Verses 1-8 “1And thou shalt make an altar of shittim wood, five cubits long, and five cubits broad; the altar shall be foursquare: and the height thereof shall be three cubits.
2And thou shalt make the horns of it upon the four corners thereof: his horns shall be of the same: and thou shalt overlay it with brass.
3And thou shalt make his pans to receive his ashes, and his shovels, and his basons, and his fleshhooks, and his firepans: all the vessels thereof thou shalt make of brass.
4And thou shalt make for it a grate of network of brass; and upon the net shalt thou make four brasen rings in the four corners thereof.
5And thou shalt put it under the compass of the altar beneath, that the net may be even to the midst of the altar.
6And thou shalt make staves for the altar, staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with brass.
7And the staves shall be put into the rings, and the staves shall be upon the two sides of the altar, to bear it.
8Hollow with boards shalt thou make it: as it was shewed thee in the mount, so shall they make it.”
The brass altar is a type of God’s judgment, and it stood before the door of the tabernacle. Before a priest could go into the tabernacle and enter into fellowship with God (representing the people), he had to first have a sacrifice burned upon the brazen altar. The sacrifice was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ going through the fires of God’s judgment. Jesus was judged, not for His own sins (He was pure and sinless), but for ours. Jesus is the sacrifice that satisfied the justice of God and allows us to come to God. But it is important to remember that Jesus was sacrificed only once. Once was necessary. Once was enough. And once was all that is possible. The Bible says, “For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now ONCE [emphasis mine] in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men ONCE to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was ONCE offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Heb.9:26-28).