‏ Exodus 27

* The altar of burnt offerings. (1-8) The court of the

tabernacle. (9-19) The oil for the lamps. (20,21)

1-8 In the court before the tabernacle, where the people

attended, was an altar, to which they must bring their

sacrifices, and on which their priests must offer them to God.

It was of wood overlaid with brass. A grate of brass was let

into the hollow of the altar, about the middle of which the fire

was kept, and the sacrifice burnt. It was made of net-work like

a sieve, and hung hollow, that the ashes might fall through.

This brazen altar was a type of Christ dying to make atonement

for our sins. The wood had been consumed by the fire from

heaven, if it had not been secured by the brass: nor could the

human nature of Christ have borne the wrath of God, if it had

not been supported by Divine power. 9-19 The tabernacle was enclosed in a court, about sixty yards

long and thirty broad, formed by curtains hung upon brazen

pillars, fixed in brazen sockets. Within this enclosure the

priests and Levites offered the sacrifices, and thither the

Jewish people were admitted. These distinctions represented the

difference between the visible nominal church, and the true

spiritual church, which alone has access to God, and communion

with him. 20,21 The pure oil signified the gifts and graces of the

Spirit, which all believers receive from Christ, the good Olive,

and without which our light cannot shine before men. The priests

were to light the lamps, and tend them. It is the work of

ministers, by preaching and expounding the Scriptures, which are

as a lamp, to enlighten the church, God's tabernacle upon earth.

Blessed be God, this light is not now confined to the Jewish

tabernacle, but is a light to lighten the gentiles, and for

salvation unto the ends of the earth.