Bible Commentaries
Exodus 27

Verses 1-21

Chapter 27

Now on the outside they were to make a court, which would be seventy-five feet wide, and a hundred and fifty feet long, with curtains around it seven and a half feet high. So that you have this outer court, which is sort of a curtained-in area seventy-five feet by a hundred and fifty feet. So it would be just the outer court, would be just about the-well just about as large as the building here is wide. It would be seventy-five, which would take us back to about between the third and the fourth pillar back here, that wide, and picture it in the building this long. Curtains that are seventy or seven and a half feet high, which makes them too high to tiptoe and peep over. These curtains were set on these posts that were set in brass sockets and so forth.

The whole thing, as I said, was portable. They need to move; they could just go ahead and take the thing apart, wrap the thing up. And there was certain of the tribe of Levi that were the bearers, they had to carry the thing. They would take it to the next place and then they could set it up like a tent is easily mobile, and it was made very portable and able to move it around as God would lead the children of Israel. So this court.

Now in the court, again he follows-first of all in this court are to be a brass altar.

Thou shalt make an altar of acacia wood, five cubits long, [which would be seven and a half feet, and so it is a square. The altar of acacia wood but now,] it is overlaid with brass [because we have the symbol of judgment where the sacrifices were to be burnt unto the Lord] ( Exodus 27:1-2 ).

So it is seven and a half feet square on the top, it is four and a half feet high.

and on each corner there is a horn ( Exodus 27:2 ).

It was carved on a horn shape coming up. So there were the four horns on each of the corners of this seven and a half-foot altar, four and a half feet high, all overlaid with brass. As he first of all gave you the furnishings of the tabernacle, and then the tabernacle, so the furnishings of the outer court, and then the description of how the outer court was to be made.

Now in verse twenty we get to the oil for the light.

And you shall command the children of Israel, that they bring pure olive oil beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always. In the tabernacle of the congregation outside of that Holy of Holies veil, which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning before the Lord: [it shall be] a statute for ever unto their generations on behalf of the children of Israel ( Exodus 27:20-21 ).

So they were to use olive oil in these cups in this golden lamp stand, and Aaron and his sons, it was their duty to keep the oil in there constantly so that the light never went off.

So as we get into history, we remember the case where Samuel, when he was just growing up he was brought by his mother who had dedicated him to the Lord, to the priest. Eli the high priest and Samuel sort of became sort of an errand boy. One night he heard his name being called. He ran into Eli, and he said, "What did you want?" He said, "I didn't call you. What are doing in here?" He said, "I surely heard my name called." "No, go back to bed." He went back to bed and again he heard his name called, and came running in again. Eli says, "No I didn't call you. What's going on? Go back to bed." So the next time Eli said, "Look if you hear someone calling again just say, 'Speak Lord, your servant hears'." So he heard his name called again, and he said, "Speak Lord your servant hears", well the Lord was trying to tell him the oil was going out. Someone had failed there in the job of the light. So the beginning of his listening to the Lord and all, involved. These lights that were to be kept burning.

During the time that the temple was profaned by Antiochus Epiphanes, when he offered a pig on the altar and just spread its blood around the temple, Judas Maccabees saw and incensed over this sacrilege, put an idol of Zeus within the temple. Judas Maccabees so incensed that he gathered together some of the Israelis and they went out against insurmountable odds and wiped out the Syrian hosts, the men of Antiochus. They then planned to, you know, rededicate the temple but they had only enough oil for one day for the lamp stands.

Now it took a process of time. It took, as they developed the whole thing. You know, after awhile you get men's routines in it, and you get all kinds of rules and regulations. By this time it took seven days to get this olive oil all purified by the rituals and all. So they knew that they weren't gonna be able to prepare any olive oil for seven-you know take them seven days before they could prepare it for their use. And so miraculously as the story goes, though they had only a one-day supply of oil, the lights remained for the eight days, until the eighth day they were able to make the oil.

Thus, you have the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, the lighting of the candles, one candle each day, the eight days and so forth. The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, which celebrates God's miraculous supply of oil for Judas Maccabees at that particular period of their history. "