Exodus 38
Exodus 38 completes the construction of the outdoor furnishings: the altar of burnt offering, the bronze basin, and the tabernacle courtyard. The altar, five cubits square and three cubits high, was overlaid with bronze and equipped with all its utensils — pots, shovels, basins, forks, and fire pans. The bronze used for the basin and its stand came specifically from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting — a detail that appears only here and raises intriguing questions about the role of these women in Israel's early worship. The courtyard of linen curtains on bronze posts with silver bands and hooks is constructed, one hundred cubits by fifty cubits, with a screen at the entrance. The chapter closes with a detailed account of materials used: how much gold, silver, and bronze was contributed and applied to which elements. The silver came entirely from the census tax — one beka per person — totaling 100 talents and 1,775 shekels. The accounting is remarkable: nothing was given without record, and nothing donated was used carelessly. The careful stewardship of sacred resources reflects the character of the God in whose service they are used. Luke 16:10 captures the principle: whoever is faithful in very little is also faithful in much.
Exodus 38:1
They built the altar of burnt offering of acacia wood, three cubits high; it was square, five cubits long and five cubits wide. The altar of burnt offering — the first object encountered in the courtyard, the primary site of sacrifice — is built exactly as Exodus 27:1 specified. The altar where Israel's daily sacrifices, Passover lambs, and atonement offerings will be presented for the next forty years is built from the same desert wood as the tabernacle's frames. Hebrews 13:10 says we have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat — the altar of Exodus 38 is the type of the altar of Christ's sacrifice.
Exodus 38:2
They made a horn at each of the four corners, so that the horns and the altar were of one piece, and they overlaid it with bronze. The four integral horns overlaid with bronze — exactly as Exodus 27:2 specified. The horns that will receive the blood of atonement offerings and serve as a place of refuge (1 Kings 1:50–51) are built into the altar's structure from the beginning. The bronze overlay communicates the altar's place in the material hierarchy: bronze for the outer courtyard. But the bronze of the altar is not inferior — it is appropriate to the altar's function as the site of fire and blood in the open-air courtyard.
Exodus 38:3
They made all the utensils of the altar — its pots, shovels, sprinkling bowls, meat forks and firepans — from bronze. All bronze — consistent throughout the altar's service equipment. Every act of the daily sacrifice has its designated tool: pots for ashes, shovels for coals, bowls for blood, forks for meat, firepans for carrying coals. The thoroughness of the equipment reflects the thoroughness of the service: nothing in the covenant worship system is improvised. The tools that serve the altar are as carefully specified and built as the altar they serve.