Bible Commentaries
Exodus 38

Verse 1

CONTENTS

The account of the building is continued through this Chapter. Here is given the particulars of framing the altar of burnt offering: the laver of brass: of the pillars and hangings for the court of the tabernacle; and a account of the sum which the people willingly offered.

Exodus 38:1

Was not this altar a type of the cross? Hebrews 13:10 . Five cubits was about three yards, two inches.

Verses 2-7

Psalms 118:27 .

Verse 8

Exodus 30:18 . Was not the glass, or brazen mirror, of which the laver was made, intended to represent the glass of the gospel? See James 1:23 with James 1:25 . May we not, without violence to the expression suppose it intended the looking unto Jesus? Zechariah 12:10 .

Verses 9-20

By the court of the tabernacle we may suppose is meant the church of the Lord Jesus upon earth. The extent of it a hundred cubits was about sixty-one yards. Song of Solomon 4:12 . Happy they that enter into it. Psalms 84:10; Psalms 84:10 . The washing in the laver before the entry, carried this idea, that it is by the blood and righteousness of Jesus alone that admission can be found. 1 Peter 3:21 .

Verses 21-31

The sum total of the people's offerings is here enumerated. The gold was altogether 29 talents and 730 shekels: about 150 thousand pounds of our money. And the silver was 100 talents, and 1775 shekels; amounting to about 34 thousand pounds of our money. The brass was in quantity about 6637 pounds weight. Isaiah 60:17 .

Verse 31

REFLECTIONS

Reader! still keep your eye steadily fixed on the Lord Jesus, all the way through, while looking over the furniture of the tabernacle. And as Moses wrote of Christ, may it be your happiness and mine, in every part of his writings, to behold him. Here, would I say to my soul, while looking at the altar of the burnt offering, here I see Jesus, the altar of all my offerings, represented. In him, and his sacred person, righteousness, and salvation, do I find all that can be needed, as an offering for sin. In the laver of regeneration, by his Holy Spirit, let me wash and be clean. And as the people offered willingly, in the Jewish tabernacle, so Lord Jesus, having found thee, and thy righteousness, I would willingly part with everything beside, and desire to count all but dung and dross, that I may win Christ.