Exodus 38 – The Altar, the Laver, and the Courtyard

Overview: Preparation, Purity, and Presentation

🔹 Theme: The journey to God begins with sacrifice and cleansing.

🔹 Focus: Outer court construction, bronze furnishings, and spiritual accessibility.

🔹 Outcome: A space prepared for holy interaction with the Almighty.

Key Takeaways

🔑 The altar points to Christ’s substitutionary death.

🔑 The laver reveals the necessity of daily cleansing.

🔑 The courtyard symbolizes boundaries, reverence, and one way in—through Christ.

🔑 Everything was built with order, beauty, and purpose.

Prophetic Patterns & Dual Fulfillment

🔮 The bronze altar reflects the cross, where the ultimate sacrifice was made.

🔮 The laver symbolizes baptism and the sanctifying power of the Word.

🔮 The gate to the courtyard foreshadows Christ as the only entrance to salvation (John 14:6).

Historical & Cultural Context

📜 Materials – Bronze was associated with judgment and strength. Mirrors were costly and rare, making their use in worship highly sacrificial.

📜 Worship Space – The outer court was accessible to all Israelites but guarded by reverent design and limitations.

📜 Layout – The east-facing gate matched the rising of the sun, symbolizing hope and new beginnings.

Final Reflection: The Journey Begins at the Altar

Before one can enter God’s holy presence, there must be sacrifice, cleansing, and submission. Exodus 38 lays the foundation for spiritual approach: from the bronze altar to the laver to the gate, we see the steps of salvation and sanctification laid out in tangible form.

📌 Have you stopped at the altar to receive Christ’s sacrifice?
📌 Are you washing daily in the Word for spiritual renewal?
📌 Do you honor the boundaries God has placed for holy access?

🚀 Before the veil is the court—prepare your heart before you step into glory.

Making the Altar of Burnt Offering
Exo 38:1  And he made the altar of burnt offering of shittim wood: five cubits was the length thereof, and five cubits the breadth thereof; it was foursquare; and three cubits the height thereof. 
Exo 38:2  And he made the horns thereof on the four corners of it; the horns thereof were of the same: and he overlaid it with brass. 
Exo 38:3  And he made all the vessels of the altar, the pots, and the shovels, and the basons, and the fleshhooks, and the firepans: all the vessels thereof made he of brass. 
Exo 38:4  And he made for the altar a brasen grate of network under the compass thereof beneath unto the midst of it. 
Exo 38:5  And he cast four rings for the four ends of the grate of brass, to be places for the staves. 
Exo 38:6  And he made the staves of shittim wood, and overlaid them with brass. 
Exo 38:7  And he put the staves into the rings on the sides of the altar, to bear it withal; he made the altar hollow with boards. 

Making the Bronze Basin
Exo 38:8  And he made the laver of brass, and the foot of it of brass, of the lookingglasses of the women assembling, which assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. 

Making the Court
Exo 38:9  And he made the court: on the south side southward the hangings of the court were of fine twined linen, an hundred cubits: 
Exo 38:10  Their pillars were twenty, and their brasen sockets twenty; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver. 
Exo 38:11  And for the north side the hangings were an hundred cubits, their pillars were twenty, and their sockets of brass twenty; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver. 
Exo 38:12  And for the west side were hangings of fifty cubits, their pillars ten, and their sockets ten; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver. 
Exo 38:13  And for the east side eastward fifty cubits. 
Exo 38:14  The hangings of the one side of the gate were fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three. 
Exo 38:15  And for the other side of the court gate, on this hand and that hand, were hangings of fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three. 
Exo 38:16  All the hangings of the court round about were of fine twined linen. 
Exo 38:17  And the sockets for the pillars were of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver; and the overlaying of their chapiters of silver; and all the pillars of the court were filleted with silver. 
Exo 38:18  And the hanging for the gate of the court was needlework, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen: and twenty cubits was the length, and the height in the breadth was five cubits, answerable to the hangings of the court. 
Exo 38:19  And their pillars were four, and their sockets of brass four; their hooks of silver, and the overlaying of their chapiters and their fillets of silver. 
Exo 38:20  And all the pins of the tabernacle, and of the court round about, were of brass. 

Materials for the Tabernacle
Exo 38:21  This is the sum of the tabernacle, even of the tabernacle of testimony, as it was counted, according to the commandment of Moses, for the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar, son to Aaron the priest. 
Exo 38:22  And Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the LORD commanded Moses. 
Exo 38:23  And with him was Aholiab, son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver, and a cunning workman, and an embroiderer in blue, and in purple, and in scarlet, and fine linen. 
Exo 38:24  All the gold that was occupied for the work in all the work of the holy place, even the gold of the offering, was twenty and nine talents, and seven hundred and thirty shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary. 
Exo 38:25  And the silver of them that were numbered of the congregation was an hundred talents, and a thousand seven hundred and threescore and fifteen shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary: 
Exo 38:26  A bekah for every man, that is, half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for every one that went to be numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty men. 
Exo 38:27  And of the hundred talents of silver were cast the sockets of the sanctuary, and the sockets of the vail; an hundred sockets of the hundred talents, a talent for a socket. 
Exo 38:28  And of the thousand seven hundred seventy and five shekels he made hooks for the pillars, and overlaid their chapiters, and filleted them. 
Exo 38:29  And the brass of the offering was seventy talents, and two thousand and four hundred shekels. 
Exo 38:30  And therewith he made the sockets to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the brasen altar, and the brasen grate for it, and all the vessels of the altar, 
Exo 38:31  And the sockets of the court round about, and the sockets of the court gate, and all the pins of the tabernacle, and all the pins of the court round about.