“I have sewn sackcloth over my skin, and laid my head in the dust.” (Job 16:15)
The horns of the bronze altar formed the most holy part of the altar, on which only blood from very special sacrifices was atoned (Ex 30:10; Lev 4:7, 18, 25, 30, 34; 16:18; Ezek 43:20). According to Lev. 8:15 and 9:9 the first official sacrifices commenced by firstly anointing the horns with blood atoning it.
Jer. 17:1 then makes this important equalising statement – “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with the point of a diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of your altars.” Here we see that sin is not only written on the tables of the heart (which in our dispensation would point to the Holy Spirit’s function in convicting you of sin – John 18:8) but also on the horns of the altars! If we, who have sinned (Rom 1:32), run to the horns of the bronze altar – the handles of grace that have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood (Heb 9:13-14) – and grab a hold of it, we are doing so because we have an inner conviction that this is the right way to follow. The grabbing of the horns is the external action of a spiritual process which has taken place internally.
Isa 5:1 adds another dimension: “Now let me sing to my Well-beloved, a song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard: my Well-beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.” The Hebrew word qeren, which means horn, may also mean ‘hill’. In this way the KJV translates this verse as “Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill …”, while the LITV translates as follows: “Now I will sing to my Beloved a song of my Beloved concerning His vineyard: My Beloved has a vineyard in a fruitful horn.”
A fruitful horn? In the natural realm the horn is considered anything but fruitful, and thus this must point to an underlying spiritual significance. The horn strips you from sin and brings forth salvation, but it also engenders fruitfulness in the vineyard of God (John 15). Accordingly Hanna prays in 1 Sa 2:1: “My heart rejoices in the LORD; my horn is exalted in the LORD. I smile at my enemies, because I rejoice in Your salvation.” Take note: Through Your salvation “our horn is exalted” (Ps 89:17).
The bronze altar constituted the place where sin was punished and its consequences rendered. The altar was in its essence a place of seeming contradictions – the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). But Christ “Who His own self bear our sins in His own body on the tree, that we (believers), being (legally) dead to sin, should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes we are healed” (1 Pet. 2:24, AMP). What an amazing God!
- Selah: Pray and thank God for his amazing plan of salvation.
- Read: 2 Sam 7; Prov. 11; Heb. 5.
- Memorise: 5:8-9.
- For a deeper understanding: Explore this interesting Judaic perspective on the bronze altar – http://www.ou.org/torah/frankel/haftarot/tetzaveh60.htm
