Exodus 27

Updated
2001-05-26; 14:31:05utc

This chapter deals with three topics:

1. The construction of the brass altar (vs. 1-8)

2. The construction of the court yard (vs. 9-19) and

3. The preparation of the oil for the lampstand (vs. 20,21).

1. The construction of the brass altar (vs. 1-8)

TLB gives the measurements of the brass burnt offering altar as 7 ½ x 7 ½ x 4 ½ feet. This altar was to be used for the burning of the sacrificial animals and the various grain offerings. As far as man was concerned, this was the most important piece of furniture in the whole tabernacle, because it offered the solution to the problem of man's sin.

Apparently the shape of this altar was not unconventional. We quote from The Pulpit Commentary: "Altars were commonly either square or round. An Assyrian triangular one was found by Mr. Layard at Nineveh; but even this had a round top. The square shape is the most usual, and was preserved, probably in all the Temple altars, certainly in those of Solomon ( 2 Chr. iv. 1) and Herod (Joseph. Bell. Jud. 5, § 6)."

Whether this altar was unique in the sense that such an altar had never been built before, or whether this kind of altar existed in Egypt also, we don't know. The quotation from The Pulpit Commentary uses examples of a later period. The altars we encountered previously in the Bible were made of earth or stone. Before the plan for the tabernacle was revealed, God had told Moses: "Make an altar of earth for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats and your cattle. Wherever I cause my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you. If you make an altar of stones for me, do not build it with dressed stones, for you will defile it if you use a tool on it. And do not go up to my altar on steps, lest your nakedness be exposed on it."[ 1 ] Obviously, the plan for this altar means a deviation from the commandment given before. The Pulpit Commentary supposes that, once this brass altar was put in a place from where it would no longer be moved around, the hollow section of it was filled with earth. But of this we find no indication in the Bible.

The horns of the altar formed an intriguing part of the structure. No direct explanation is given in the Bible as to the use of these projections. There are only a few scant indications as to what function these horns must have had in the temple service and in the mind of the people. Ps. 118:27 seems to indicate that sacrificial animals were, at least sometimes, tied to the horns of the altar. "The LORD is God, and He has given us light; bind the festival sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar." (NAS). And people who feared for their lives, like Adonijah and Joab, fled to the altar to take hold of the horns. "But Adonijah, in fear of Solomon, went and took hold of the horns of the altar."[ 2 ] "When the news reached Joab, who had conspired with Adonijah though not with Absalom, he fled to the tent of the LORD and took hold of the horns of the altar."[ 3 ] Those are the only illustrations we can find in the Bible of the use of the horns. But nowhere do we find any description of the function of these horns.

The wooden structure which formed the basis of the altar was to be covered with bronze. The Hebrew word is nechosheth, which is defined by Strongs Definitions as "copper, hence, something made of that metal, i.e. coin, a fetter; figuratively, base (as compared with gold or silver)." The Brown-Driver-Briggs Definition of the word is: "1) copper, bronze a) copper (ore), bronze (as a copper alloy) b) fetters (of copper or bronze) c) copper (as a value)." Commentators, generally, agree that no pure copper was used, but an alloy of copper and tin, which is bronze. Archeological finds seem to confirm this idea. The Pulpit Commentary says: "A solid plate of bronze is no doubt intended, such as would protect the shittim wood and prevent it from being burnt."

Most of the activities in the tabernacle, and later in the temple, center around the bronze altar. All of the sacrifices prescribed in the first seven chapters of Leviticus are brought to this altar to be burned. The bronze altar is the place where the sacrificial animal died. It is, more than any other part of the tabernacle, an image of the cross upon which Christ died for the sins of the world. Remembering this, it is the most amazing to read that God says to Moses, speaking about this altar: "It is to be made just as you were shown on the mountain." There is a real spiritual altar in Heaven. We read in Revelation: "When he [the Lamb] opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained."[ 4 ] Yet, the altar exists only because of sin that has to be atoned for. And sin is a parenthesis in eternity; it is not part of God's eternal plan of creation. Yet there stands the altar in Heaven, of which this bronze one was a copy. And Jesus is called: "the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world."[ 5 ] O, mystery of mysteries!

2. The construction of the courtyard (vs. 9-19)

The description of the construction of the courtyard completes the blue print of the actual structure. A fence of white linen was to be erected around the tabernacle. The dimensions were about 150 x 75 feet. The south and north sides were each to have twenty bronze posts on which the curtain was hung and the west and east sides ten posts each. So the posts were placed approximately 7 ½ feet apart. The post were connected with each other by silver rods from which the curtain was suspended by bronze hooks. The entrance was to be on the east side. The Hebrew word used there is mizrach which is derived from zârach, which means to irradiate or shoot forth beams, so its usual translation is sunrise.

The Hebrew doesn't actually use the words east, west, north and south but, rather, in front, to the right, to the left, etc. The Pulpit Commentary quotes a Rabbinical tradition which says: "that Adam found himself on his creation fronting toward the east, and had consequently the west behind him. Hence, they said, the four cardinal points received the names of kedem, 'in front' (the east); yâmin 'the right hand' (the south); `akhôr, 'behind' (the west); and shemôl, 'the left hand' (the north)."

The entrance curtain was made of the same material as the curtain that led into the Holy Place and the one that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. It was about 30 feet wide, leaving a section of white curtain of about 10 feet on either side. The height of the pillars was about 7 ½ feet, which was half the size of the height of the tabernacle, so the building could be seen rising up from the outside. But the fence indicated that it could only be entered in one way.

It has been said that the church should project an impression of holiness and purity as the white linen fence did. But at the same time, there is the one gate with the inviting colors that woo the people to come close and go in. Unfortunately, the image the contemporary church projects mostly is a soiled testimony and an entrance that lacks inviting color.

