Exodus 27:1–2: “You shall make an altar of acacia wood, five cubits long and five cubits wide—the altar shall be square—and its height shall be three cubits. You shall make its horns on its four corners; its horns shall be of one piece with it. And you shall overlay it with bronze.”

Moses was given a plan for the courtyard of the tabernacle, the large, portable temple. This courtyard surrounded the tabernacle and measured approximately 75 feet by 150 feet. The first thing someone saw when they entered this courtyard was the large brass altar at the entrance—the “altar of burnt offering.” Its location spoke of the need for sacrifice for sin before entering into God’s presence. It was seven and one half feet square and four and one half feet high.

The altar’s main purpose was for burnt offerings. When anyone wanted to come before the Lord, they first had to deal with their sin and bring a sacrifice to the priests to offer for their sins. It stood in the open air, where the smoke of the sacrifices would ascend up and scatter. The altar itself and all the altar’s utensils were made of bronze or brass, not gold.

The use of brass is interesting in that bronze would certainly help protect the wood frame from being burnt, as well reflect the light of the flames, but there may be another more personally confronting meaning in the use of brass. At least one prophet suggests that brass is a symbol or metaphor for the stubborn forehead of sinners: “Because I knew that you were obstinate, / And your neck was an iron sinew, / And your brow bronze” (Isa. 48:4).

“LORD, we thank You for dying for stubborn sinners like us. How will we ever be able to say how grateful we are for the sacrifice of Your life for ours.”

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Exodus 27 KJV

¹ 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. ² 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. ³ And thou shalt make his pans to receive his ashes, and his shovels, and his basons, and his fleshhooks, and his firepans: all the vessels thereof thou shalt make ofbrass. ⁴ And thou shalt make for it a grate of network of brass; and upon the net shalt thou make four brasen rings in the four corners thereof. ⁵ And thou shalt put it under the compass of the altar beneath, that the net may be even to the midst of the altar. ⁶ And thou shalt make staves for the altar, staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with brass. ⁷ And the staves shall be put into the rings, and the staves shall be upon the two sides of the altar, to bear it. ⁸Hollow with boards shalt thou make it: as it was shewed thee in the mount, so shall they make it . ⁹ And thou shalt make the court of the tabernacle: for the south side southward there shall be hangings for the court of fine twined linen of an hundred cubits long for one side: ¹⁰And the twenty pillars thereof and their twenty sockets shall be of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver. ¹¹ And likewise for the north side in length there shall be hangings of an hundred cubits long, and his twenty pillars and their twenty sockets ofbrass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver. ¹² And for the breadth of the court on the west side shall be hangings of fifty cubits: their pillars ten, and their sockets ten. ¹³ And the breadth of the court on the east side eastward shall be fifty cubits. ¹⁴ The hangings of one side of the gate shall be fifteen cubits: their pillars three, and their sockets three. ¹⁵ And on the other side shall be hangings fifteen cubits: their pillars three, and their sockets three. ¹⁶ And for the gate of the court shall be an hanging of twenty cubits, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework: and their pillars shall be four, and their sockets four. ¹⁷ All the pillars round about the court shall be filleted with silver; their hooks shall be of silver, and their sockets of brass. ¹⁸ The length of the court shall be an hundred cubits, and the breadth fifty every where, and the height five cubits of fine twined linen, and their sockets of brass.  ¹⁹ All the vessels of the tabernacle in all the service thereof, and all the pins thereof, and all the pins of the court, shall be of brass. ²⁰ And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always.  ²¹ In the tabernacle of the congregation without the vail, which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning before the LORD: it shall be a statute for ever unto their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel.