BEMA Episode Link: 327: Sanctuary — Feasting at the Mishkan
Episode Length: 1:29:43
Published Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2023 01:00:00 -0700
Session 6
About this episode:

Brent Billings and Josh Bossé examine the communal life and stability found in the sacrificial altar.

Presentation for Sanctuary — Feasting at the Mishkan (PDF)

Ship of Theseus — Wikipedia

Notes

*Note: The following notes are handwritten by me, Adam, and I reserve the right to be wrong.

Title & Source Summary

Episode: 327: The Bronze Altar and the Courtyard (Exodus 27 and Day Three of Creation)
Hosts: Brent Billings with guest Josh Bosse (Marty Solomon absent)
Focus: Genesis 1:9–13 (Day Three of Creation); Exodus 27:1–19 (the Bronze Altar and the Tabernacle Courtyard)

Brent and Josh continue their series reading the Mishkan (Tabernacle) alongside the seven days of creation. This episode pairs Day Three, when the waters gather, dry land appears, and the land sprouts plants, with the building instructions for the bronze altar and the outer courtyard in Exodus 27. Josh reads Day Three as a picture of community. When people gather in love, stable “dry ground” appears. Out of that ground grows a varied life that keeps reproducing. The altar and the courtyard are where this becomes concrete. Ordinary Israelites gathered there, the altar was filled with uncut stones and earth from wherever the people camped, and celebratory feasts brought strangers to the same table. The episode ends with a challenge to build communities that welcome people as they are, let them bear their own kind of fruit, and give away their “seed” without branding it.

Key Takeaways

  • Day Three breaks the pattern. It has two creative commands, two declarations of “good,” and a long, repetitive description of how plants reproduce. These signals point to something new happening.
  • Creation takes part in its own creation. God does not make the plants directly. He tells the land to sprout them, which is a partnership model of creation.
  • Gathered waters produce dry ground. The sea stood for chaos and death in the ancient world. Josh reads the gathering of the waters as people gathering in love, and the dry ground that appears as community: stable, dependable, and able to support life.
  • Community is more than the sum of its parts. The land yields plants “according to their kinds,” a huge variety that renews itself across generations and seasons.
  • The bronze altar was hollow and portable. It was a bronze box without a top or bottom, set over a heap of earth and uncut stones gathered wherever Israel camped. The altar existed only where people gathered.
  • Bronze is earthy and “serpentine.” The Hebrew word for bronze (nechoshet) resembles the word for serpent (nachash). The courtyard is the “real world” of human limitation, in contrast to the gold, Eden-like interior of the tent.
  • The altar is God’s table. Eating at someone’s table meant being in good relationship with them. A table about 7.5 feet square could, as Brent suggests, seat 12, one place for each tribe.
  • The tent pegs matter. Exodus 27:19 ends with bronze tent pegs. The holy tent stays standing only when a community anchors it.
  • The stones may not be cut to fit. Altar stones had to stay unhewn (Exodus 20:25). Josh applies this to people: communities should not reshape newcomers before letting them in.
  • The courtyard was a place for spontaneous relationships. Peace offerings had to be eaten within one or two days, which pushed worshippers to share their feast with whoever was there.
  • Give your seed away. Plants scatter seed and do not brand it. Fruitful communities pass on life-giving things without needing credit or control.
  • Start small. The quality of a relationship matters more than its size. If circumstances allow only a few connections, your altar may be just “a couple inches high.”

Main Concepts & Theories

1. The Structure of Day Three (Genesis 1:9–13)

Day Three differs from Days One and Two in several ways:

  1. Two commands: “Let the water… be gathered” and “Let the land produce vegetation.”
  2. Two declarations of “good”: one after dry land appears, one after the plants appear.
  3. Deliberate repetition: The details about seed-bearing plants and fruit trees are given twice, almost word for word. In Hebrew this sounds wordy, “a mouthful” compared with the other days.

The elements and how God relates to each:

Element God’s action Significance
Waters Gathered to one place Chaos is contained, not destroyed
Dry land “Let it be seen” (passive form) It simply appears, a new character on the scene
Vegetation The land is told to sprout it Creation takes part in making itself

The Hebrew word for dry land “appearing” comes from the verb to see. Seeing shows up often in the creation days and in the Mishkan instructions (“as you were shown on the mountain”).

2. The “Dance” Continues, Now Over Time

On Days One and Two, the separated elements (light and dark, waters above and below) form a cycle that keeps moving. Water and land on Day Three do not really trade places. The movement shows up instead in the plants: one generation grows, makes seed, dies, and returns. The dance now happens over time, not across space. This is the first life that can reproduce itself.

3. The Day Three Metaphor: Gathering → Community → Flourishing

Josh builds on Day Two, where the “door of heaven” invited people into loving relationship:

  • Waters = people on their own: “a bit salty,” chaotic, not always able to nourish others.
  • Gathering = connection formed by love, on a large scale.
  • Dry ground = community: something new that is more than several friendships added together. It gives stability. If your barn burns down, one friend can’t replace a year’s crops, but a whole community can.
  • Vegetation = flourishing life: new members, new generations, and fruit you never expected.

