What Happens at the Altar, Happens at the Cross

What perks you up? I perk up with the aroma of freshly brewed Café Bello coffee (or Café Madre Isla, when Café Bello is not available) made from Arabica beans grown in the mountains of Ajuntas, Puerto Rico, especially when it is served with the warmed frothed milk separated on top. Know what else perks me up? When I hear reference to the tabernacle in, well, anything!

Sometimes when I am doing mindless tasks at work, I plug in the Shure earphones and listen to Bible reading, SermonAudio, or music. Today, I was listening to one of my ‘contemporary’ Christian stations on Pandora and I hear lyrics referencing the brazen altar, the court, the holy place! Tabernacle worship in a contemporary song…Whoa, whoa, whoa, as my 14 month old granddaughter would say.

According to Pandora 16,398 people (besides me) listen to the artist Kutless.

Here are the lyrics their song, Take Me In.

Take me past the outer courts into the holy place
Past the brazen altar, Lord, I want to see Your face
Pass me by the crowds of people, the Priest who sing Your praise
I hunger and thirst for Your righteousness but it's only found one place

Take me in to the holy of holies
Take me in by the blood of the Lamb
Take me in to the holy of holies
Take the coal, touch my lips, here I am

That is the entire song. They just sing the same thing over and over again. What ever happened to great hymns with 19 verses? Like the one I want sung at my funeral?... http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/s/a/sandtime.htm . I digress.

Take me past… the brazen altar, Lord, I want to see Your face

I think I know what the song writer is saying. He doesn’t want to waste anytime to get to Jesus who is sitting within the veil at the right hand of Majesty on High (in the Holy of Holies). Hold on young whipper-snapper! If you really want to see Jesus, don’t rush too quickly past the brazen altar! Stop and consider what happens at that altar.

The brazen altar is better known as the altar of burnt offering. In fact, it is referred to as the altar of burnt offering about 2 dozen times in the Old Testament.

The burnt offering could be studied on different levels. The main level, perhaps, is that the offering is a type of Jesus. Let’s do a little comparison (the requirements for the burnt offering are found in Leviticus chapters 1 and 6).

The burnt offering was not compulsory like the sin and trespass offerings, but voluntary.
Jesus voluntarily went to the cross (Phil 2:8).

With some variation, depending on the animal offered, the animal was examined inside and out, it had to be blemish-free.
Jesus was examined and found to be blemish-free (1 John 1:1-2).

The offerer (the sinner) laid his hand on the animal’s (the innocent) head, actually leaned on it. The sin of the guilty was symbolically transferred to the animal that was innocent.
Jesus (the innocent) bore our sins, He actually became sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21).

The offerer slaughtered the animal (by the shedding of blood) and the priest sprinkled the blood. The slaughtered animal was accepted as an atonement for the sins of the offerer.
Jesus shed His blood (Heb. 12&13) and we believers are accepted (Eph. 1:6).

The animal was wholly consumed on the wood that was on the fire that was on the grate in the altar.
Jesus wholly did the will of His Father (Phil 2:8) even the blood-shedding death on the cross.

It was a sweet savour that burned continually before the Lord.
Jesus's sacrifice is a sweet smelling savour (Eph. 5:2).

Want to get to Jesus? Eger to get inside the veil, into the Holy of Holies? Don’t past the brazen altar in haste. Stop and take time to reflect and praise God for the cross. Because what happened at the altar, happened at the cross….

We will Jesus face to face, within the veil, soon enough….

Soon Thy saints shall all be gathered—
Inside the veil.
All with Thee—no more be scattered—
Inside the veil.
Nought from Thee, our hearts shall sever;
We shall see Thee; grieve Thee never;
"Praise the Lamb!" shall sound forever—
Inside the veil.
-- Elizabeth Dark

The Nike Golf Umbrella

After the end of the row of tents, you see a bright white rectangular structure. This must be the tabernacle in the wilderness. It is actually in the middle of the cross-shaped camp that you saw from the air. The reflection of the sun is very strong. Don’t tell me, you left your sunglasses in the DeLorean, didn’t you?

There is a column of smoke (or is it fire?) rising from inside the tabernacle. At the top of the column of smoke looks like a protective circular cloud; like a giant Nike golf umbrella, protecting the structure underneath.

Do you know what time it is? Eleazar asks.

You reach for your phone, but then remember what time period you are in. No, you reply, What time is it?

It is the time of the evening sacrifice.

Shouldn’t be the time for the evening sacrifice?

Come and see.

