One altar, and the cross it points to
The Altar on the Day of Atonement
Once a year, on the most solemn day of Israel's calendar, the high priest did something startling. Amid all the cleansing of the Day of Atonement, described in Leviticus 16, he turned and made atonement for the altar itself. Leviticus 16:18 and 19 tell how he put blood upon the horns of the altar and sprinkled it, to cleanse it and to hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel. Stop and feel the weight of that. The altar was the holiest working object in the tabernacle courtyard, the very place where sin was dealt with. And yet it too needed to be purified. If even the altar required blood, what does that say about everything and everyone that touched it? This small detail, easily passed over, opens one of the most searching truths in the whole sacrificial system, a truth about how deep defilement goes and how thoroughly God means to reconcile.
“And he shall go out unto the altar that is before the LORD, and make an atonement for it; and shall take of the blood of the bullock, and of the blood of the goat, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about.”Leviticus 16:18
The altar in Scripture
Leviticus 16 gives the ritual of the Day of Atonement in careful sequence. The high priest laid aside his glorious garments, bathed, and put on plain linen. He offered a bull for himself and his house, took blood within the veil to the mercy seat, and cast lots over two goats, one for the Lord and one for Azazel, the scapegoat. The chapter is a concentrated portrait of a whole nation being cleansed in a single day. Within that sequence Leviticus 16:18 turns attention to the altar. Having made atonement for the holy place and the tent of meeting, the priest went out to the altar that was before the Lord and made atonement for it, taking the blood of the bull and of the goat and putting it upon the horns of the altar round about. Leviticus 16:19 adds that he sprinkled the blood upon it seven times, cleansing it and hallowing it from the uncleanness of Israel. The reason is stated in the same breath. The altar was to be cleansed from the uncleanness of the children of Israel. The sins of the people, brought day after day to that altar, had in a sense clung to it. The place where defilement was laid down had itself contracted defilement. So on this one day the instrument of atonement was itself atoned for, that it might stand clean before God for another year of service. The wider chapter reinforces the scope. Leviticus 16:16 speaks of making atonement for the holy place because of the uncleanness of Israel and their transgressions in all their sins, and doing the same for the tent of meeting that remained among them in the midst of their uncleanness. Nothing that stood among a sinful people was assumed to be clean of itself. Tent, holy place, and altar alike were included in the day's great work of purification, sealed by blood applied to the horns and sprinkled seven times, the number of completeness.
What it comes to mean
The cleansing of the altar tells us how far the contamination of sin actually reaches. It is not merely that people sin; sin defiles the very places and things among which sinful people live and worship. The altar had done nothing wrong, yet it stood in the midst of a guilty nation and could not remain untouched. Sin is not a private stain that stays neatly on the sinner. It spreads outward, defiling the ground it is committed on and the very instruments of worship. This is a humbling thought for anyone tempted to think their religious devotion is clean in itself. If the God-given altar needed atoning blood, then no act of ours, however sacred, is pure enough to stand before God on its own. Our best worship, our most careful obedience, is offered by defiled hands in a defiled world. The Day of Atonement made no exception for the holy things. Everything had to be brought under the blood. But the same truth that humbles also comforts. God did not respond to this pervasive defilement by abandoning His altar or His people. He provided a way to cleanse even the instruments, so that fellowship could continue. The blood on the horns was not a sign of despair but of provision. Where sin had spread its stain, God appointed a blood that spread further still, reaching every corner the uncleanness had touched and hallowing it again. We should be careful and honest here. This annual cleansing was, by its very repetition, a confession of insufficiency. The altar had to be atoned for every year because the blood applied to it could not permanently settle the matter. Hebrews 10:1 through 3 observes that these sacrifices were a reminder of sins year by year, never able to make the worshipers perfect. The cleansed altar of Leviticus 16 was a genuine mercy and an unfinished one, pointing beyond its own yearly ritual to a cleansing that would not need repeating.
How it points to Christ, our altar and offering
That the altar itself needed atoning blood makes the work of Christ shine all the brighter, for He needed none. Hebrews 7:26 describes Him as holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. Unlike the altar that stood defiled among a sinful people, the true offering was without spot. He did not need to be cleansed before He could cleanse. He was Himself the clean thing in the midst of the unclean, and His purity qualified Him to be both the altar and the sacrifice. And where the priest carried the blood of bulls and goats and applied it year after year, Christ entered once with His own blood. Hebrews 9:12 says that by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption. The endless repetition ended in Him. What the Day of Atonement performed in shadow, cleansing sanctuary and altar and people, He accomplished in substance and in full, not to be done again. Because of Him, even our defiled worship can be received. Our prayers and offerings, brought by unclean hands, are made acceptable because they rest on His finished work. He cleanses not only the sinner but the sinner's gifts, hallowing them as the blood once hallowed the horns of the altar. In Christ the whole apparatus of approach to God is purified at last, so that we may draw near, as Hebrews 10:22 urges, with a true heart and full assurance, our very consciences sprinkled clean.
Questions people ask
Why did the altar need atonement if it had done nothing wrong?
Because sin defiles more than the sinner. The altar stood in the midst of a guilty nation, and the uncleanness of Israel clung to the very place where their sins were laid. Leviticus 16:19 says the blood cleansed it from that uncleanness. It teaches that sin spreads its stain even to sacred things and places.
Does this mean our worship today is also defiled?
In one sense, yes. Our best worship is offered by sinful people in a fallen world and is not pure in itself. But that is not cause for despair. Christ, who was undefiled, cleanses not only us but the gifts we bring, so that through Him our worship is received as holy and acceptable before God.