You shall make the altar of acacia wood, five cubits long and five cubits broad (27:1).
We now move from the instructions regarding the tabernacle and its furnishings to the court of the tabernacle. There was to be a bronze altar, an item of utmost importance. On this altar, the priests would sacrifice all types of offerings to God on behalf of the people.
Leviticus details the different types of offerings to be sacrificed. Among others, there were offerings for sin and offerings for guilt. Chapters nine and ten of the book of Hebrews describe how Yeshua (Jesus) our Messiah was the perfect, once and for all, sacrifice, so that we no longer need the blood of goats and bulls to make atonement. Yeshua is our atonement.
Reading about the sacrifices of old helps us to have some understanding of Yeshua’s sacrifice.
This chapter ends with instructions about oil for the light – “that a lamp may regularly be set up to burn. In the tent of meeting, outside the veil that is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening to morning before HaShem” (27:20-21).
Note that the priests (Aaron and his sons) were to tend it from evening to morning. In other words, this was a lamp that would be burning all night and day. It would not go out.
This reminds me of the light that never goes out. In 1 John 5:1 we read, “God is light and in him is no darkness at all.” John chapter one refers to Yeshua being the light, and in John 8:12, Yeshua says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Yeshua his son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:6-9).
Walking in darkness is living in sin. Walking in the light is living according to God’s ways. We walk in the light by reading God’s Word and obeying it, by talking (praying) to Him, and by confessing our sin when we realize we have sinned. This is the way of blessing, of abundant life.
Prayer: God, thank you that we can walk with you. You have not left us but You have given us Your Word and Your Holy Spirit. May I daily walk in Your light. Amen.