We do not read that the curtains at the entrance of the courtyard were open. It seems that the people who entered had to pass through them. They may have been tied at the corners to leave a passage for the public. If every man who entered had to shove aside the curtains, the curtains would not have lasted long. We can see in this an image of the passing into the Most Holy Place, which is accessible to us but was forbidden to the Jews. This is the ultimate entrance, about which the writer to the Hebrews says: "through the curtain, that is, his body."[ 6 ]

Vs. 19 combines a large inventory of articles to be used for the various services that are carried out in the tabernacle and it makes a casual reference to the tent pins, which are not mentioned anywhere else. We may conclude from this, however, that pins and cords were used to tie down the covers, the posts of the tabernacle and fence posts, much in the same way as tents are put up in our time. The Pulpit Commentary says here: "The 'pins' of the tabernacle are undoubtedly the pegs or tent-pins, whereby the tent-cloth wherewith it was covered was extended and kept taut. There were also probably similar pegs or pins for cords used to keep the 'pillars' (ch. xxvi. 37) or tent-poles in place."

3. The preparation of the oil for the lampstand vs. 20,21

The two final verses of this chapter mention the olive oil used for the lamps inside the Holy Place. None of the commentaries touch on the problem as to where the Israelites would manage to find olives in the desert. Olive oil is notorious for its capacity to spoil within a short time. If olive trees were found in some of the oases the Israelites encountered on their journey, the fact is not mentioned in the Pentateuch. Food was provided supernaturally during the forty years Israel spent in the desert. The manna came down daily, and there were periods during which quail would descend upon the camp for meat, but we do not read that olives were included in the "bread from Heaven." It is hard to imagine that the Israelites would have brought a supply of olives out of Egypt which lasted them forty years. This is one of the unsolved mysteries. It is just as mysterious to me that nobody ever put a question mark behind these verses.

Unger's Bible Dictionary believes that this beaten or pressed oil was made by bruising the olives in a mortar. Once Israel had arrived in the promised land larger equipment was used.

We have to remember that several of the prescribed sacrifices could not be brought while Israel was traveling through the desert. None of the grain offerings could be brought, for instance. It seems, however, that the operation of the lampstand in the Holy Place was not to be postponed till Israel arrived in the promised land. So they must have had some supply of oil with them to keep the lamps burning.

The NIV translates the last part of vs. 20 with, "so that the lamps may be kept burning." This leaves room for an occasional going out of the lamps. Other translations are more stringent. The KJV says: "to cause the lamp to burn always." TLB reads: "... the lamps of the Tabernacle, to burn there continually." The RSV may be the most correct in its translation: "that a lamp may be set up to burn continually."

The Pulpit Commentary says about this: "It has been supposed from this expression that the lamp must have been kept constantly burning both day and night; and Josephus declares that this was actually so, at least with three out of the seven lights (Ant. Jud. iii 7, § 7). But there are several places in Scripture which state, or imply, the contrary. (See especially Ex. xxx. 8 ; and 1 Sam. iii 3.) It seems to have been the duty of the high-priest to light the lamps every evening, and to give them a sufficient supply of oil to last till daybreak, at which time 'the lamp of God went out' (1 Sam. l.s.c.) The supposition that 'one light at least was always burning' (Kalisch), because no daylight could penetrate into the structure through the fourfold covering, ignores the fact that light would enter through the single curtain at the entrance, as well as the probability that some portion of that curtain may generally have been looped up. If we regard the lamp as extinguished during the daytime, we must understand 'always' here to mean 'regularly every night.'"

The above quoted verse of I Samuel, which reads: "The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was,"[ 7 ] seems a strange proof in this argument. "The lamp of God" could very well have a spiritual connotation in this story, in that God had not ceased to reveal Himself yet. I do not read this to mean that the little Samuel had gone to bed early that night. In the vision Zechariah receives from the angel, he sees that the lampstand is fed with oil supernaturally. He records: "Then the angel who talked with me returned and wakened me, as a man is wakened from his sleep. He asked me, 'What do you see?' I answered, 'I see a solid gold lampstand with a bowl at the top and seven lights on it, with seven channels to the lights. Also there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.' ..... Then I asked the angel, What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?' Again I asked him, 'What are these two olive branches beside the two gold pipes that pour out golden oil?' He replied, 'Do you not know what these are?' 'No, my lord,' I said. So he said, 'These are the two who are anointed to serve the Lord of all the earth.' "[ 8 ]

The apostle John shows us the reality of what is represented here, when he describes his vision of the throne of God in Revelation. We read: "Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God."[ 9 ] But when Jesus appears to John at first, he sees Him, standing between seven lampstands. The explanation the Lord gives Himself is: "The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches."[ 10 ]

From the above, we understand that the lampstand in the tabernacle represents more than one truth. The ultimate reality the lamps symbolize is the seven spirits of God, or the Holy Spirit. But the Spirit manifests Himself through human beings, particularly through the body of Christ, that is the church.

Light is the essence of God. As John says: "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all." Light is the fastest phenomenon we know, traveling at 186,282 miles per second, or 299,792.458 km/sec. It is also the strongest. No darkness holds before the light. "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (RSV).[ 11 ] We all know what light is and, at the same time, nobody knows what light is. God is light.

[ 1 ] Ex. 20:24-26

[ 2 ] I Kings 1:50

[ 3 ] I Kings 2:28

[ 4 ] Rev. 6:9

[ 5 ] Rev. 13:8

[ 6 ] Heb. 10:20

[ 7 ] I Sam. 3:3

[ 8 ] Zech. 4:1-3, 11-14

[ 9 ] Rev. 4:5

[ 10 ] Rev. 1:20

[ 11 ] John 1:5