As you approach the tabernacle, you realize that the white curtain is just tall enough that you cannot see over it. Eleazar walks you around to the east side where you see the one and only entrance.

The tabernacle has only one entrance, Eleazar explains. Jehovah is dwelling inside; He is manifested in that cloud-column. There is only one way to Jehovah. How many ways to you have in your system of worship? How many ways can you come to Jehovah?

One, is your reply as you remember that verse that you memorized so long ago, Jesus saith unto him, I am the way… no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Abba Father

Look! A fire! Just outside the camp you spot a fire that is burning wildly with flames leaping into the air. As you approach the smoke….what is that smell? It is awful! It smells like a combination of burning carcasses and burning animal dung. An odor you won’t easily forget.

Before the smell dissipates and before you actually get to the camp, you decide to land and hide the DeLorean. After all, you don't want it to be seen. You land the craft and hide it behind some rocks. You walk away from the vehicle and gaze toward the long line of tents. You observe people going about their business. Kids playing. Men tending to animals. So many tents. You cannot help but stare. As you walk along the line of tents, you spot someone walking toward you. A young man, neatly trimmed beard dressed in a blue and white costume. He was not dressed like anyone else.

He introduces himself as Eleazar, oldest surviving son of the High Priest, Aaron. Eleazar is a priest of the Most High God. Aaron and his four sons were hand-selected by Jehovah to serve Him as priests. He explains that since the death of his older brothers, Nadab and Abihu, he is next in line to be High Priest so that makes him High Priest in Training, or H-PIT for short. He has one younger brother that also serves as a priest.

Jehovah our God is one Jehovah, Eleazar exclaims. How many gods are in your system of worship? He asks.

One, you reply.

Is it Jehovah? Is He your God also?

Yes, He is my God also, you reply. And Jesus answered him, [The] first commandment of all [is], Hear, Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord; (Mar 12:29)

What is your system of worship like?

What do you mean, what is it like?

Well, our system of worship has been dictated by Jehovah to my uncle, Moses. Uncle Moses went up on the mountain for something like 40 days. While he was there, Jehovah gave him all kinds of details, details about how we are to worship Him. Uncle was given a pattern, a pattern of a specified place of worship, the tabernacle. The tabernacle is where Jehovah dwells among us. Does Jehovah dwell with you?

You ponder without speaking… Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and [that] the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which [temple] ye are. 1Cr 3:16-17

Just as you finish, you hear someone call Eleazar’s name. Yes, Abba, Father, Eleazar replies. Abba, Father…that’s the term that Jesus used when talking to His father in the garden when He prayed Abba, Father, all things are possible to thee: take away this cup from me; but not what *I* will, but what *thou* [wilt].Mark 14:36. Abba Father… Doesn’t that have something to do with our relationship with God, the Father? For ye have not received a spirit of bondage again for fear, but ye have received a spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Rom. 8:15. And …But because ye are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Gal. 4:6.

Women Without Mirrors

The laver was the second piece of furniture in the court (the first being the altar of the burnt offering). The laver had a foot (or a stand), was filled with water and was used by the priest to wash their hands and their feet while they were in Jehovah's service (Ex. 30:19, 21, 40:31). No dimensions, shape, or details were provided for it.

We do know that the laver was metal. Depending on the version of the Bible and/or commentator, it was either brass, bronze or copper. The commentators I admire most call it copper, so will I. The copper came from mirrors. And he made the laver of copper, and its stand of copper, of the mirrors of the crowds of women who crowded before the entrance of the tent of meeting.—Ex. 38:8

A number of commentators say that priest saw their reflection, saw the dirt, and washed. But I don't get it. I just don't get it. When was the last time you washed your hands? or your feet? When was the last time you used a mirror to see how dirty your hands or feet were?

Mirrors back then were not the silver coated glass that reflects a perfect image, but flat pieces of polished metal (Copper). The flat mirrors were beaten or some how molded into some kind of basin to hold water. No longer flat, no longer casting a good reflection. Besides, the laver, and the water in it, was always dirty. Several time each day the priest had to wash the dust off their feet and the blood off their hands.

These commentators miss the point. It is not that the priest somehow sawtheir reflection, but that the women couldn't. The women were without mirrors.

Mirrors are used everyday by everyday people (not just women), to see their imperfections and to make the necessary adjustments so that others won't see them. When is a miror used? First thing in the morning (before anyone sees us) or before we leave the (house, restroom, car -- fill in the blank). We look at the image of ourselves. We wash our face, adjust our hair, shave, put on makeup, etc. We see ourselves in the mirror before anyone sees us. Then we walk away forgetting what we look like.

