Brazen Altar
The brazen altar is where sacrifices were made to God. This depicts the ultimate sacrifice of the Jewish Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) who is the Christ.
When approaching the brazen altar, the believer should worship the Lord for all of the benefits provided by the atonement.
Redemption from Bitter Curse
Exodus 15:23 (CJB)
23 They arrived at Marah but couldn’t drink the water there, because it was bitter. This is why they called it Marah [bitterness].
The bitter water of the place called “Marah” represents the bitterness of the curse of sin.
Exodus 1:14 (NIV)
14 They made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.
Egypt is a type of the world’s system and it also speaks of the slavery of laboring to survive. The Egyptian taskmasters made the lives of the Hebrews bitter with all types of forced labor. This forced labor is a part of the curse of Adam which resulted when he willfully ate of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.
The Curse of Adam
Genesis 3:17-19 (NIV)
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
Adam at one time enjoyed splendid bounty and free provision and great prosperity in the Garden and he did not have to labor for it but rather it was supplied freely by God as a great blessing to humanity.
But after Adam sinned and ate of the forbidden fruit then this sin brought a curse upon the whole earth and the ground was cursed because of the sin of Adam. Adam would have to produce the food he ate by painful toil all of the days of his cursed life on earth. The soil would produce thorns and thistles and resist his efforts to make a living from the land.
Genesis 3:23-24 (NIV)
23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Adam was banished from the place of abundance and was driven out of the Garden by God and was consigned to toil and labor to work the ground in order to produce a living. This speaks of the curse of Adam which consigns men to labor for a living all of the days of their lives under the bitterness of the curse.
Exodus 15:23-25 (NIV)
23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.)
24 So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”
25 Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the LORD made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them.
Moses was directed by God to throw a piece of wood into the bitter water and this resulted in that water become sweet! This is a depiction of the cross of Christ who was hanged upon the wood of a tree and thus paid for the sin of all humanity. Jesus broke the curse of the Law by fulfilling the law of God on behalf of sinful mankind. Then Jesus offers salvation from the curse to anyone who will call upon the Name of the Lord. Thus Jesus (by the wood of his cross of sacrifice) turned the bitter water of the curse into something sweet when he offered salvation as a free gift by grace to anyone who will call upon the Name of the Lord and receive their salvation by faith.
When approaching the brazen altar (where sacrifices were burned over wood) the believer should worship the Lord for his sacrifice that has resulted in them being set free from the curse of Adam. The believer can now use their faith to believe God for increase and blessing so that they can prosper. They have been redeemed from the curse of the Law so they can experience the blessing that comes from God.
Galatians 3:13 (NIV)
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”
Jesus hung upon the wood of a tree and paid for the curse of all humanity by his own sacrificial death on the cross. Jesus become a curse for us so that all believers are now freed from the curse of Adam by the atoning work of Christ.
The believers should thank God and worship the Lord for their deliverance from the curse and they should know that they can prosper by God’s blessing during their lifetime on earth.
Redemption from Disease
1 Peter 2:24 (NIV)
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
The wood of the tree (wooden cross) also redeemed humanity from the curse of sickness and disease and the pain and the suffering and poverty that results from it. Jesus bore all of the sickness and disease of humanity upon his own body on the cross so that the believers could be healed.
Isaiah 53:4-5 (HCSB)
4 Yet He Himself bore our sicknesses, and He carried our pains; but we in turn regarded Him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on Him, and we are healed by His wounds.
Jesus bore the sins of humanity on his body on the cross and he carried our pains. He took the full punishment of the curse upon himself to redeem mankind from the curse. This is available for all for whoever will receive this salvation by faith in his Name. It was by the wounds inflicted upon Jesus during his crucifixion that he paid for the sins of all humanity forever for all generations of people who ever lived upon the earth. Anyone can receive this free gift of salvation (including salvation from sickness and disease) simply by calling upon the Name of the Lord by faith.
Serpent on a Pole
Numbers 21:4-9 (NIV)
4 They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way;
5 they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”
6 Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died.
7 The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.
8 The LORD said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.”
9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.
The serpent on the wooden-pole also represents the sacrifice of Jesus made upon the wooden cross. This serpent was made of bronze and relates to the brazen altar of sacrifice in the tabernacle.
Sin is also represented by a serpent because Satan assumed the form of a serpent when he tempted Eve in the garden which resulted in the fall of mankind.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NLT2)
21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
Jesus Christ never sinned but was perfect and holy in every way. God made Jesus the sacrifice for sin to become an offering to pay for the sins of all fallen humanity. Jesus restored humans back to God again by his sacrifice so that whoever will call upon his Name by faith will receive the free gift of righteousness. Thus, sinful humanity now has an avenue by which they can be made right with God by the sacrifice of Jesus for whoever will receive eternal life by faith in Jesus.
Jesus therefore became sin when he bore the sin of all humanity in his body on the cross. This is represented by the bronze serpent on a wooden-pole which represents of sin on a wooden-pole. The bronze speaks of the sacrifices made at the brazen altar for sin. The venom of the snakes speaks of death by the curse of sin but whoever would look at the bronze serpent would be healed of the poisonous effects of venom.
In same way, anyone who looks to Jesus and his redemption on the cross will be saved from the curse of sin and have the harmful effects of the curse of sin neutralized by their salvation. Looking to Jesus on the cross for salvation speaks of receiving the free gift of salvation by faith. The curse of poverty and sickness are both neutralized by the atonement of Christ just as the venom of the serpents was neutralized by looking to the bronze serpent on the wooden pole.
The believer is to worship the Lord at the brazen altar for all of the benefits of their salvation including forgiveness of sin, redemption from the curse, and healing for their physical bodies.