The Altar of Burnt Offerings and its Sacrifices
When we go outside the tabernacle we find two items in the court of the tabernacle, the altar and the bronze laver.
Christ our Atoning Sacrifice
The altar is outside the Tabernacle in the courtyard. It is where sacrifices were burned. They are a type and a shadow of Christ who is the actual atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Heb 10:1 For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.
Heb 10:10 By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Heb 9:26 He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
Eph 5:2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.
Heb 10:12-14 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
It is through the altar that Christ sacrificed Himself making atonement for our sins and allowing us to enter back into God’s presence. The altar is the starting point of our journey of faith in God.
Consecration of the Priests
The first offering scripture mentions to go onto the altar is for the consecration of the Priests. This is a type of Christ who is the offering that sanctifies us and sets us apart to God (makes us priests).
Ex 29:1-3 “And this is what you shall do to them to hallow them for ministering to Me as priests: Take one young bull and two rams without blemish, and unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil (you shall make them of wheat flour). You shall put them in one basket and bring them in the basket, with the bull and the two rams.”
Ex 29:10-14 “You shall also have the bull brought before the tabernacle of meeting, and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands on the head of the bull. Then you shall kill the bull before יהוה, by the door of the tabernacle of meeting. You shall take some of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger, and pour all the blood beside the base of the altar. And you shall take all the fat that covers the entrails, the fatty lobe attached to the liver, and the two kidneys and the fat that is on them, and burn them on the altar. But the flesh of the bull, with its skin and its offal, you shall burn with fire outside the camp. It is a sin offering.
(The two rams and the bread, cakes and wafers were similarly burned on the altar)
Rev 1:5-6 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Christ’s atoning sacrifice makes us kings and priests unto God.
The second part of the consecration of the priests was washing
Ex 29:4 “And Aaron and his sons you shall bring to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and you shall wash them with water.”
The washing of the priests at their consecration is a type of being baptised when we come to faith. Part of our consecration includes washing – being baptised symbolizing our dying to self so we can live for Christ.
Phil 1:21 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Once we die to our old way of thinking and living, we can then start walking in His Way (Torah) – newness of Life (Torah)… living as His set apart (holy) priests.
Rom 6:3-13 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin (lawlessness) might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin (lawlessness). For he who has died has been freed from sin (lawlessness). Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin (lawlessness) once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin (lawlessness), but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin (lawlessness) reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin (lawlessness), but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness (i.e. be Christlike – righteous – by obeying the Torah) to God.
1 John 3:4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness (Torahlessness).
Rom 6:1-2 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin (lawlessness) that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin (lawlessness) live any longer in it?
If unrighteousness is sin which is lawlessness/transgression of the law, then by definition righteousness is obeying the Torah, walking in His ways.
The Daily Offering
God knows that we struggle with our flesh and lawlessness so He gave us the next mentioned offering in Exodus: the Daily Offering.
Ex 29:38-43 “Now this is what you shall offer on the altar: two lambs of the first year, day by day continually. One lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight. With the one lamb shall be one-tenth of an ephah of flour mixed with one-fourth of a hin of pressed oil, and one-fourth of a hin of wine as a drink offering. And the other lamb you shall offer at twilight; and you shall offer with it the grain offering and the drink offering, as in the morning, for a sweet aroma, an offering made by fire to יהוה. This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before יהוה, where I will meet you to speak with you. And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by My glory.”
Once the priests were consecrated, they had to start making daily offerings/sacrifices. These are key to being able to meet and speak with יהוה. Like the priests of old if we want to meet and speak with יהוה we too need to make a daily offering.
Rom 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
We should present ourselves daily as living sacrifices, dead to sin but alive to God. We need to climb on the altar and die to ourselves and our flesh. One of the main problems with a living sacrifice is we keep crawling off the altar! We need to allow ourselves to be bound like Isaac was.
Gen 22:9 Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood.
Ps 118:27 God is יהוה, and He has given us light; Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.
God has given us a very practical way to remember we’re bound to His altar and dead to our flesh, He gave us Tzitzit.
Num 15:38-40 Speak to the children of Israel: Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners. And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of יהוה and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined, and that you may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy (set apart) for your God.
Rom 8:13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
It’s interesting that people who have a problem with wearing Tzitzit (something יהוה commanded and Yeshua wore) are quite often ok with wearing WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) bracelets – something not commanded in scripture. And ironically, if they did Do What Jesus Did they’d wear Tzitzit!