... like to a man considering his natural face in a mirror: for he has considered himself and is gone away, and straightway he has forgotten what he was like. But *he* that fixes his view on [the] perfect law, that of liberty, and abides in [it], being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of [the] work, *he* shall be blessed in his doing.

There will be a time when we won't need mirrors – when we are perfect (or complete) we will not need to see how we look, will not need to adjust our hair or put on make up before others see us. We will not have imperfections.

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part: but when that which is perfect has come, that which is in part shall be done away. -- 1 Cor. 13:9-10

X Marks the What?

Did you ever take a quiz or survey on Facebook? Since anyone can make up any quiz on any topic, the range of topics seem almost endless. There are several quizzes designed to test Bible knowledge. I took them and found all, but one, to be easy enough for a typical teen Sunday school student to pass. There is even one entitled "How bad of a baptist are you?" Since many of my baptists friends will be reading this, I won't say how I scored, but the questions seemed like they were made up by a disgruntled former independent fundamental baptist. I have thought about putting together a Facebook quiz on the tabernacle, but I don't think anyone would take it.

I once took the Facebook survey to name my five favorite movies of all time. Selecting the first four were easy, but selecting the fifth was difficult. It was a toss up between The Gladiator (2000) and the Back to the Future trilogy of movies from the 1980's. I do not see many movies. I rarely get excited while watching one. Sometimes I pay eight bucks for a movie, and just fall asleep. But when Maximus removed his helmet (in The Gladiator) and turned around to face Commodus and said My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next, I leaped from my seat...and I was watching the movie all alone in the dark in my living room!

The Back to the Future movies centered in a fictional town in California named Hill Valley. A somewhat modified nuclear-powered DeLorean was used for time travel. The main characters travel back and forth 30 years, back and forth 100 years, forward and back 30 years, etc. while trying not to disrupt the 'space time continuum' (whatever that is). It is always interesting to see the consequences of ones actions, decades later. In reality, though, we travel through time at a constant one second per second. We cannot speed it up, slow it down, or reverse it.

After struggling for was seemed for minutes with my decision, I picked The Gladiator as my number 5 favorite movie of all time.

What if we could travel back in time? Back further than 30 years, 100 years. Back further than the time of Roman empires and the gladiators. Back to about the year 1,400 BC and half way around the planet to the Sinai? Or what if we could get Google satellite imagery from then? What would it be like to travel back in time when the Israelites were traveling in the wilderness?

From a far off and a relatively high altitude, you might notice an X in the wilderness. Could it be buried treasure from some ancient pirates on the Red Sea? Nah, from the size of the X and based on your distance from it, you quickly surmise that this is a very big X. It must at least several miles big. Could it be incidental? Like an overgrown crop circle X in the wilderness?

As you approach, you notice that the X shape is actually made up of tents; drab gray canvas tents. There must be tens of thousands of tents (or maybe even a hundred thousand). As you take this all in, you realize you made a mistake. The shape is not an X, but the shape is a cross...a cross in the wilderness. A hundred thousands gray tents making the shape of a cross in the middle of the wilderness. Your thoughts immediately turn to Jesus ...who, subsisting in the form of God, did not esteem it an object of rapine to be on an equality with God; but emptied Himself, taking a bondman's form, taking his place in [the] likeness of men; and having been found in figure as a man, humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and [that the] death of [the] cross. Phil 2:6-8

We Really Stink

For reason number 1, I wanted to say either 'Jesus in the offering', or 'Jesus in the furniture', or that 'the tabernacle itself is a portrait of Christ'. Then I glanced into Ada Halbershon's little book Outline Studies of the Tabernacle and she gives seven different statement that go like this: God did (something -- fill in the blank) in the Tabernacle, now He does (same fill-in) in Jesus. I could re-list her list, but going through them, one stands out.

I remember hearing a speaker say that we are good at witnessing and that we are good at providing assurance to the young believer, but we really stink at teaching acceptance (may not have been his exact words...). There was a program in his church to teach acceptance to young believers -- and it took three years to go through the program(!). So, for reason number one why the study of the Old Testament tabernacle should not be neglected (with a little help from the late Miss Halbershon)...drum roll if you like...the tabernacle was the place where God accepted the sinner:

If his offering be a burnt-offering of the herd, he shall present it a male without blemish: at the entrance of the tent of meeting shall he present it, for his acceptance before Jehovah. And he shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt-offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. Lev 1:3-4

We are now accepted because of Christ:

Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ; according as he has chosen us in him before [the] world's foundation, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love; having marked us out beforehand for adoption through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to [the] praise of [the] glory of his grace, wherein he has taken us into favour in the Beloved: in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of offences, according to the riches of his grace...(from Ephesians 1...a really long sentence...wasn't sure where to break it).