Josh links this to rabbinic discipleship. The goal was to become like your rabbi, yet disciples did things their teachers never imagined. They kept what they received and still produced something new.

4. The Bronze Altar (Exodus 27:1–8)

Specifications:

  • Acacia wood overlaid with bronze
  • 5 × 5 cubits square (about 7.5 ft) and 3 cubits high (about 4.5 ft)
  • Horns on all four corners, of one piece with the altar
  • Bronze utensils: pots, shovels, sprinkling bowls, meat forks, firepans
  • A bronze grating (“network”) set halfway up
  • Poles and rings for carrying
  • Hollow, made of boards, “just as you were shown on the mountain”

Key interpretive points:

  • Portability: Many popular illustrations are based on Solomon’s temple and show a huge fixed structure. The Tabernacle altar was built to be carried.
  • Hollow construction: Picture an upside-down cardboard box. The bronze frame was a cap placed over a heap of earth and stones gathered at each campsite. This fits Exodus 20:24–25 (an altar of earth, stones not cut with tools) and the altars the patriarchs built from piled stones.
  • Height and the ramp: At about 4.5 ft on a raised mound, the altar needed a ramp. Standing at it, you might feel like a child at an adult’s table, which suggests approaching God’s table with a childlike posture.
  • Color and word symbolism: Copper, bronze, and brass all have a reddish, earthy tint. The bronze–serpent wordplay (nechoshet/nachash) points to life in a world where the serpent is present.
  • Not only about sin: Josh pushes back on reading the altar as purely about sin. It served worship, celebration, and reconciliation. A better frame is human limitation: finite, embodied people who come to be real with God.
  • The divine table: Ancient religions often described sacrifices as food for the gods. The Torah turns that idea around. God’s table is a place of fellowship, and being invited to eat there shows that the relationship is intact.
5. The Courtyard (Exodus 27:9–19)

Specifications:

  • 100 × 50 cubits (about 150 × 75 ft)
  • Curtains of finely twisted linen, 5 cubits high
  • Posts with bronze bases and silver hooks and bands
  • An entrance curtain 20 cubits wide, embroidered in blue, purple, and scarlet, the same design used at the tent entrance and before the Holy of Holies
  • All tent pegs made of bronze

Interpretive points:

  • Where ordinary Israelites gathered: This is the “gathering of the waters” in the Mishkan.
  • The pillars of the earth: The pillars inside the tent stand for the pillars holding up the heavens (last episode). The courtyard pillars stand for the pillars of the earth, which rest above the deep that reaches down to Sheol. The Mishkan works like a fractal, a small model of the whole cosmos as the Israelites understood it.
  • The same entrance design: The multicolored curtain at the courtyard entrance signals that God is just as present to ordinary worshippers.
  • An odd chapter break: Josh argues the last verses of Exodus 27 (the lamp oil, vv. 20–21) belong to the next section, as the Hebrew paragraph break shows. The section itself ends on the bronze tent pegs. The holy space can only stay standing when community anchors it.
  • “Various kinds”: Brent notes how many numbers (100, 50, 20, 15, 10, 5, 4, 3) and materials (linen, bronze, silver, blue, purple, and scarlet yarn) appear. That variety echoes the varied plant life of Day Three.
6. “The Altar of Theseus”: A Changing Composition

The altar was rebuilt at every campsite with new earth and stones. Brent calls this a “ship of Theseus” situation. Josh adds that after Korah’s rebellion, the rebels’ bronze censers were hammered into plates that covered the altar (Numbers 16:36–40). The altar’s physical makeup changed over time.

Why the dirt mattered: People in the ancient Near East linked gods and identity to the land itself (compare Naaman asking for Israelite soil in 2 Kings 5:17). Canaanite dirt was different from Egyptian dirt. So filling the altar with local earth and uncut stones suggests that:

  • The people of every place, including outsiders and strangers, belong at the center of worship.
  • They must be taken as they are. “You can’t raise a sword against them.”
  • This raises the question: “Should the Samaritan be repulsive to you?”
7. Offerings and the Theology of the Feast

Josh gives a simplified overview of the main offering categories:

  1. Burnt offering: completely burned. It concerns devotion and a changed life, and nobody eats from it.
  2. Offerings for unintentional wrongs: these address harm done without malice and restore relationships. The priests eat portions. Only unintentional sins qualify, which may challenge common ideas about sin.
  3. Peace or fellowship offerings: celebrations in which most of the meat goes back to the worshipper. It must be eaten within one or two days, and anything left on the third day is burned (Leviticus 7:15–18).

The implication: One family has far more meat than it can eat, and others in the courtyard have none. The rules push toward a feast. God doesn’t order the party directly. He sets up conditions where people choose to start it themselves.

8. The Seed Principle: Giving Life Away Without a Brand

Plants don’t raise their offspring or keep track of them. They scatter seed. Josh’s example: someone in the Ozarks hears BEMA, starts a discussion group, and nobody in that town knows Marty’s voice. That is the goal. Brent adds that everything they teach grew from the seeds of voices before them.

