on the four sides. In connection with the altar of Ezekiel, steps or stairs are mentioned (Ezekiel 43:17). The prohibition of steps in Exodus 20:26, refers to the primitive altar of earth or of unhewn stone, concerning which it was also said that the lifting up of a tool upon it would pollute it. The priestly garments afterwards provided obviated the need of the prohibition (Exodus 28:42). The vast number of sacrifices at the dedication of the altar of Solomon was an ineffectual attempt to give expression to faith’s apprehension of the infinite value of the one atoning sacrifice of Immanuel. The various offerings were a foreshadowing of those realities of which Christ Himself is the substance. The Altar of Ezekiel

It is intermediate in size between that of the Tabernacle and that of the Temple of Solomon (Ezekiel 43:1-27). The “bottom, “bosom, or ashpit, on the ground, is a square of sixteen cubits, and one cubit high. The lesser settle or ledge is fourteen cubits square, and two cubits in height; the altar itself twelve cubits square, four cubits high. The sacrifices offered previous to Christ’s offering of Himself were foreshadowings of the work accomplished on the cross; the only thing which in the Christian Church takes their place is the Lord’s Supper, commemorative of His broken body and shed blood. Sacrifices will come again into observance during the last week of Daniel’s seventy weeks, and in the millennium (Ezekiel 43:18), with significant alterations. In the millennial period there is no mention of the evening lamb, only of the morning (Ezekiel 46:13). The evening sacrifice has received its accomplishment in the Cross of Calvary; the morning lamb is the memorial, or the bringing to remembrance, of the same. Neither any mention of the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost; it has received its accomplishment in the present Church dispensation. Neither of the Day of Atonement; the High Priest of our profession is now in the Holiest, presenting in antitype the blood of the bullock on behalf of Himself and the Church, His house. The sacrifice on behalf of Israel is foreshadowed by Aaron going the second time into the Holiest with the blood of the goat. The sacrifices to he offered on the millennial altar will be commemorative remembrances of the one great sacrifice offered once for all, complete and perfect for eternity.

—Our Daily Homily