The brazen altar symbolizes God's table. The burning of the sacrifices represented God consuming these offerings as a meal. The fire was the visible element that represented the personal action of God Himself. It was how people could see that God had accepted their sacrifice. The fire had to originate from God to be truly meaningful. God had to be the One to consume the offering. He did it with holy fire. This altar with its horns is intended to strike the observer as formidable and powerful. It is up to the difficult task of making atonement and reconciliation with God through sacrifice. This was a very powerful symbolic piece of furniture. There was enough power to effect reconciliation because ultimately these things represent God Himself. The whole altar including the ledge as well as the horns and all the utensils was made of bronze. Bronze connotes strength firmness and endurance. These are symbols of strength and power. The altar of sacrifice leads to understanding the symbolism that Christ is the chief cornerstone of the temple. Only the blood of an innocent sacrifice opens the way to a relationship with God.

The priests offered defiled sacrifices upon the altar and said that the Lord's table is polluted. They said that the Lord's table may be despised and that its fruit and its food are contemptible. They said that the table of the Lord is defiled. They also said what a weariness this is and sneered at it. They brought animals that had been taken by violence or that were lame or sick and offered these as sacrifices upon the altar. They brought the stolen the lame and the sick thus bringing an offering. God asked whether He should accept this from their hand. God said that the priests profaned the altar when they said that the Lord's table is polluted. God said that the priests despised His name by saying that the Lord's table may be despised.

The lazy person will not eat at God's table. Laziness toward the things of God will kill a person by means of a slow spiritual suicide. It may be comfortable to sleep in or to give oneself justification for avoiding spiritual work, but what the laziness produces is not fun to live through. This is a picture of complacency and an unwitting self-destruction. It is the picture of a much deeper damage than simply wasting material resources because idleness is not only eating away at what a person has, but more importantly what a person is. It erodes self-control and a grasp of reality, and therefore work must be done through Bible study. It might be boring or hard or involve a lot of difficulty, but work must be done through it in obedience to build a relationship with God. What it takes to live comfortably in this culture is money, but laziness produces poverty whether it is in regard to material or spiritual things. Paul warns that if one does not work neither shall he eat.