  • A brand can be a useful label, but when it becomes an identity it “depletes the soil.”
  • The fruit matters, not the name.

Examples & Applications

  • The barn fire: One friend can’t replace a year’s harvest, but a community can. Community gives stability against life’s unpredictable “tides.”
  • The 12-seat table: Using event-planning standards, Brent works out that an altar about 8 ft square seats three people per side, which makes 12, one place for each tribe. The Levites might stand at the ramp landing. Josh calls this a good example of midrashic creativity: engage the text, keep our context separate from theirs, and then run with it.
  • Noah’s ark: Brent connects this to the flood story. As the waters go down, the ark with the whole gathered community rests on a mountain, the place where people meet God. This echoes the dry ground appearing out of gathered waters.
  • Heirloom tomatoes and a balanced diet: A community can grow the best tomatoes in the world, but you can’t live on tomatoes alone. Healthy ecosystems need diversity, and a monoculture drains the soil. Josh calls the urge toward one pure form a Hellenistic ideal.
  • The dandelion and the apple tree: If you invite a dandelion in, don’t expect apples. Let people tell you what their fruit is, and enjoy the puffs floating everywhere.
  • Cutting stones to fit: Workplaces and even families often demand that people “get into the right shape” or get left behind. The altar forbids this.
  • Welcomed but not included: Josh describes churches that say “come as you are” but where he never got invited to the barbecue. Welcome is different from real belonging.
  • The courtyard cookout: A worshipper with a surplus meets a stranger, perhaps a Gentile convert from Ethiopia. They share a meal and a friendship starts that nobody planned.
  • Seasons without fruit: Josh mentions his own year and a half of illness. Single parents working several jobs are in a similar place. These are times to receive from a community, and the tragedy is that such communities are so often missing.
  • A small altar: Your community might be a grocery store clerk, a barista, or one or two friends you can be honest with. That is still real “dry ground.”

Potential Areas for Further Exploration

  1. Hebrew wording in Genesis 1:9–13: the passive “let it be seen,” the verb for sprouting, and why the plant descriptions repeat.
  2. Flood and creation parallels: Brent’s insight about the ark resting on the mountain as dry land reappears (Genesis 8), and how the flood, creation, and Mishkan accounts relate.
  3. The bronze–serpent wordplay: nechoshet and nachash in Genesis 3, Numbers 21 (the bronze serpent), and 2 Kings 18:4 (Nehushtan).
  4. Altar laws in Exodus 20:24–26: earthen altars, uncut stones, and the ban on steps. How do these shape the meaning of the Tabernacle altar?
  5. Korah’s rebellion (Numbers 16): the theology of adding the rebels’ censers to the altar as “a reminder.”
  6. The Levitical offering system (Leviticus 1–7): Josh admitted gaps in his own knowledge. Study who ate which portions and how the peace offering encouraged communal feasting.
  7. Ancient Near Eastern ideas of gods and land: Naaman’s soil (2 Kings 5), territorial deities, and what this means for the portable altar.
  8. Tabernacle versus Solomon’s temple: how the fixed temple altar and its platform differed from the portable one.
  9. Rabbinic ideas of hospitality and the table: how the altar-as-table tradition carried into the home table after the temple’s destruction.
  10. Community and loneliness today: sociological research on isolation compared with the biblical picture of communal “dry ground.”

Comprehension Questions

  1. What three features make Day Three of creation structurally different from Days One and Two, and what does Josh say these differences signal?
  2. How does the Tabernacle’s bronze altar differ from how it is often pictured, and why does its hollow, portable design matter for the Day Three reading?
  3. Why does Josh reject reading the bronze altar only as a place to deal with sin, and what framework does he offer instead?
  4. What does the command that altar stones stay uncut suggest about how communities should treat new or different people?
  5. How do the rules for eating the peace offering encourage spontaneous relationships in the courtyard, and why might God have set it up this way instead of commanding a feast directly?

Personalized Summary

This episode treats Day Three of creation as a picture of community. Chaotic, “salty” waters are gathered, and dry ground appears: a stable place where life can take root. That ground then produces an overflowing variety of plants that reproduce themselves. In Exodus 27 the pattern takes physical form. Ordinary Israelites gather in the courtyard, and the bronze altar is a hollow frame filled with whatever uncut earth and stones were found at each campsite. God’s table only exists where people gather, and it is built from the people of that place, taken as they are. The peace offering’s two-day rule turns worship into a feast where strangers become friends.

The challenge is personal and practical. Where are you “cutting stones” to make people fit? Do the people around you really have a seat at your table, and do you let them bear their own kind of fruit? Are you giving your seed away without needing your name on it? Josh also offers grace. Community is aspirational, it comes in stages, and it may start very small. What matters is the kind of relationship, living and fruitful, not how big it is. Gather what is near you, accept it as it is, and trust God to grow something bigger than any of you could plan.

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