How could this place be so important to use constantly but so impossible to get the job done?
Imagine walking into the tabernacle courtyard. Standing before you, about 4.5’ high and 7.5’ square, was the great altar, in constant use: “A fire shall always be burning on the altar” (Lev 6:13). Sheathed in copper or bronze, it could take the heat, just like our Lord Jesus, who consumed God’s wrath without Himself being consumed. Do you see the priests busily offering up the lives of lambs, goats, bulls, heifers, and doves? Can you imagine the sounds and sights and smells? It is impossible to calculate the number of animals offered there. To many it would seem a waste, but the Lord was teaching His people crucial lessons. First, the costliness of sin. A person could not simply trade good deeds for bad, or pay someone off for sins, “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). Second, the principle of a perfect substitute; it must be pleasing to God. “Whatever has a defect, you shall not offer, for it shall not be acceptable on your behalf” (Lev 22:20). Third, and most importantly, the endless repetition told the people that, in the end, they must look for an infinitely better sacrifice, for “every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down” (Heb 10:11-12). The altar was “hollow with boards” (Ex 27:8), and probably was filled with earth or unhewn rocks (see 20:24). It had four horns on the corners, speaking of power and, when applied with blood, declared, “There’s power in the blood!” A grate or ledge ran around halfway up to facilitate the priests, but our Great High Priest has finished that work, for “by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified” (Heb 10:14).