Exodus 27 focuses on the Bronze Altar and the Courtyard of the Tabernacle. Notice that the altar was designed with horns at each corner. The horns of the altar were used to secure the animal for sacrifice, just as the horns of the ram God provided for Abraham's sacrifice were secured in the thicket.
Psalm 18:2 refers to Christ as the "horn of our salvation" - the thing that secures our salvation, or as Beth Moore puts it, "the One who was secured on the cross so that we could be secured in the Lamb's book of Life."
Other uses of horns in the Bible are equally profound. A horn was blown to sound victory over their enemies and a horn was used in I Samuel 16:13 to anoint David as King. The horns of the altar were meant to bring to mind the sacrifice God provided for Abraham, while foreshadowing their victory, their future King, and ultimately, God's provision of the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf, Christ.
In Matthew 23, Jesus challenges the Pharisees, who have a backward notion of which is holy and of great value - the temple or the gold in the temple? The altar or the gift on the altar? Jesus makes it clear in verse 19: "You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred?"
Sometimes I get an inflated view of my sacrifices, too. But when I stack them up next to the sacrifice God gave on my behalf and the blessings He has provided, my sacrifices evaporate into little more than incense wafting heavenward. As Paul says, "For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith." Phil 3:8-9
Psalm 18:2 refers to Christ as the "horn of our salvation" - the thing that secures our salvation, or as Beth Moore puts it, "the One who was secured on the cross so that we could be secured in the Lamb's book of Life."
Other uses of horns in the Bible are equally profound. A horn was blown to sound victory over their enemies and a horn was used in I Samuel 16:13 to anoint David as King. The horns of the altar were meant to bring to mind the sacrifice God provided for Abraham, while foreshadowing their victory, their future King, and ultimately, God's provision of the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf, Christ.
In Matthew 23, Jesus challenges the Pharisees, who have a backward notion of which is holy and of great value - the temple or the gold in the temple? The altar or the gift on the altar? Jesus makes it clear in verse 19: "You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred?"
Sometimes I get an inflated view of my sacrifices, too. But when I stack them up next to the sacrifice God gave on my behalf and the blessings He has provided, my sacrifices evaporate into little more than incense wafting heavenward. As Paul says, "For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith." Phil 3:8-9
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