Walk, In Reverse

The number 2 reason that the study of the tabernacle should not be neglected is because each of the aforementioned Levitical offerings represent the Christian walk, in reverse! I mean, the Levitcal offerings in reverse represents the Christian walk. The offerings are provided in order by God representing God's view point. From man's point of view, it is the opposite. Consider the offerings in reverse:

• the trespass offering was for sins known - we first repent of our sins that we know about


• the sin offerings were for unknown sins - as we grow and read the bible, other sins (that we do not realize are sins) are brought to light and need confession.


• the peace offering - 'peace' is the result of the first two


• the meat (or meal) offering was with oil, either mingled, or sprinkled - signifying the indwelling and the filling of the Holy Spirit


• and then there is the voluntary continual burnt offering. -- signifying the voluntary continual surrender and submission to God's will

Jesus, the Offering

Using the KJV lingo, there were five Levitical offerings. In order, as presented: the burnt offering, the meat offering, the peace offering, sin offering and the trespass offering. Each offering is a partial picture or representation of Jesus. Every detail provided for each offering represents a detail about Jesus. The number 3 reason that tabernacle study should not be neglected in that Jesus is the offering.

Especially since ...the blood of bulls and goats [is] incapable of taking away sins.

Stop and Think

When a lifeguard rescues someone drowning, the potential drowning victim is saved from becoming a drowning victim. There is an instant when the lifeguard becomes the saviour and the victim becomes saved. From that point on, the relationship between the lifeguard and person may be significantly different.

There is an instant in time when we became 'born again'; when we became a 'believer'; when we became saved. Jesus was our saviour and we were saved. From that point forward, our relationship with Jesus is significantly different.

The number 4 reason that study of the tabernacle should not be neglected is because Jesus as our high priest is not emphasised enough. I am not saying that Jesus as saviour and/or Lord is emphasised too much, just that Jesus as High Priest is not emphasised enough.

Reading quickly through the book of Hebrews, here is a list of what Jesus is doing right now as our High Priest:

• He offers both gifts and sacrifices for sins: - Heb. 5:1, 8:3
• He has compassion on the ignorant - 5:2
• He offers up prayers and supplications - 5:7
• He entereth into that within the veil; - 6:19
• His priesthood is continual. - 7:3
• He makes a surety of a better testament. - 7:22
• He ever liveth to make intercession for us - 7: 25
• He is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens - 8:1
• He is mediator of a better covenant, - 8:6

Now, knowing He is currently serving as your high priest, in addition to being your saviour, does this make any impact on you? On the way you live? On the way you approach God? Maybe it doesn't change things for you, but it sure makes me stop and think...

The Way

The number 5 reason that tabernacle study should not be neglected is because it describes the approach of the redeemed to God.

Israel was redeemed. Their redemption came in two steps. They were redeemed from the wrath of God (Passover night, Ex. 12) and redeemed from the bondage of the Egyptians (the Red Sea crossing, Ex. 13). They were redeemed from wrath and bondage, so that they could be redeemed unto God. But, there was still sin in the camp. God cannot dwell among sin, so He gave instructions for the proper approach so that He could dwell among them.

Modern day believers are redeemed in two ways: redeemed from the wrath of God and redeemed from the slavery of sin. They are redeemed unto God. The believer's approach to the Father is the person of Jesus Christ who said: I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father unless by me. John 14:6.

The Dwelling Places of God

The number 6 reason that tabernacle study should not be neglected is because it It was the the first time God dwelt among His people: And they shall make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. Ex. 25:8.

The second time God dwelt among His people: And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father), full of grace and truth. John 1:14

And what about now? Do ye not know that your body is [the] temple of the Holy Spirit which [is] in you, which ye have of God; and ye are not your own? I Cor. 6:19

Three persons of God in three different dwelling places.

Got the Picture?

Like the old Ragu Spaghetti sause commercials, it's in there. The number 7 reason that the study of the tabernacle should not be neglected, is that every New Testament doctrine is in someway pictured in the tabernacle. For instance, we have atonement, redemption and justification in the altar of burnt offering. Regeneration and progressive sanctification are pictured in the laver. Intercessory prayer at the golden alter of incense. Get the picture?