Exodus 27

God's description to Moses of this very important tabernacle building project started with the object where He would be most present. He would dwell over the mercy seat that was to be placed on top of the ark of the covenant. He gave instructions as well concerning the table for the bread of the presence and the golden lampstand. See Exodus 25. The Lord went on to instruct Moses about the building of the tent that would go over these objects, and the spaces inside that tent that would be divided by the veil into the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place. The frames and the multiple layers of fabric and skins that God told Moses to build were what is specifically referred to as the Tabernacle. See Exodus 26. But there was more for the worshiper to see outside the holy tent. God instructed Moses concerning the space that the worshiper would experience on his way into the tabernacle of God. To get into that place of closer fellowship with God one needed to walk through this outer court. Prominent in that court was an altar where sacrificial offerings were burned before the Lord.

The frame of the altar was to be made of acacia wood and covered with bronze. The altar had four horns, one on each corner. Throughout the history of Israel this would be a place where someone might desperately come and hope for mercy from God and man. Why would the Israelites connect mercy with this altar?

The altar was the place of sacrifice. The blood of the substitute insisted that someone else was killed instead of the worshiper. This is a necessary accomplishment in order for a sinner to come into the presence of the Lord in His heavenly abode. The altar speaks of mercy from God based on a genuinely acceptable sacrifice.

But could the Old Testament system ever deliver that mercy? With its pots for ashes, special shovels, basins, forks, all its bronze utensils; with its grate upon which an animal would be placed and burned, could it really be the place where a true and permanent aroma could come up to God that would be pleasing to Him? The altar could be made perfectly according to the pattern on the mountain, but it is what is put on that altar that must make all the difference. Is there a death that will make a difference to God? Only if there would first be a life that fully pleased Him.

The voice from heaven in the days of Jesus assured us of the pleasing life of Christ. The resurrection of the holy Victim insisted that the death accomplished all that the altar system of the Old Testament only whispered about in the time of shadows.

That bronze altar was in the court of the tabernacle, the area surrounded by curtains that distinguished between the camp and the approach to the tabernacle of God. The ground itself was just ground. It would be the linen hangings around the entire perimeter that would create the special spaces that God commanded Moses to make.

This court was a place for those who could draw near to the God of Israel. All the inhabitants of the earth should have been streaming into that courtyard, petitioning the Lord with hope in His mercy. Yet the time had not yet come for the expansion of the people of God to every tribe and tongue and nation. They should have been there inquiring about the God who would dwell between the cherubim. They should have longed for a sacrifice that would have been acceptable to Him.

Though the nations were not seeking after the great I-AM, He would one day seek for them and find them. His courts should have been flooded with eager worshipers already, and His house should have been a place of prayer for the nations, but it would become a den of robbers before the nations would be glad in Jesus. Instead of a place where people could seek and find the Lord, those in charge of the Lord's holy place would turn his courts into a place of buying and selling for profit. This would be a matter of great concern to the Lord.

Zeal for the Lord's tabernacle consumed Jesus. He loved the dwelling place of the Almighty. He who was God's holy tabernacle was filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit of God.

Without the oil of this Holy Spirit, there is only darkness in the tabernacle of God. If the oil is gone, the light will go out. What if one stumbled in the darkness beyond the veil, falling into the Most Holy Place, where the ark of the covenant was kept, where the Lord dwelt on His great mercy seat? If a worshiper stumbled without the light of God, how could he receive mercy? All that would remain for such a careless person would be an expectation of judgment.

But we are those who have the oil from heaven filling the lamp of our souls. Christ dwells in us. The sacrifice has been offered, and we see now the full brightness of the Lord's holy lampstand. The veil has been removed, and heaven is alive in us, for Jesus lives in us.

Now the nations have met the Lord of Glory who died for us. His sacrifice was acceptable to the Father. We have a light in us that will never be extinguished. Now, in accord with 1 John 1, we are those who walk in the light as He is in the light. We have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.