(48) The altar of gold.--The altar of gold (1Kings 6:20; 1Kings 6:22) is the altar of incense. On it (see Exodus 30:1-10) incense was to be burnt morning and evening. The horns of the altar were to be touched with the blood of the sin offering (Leviticus 4:7; Leviticus 4:18) offered for the priests or the people; and it was to be solemnly purified by the blood of the sacrifice on the great Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:18-19). The offering of incense, therefore, pre-supposed sacrifice already offered, and atonement made for sin. To the Israelites it clearly symbolised the offering of an acceptable worship by man, as restored to the love and communion of God. (See Psalm 141:2.) The priest, as a mediator between God and man, alone entered the Holy Place and offered the incense; the people "stood praying without" (Luke 1:10). To us it symbolises the intercession of the One Mediator, offered for us in the Most Holy Place of heaven, by whom alone our worship ascends to God. (See Hebrews 9:11-12; Hebrews 9:24; Hebrews 10:19-22; Revelation 8:3.)

For the table of shewbread, see Exodus 25:23-28; Exodus 37:10-15; for the shewbread itself, see Leviticus 24:5-9. The "shewbread"--properly "bread of the face" (or presence) of God, translated in the LXX. Version as "bread of offering" or "of presentation"--was clearly of the nature of an Eucharistic offering to God of His own gift of bread--a kind of first-fruits, acknowledging that the whole sustenance of life comes from Him, and possibly also implying the truth more closely symbolised by the pot of manna, that "man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word proceeding out of the mouth of God."

Verse 48. - And Solomon made all the vessels which pertained unto [neither word in Heb.] the house of the Lord: the altar of gold [the altar of incense. See on 1 Kings 6:20, 22] and the table of gold [The Heb. shows the meaning to be, He made the table out of gold, not "He made the golden table," as Keil. 2 Chronicles 4:8 (cf. ver. 19 and 1 Chronicles 28:16) speaks of ten tables] whereupon the shewbread was.

7:48-51 Christ is now the Temple and the Builder; the Altar and the Sacrifice; the Light of our souls, and the Bread of life; able to supply all the wants of all that have applied or shall apply to him. Outward images cannot represent, words cannot express, the heart cannot conceive, his preciousness or his love. Let us come to him, and wash away our sins in his blood; let us seek for the purifying grace of his Spirit; let us maintain communion with the Father through his intercession, and yield up ourselves and all we have to his service. Being strengthened by him, we shall be accepted, useful, and happy.And Solomon made all the vessels that pertained unto the house of the Lord,.... That is, he ordered them to be made, even all that were in the tabernacle of Moses; all were newly made, excepting the ark, mercy seat, and cherubim:

the altar of gold; the altar of incense, which was made of cedar, covered with gold, 1 Kings 6:20, hence called the golden altar, Revelation 8:3.

and the table of gold, whereupon the shewbread was; this includes all the tables, for there were ten of them, 2 Chronicles 4:8 where they are said to be placed, five on the right hand, and five on the left; which, according to the Jews (k), were not on the right and left of the temple, but on the right and left of the table of Moses, and which being placed on the north side, these must be also, Exodus 40:22 there being more tables in the temple than in the tabernacle may denote the greater provision of spiritual food in the word and ordinances of the Gospel church, of which the temple was a figure, than under the legal dispensation.

(k) T. Bab. Meuachot, fol. 98. Kimchi in loc. Targum in 2 Chron. 8.