In this day when we talk about the high cost of gasoline for our cars, the high cost of food, clothing, housing, or just about anything; we forget about the high cost of our sin.

The scheduled reading for today is Exodus 37 through 38. The building of the altar of burnt offering; the altar itself should remind us of sin’s high cost.

And he made the altar of burnt offering of shittim wood: five cubits was the length thereof, and five cubits the breadth thereof; it was foursquare; and three cubits the height thereof.  And he made the horns thereof on the four corners of it; the horns thereof were of the same: and he overlaid it with brass.  And he made all the vessels of the altar, the pots, and the shovels, and the basons, and the fleshhooks, and the firepans: all the vessels thereof made he of brass.  And he made for the altar a brasen grate of network under the compass thereof beneath unto the midst of it.  And he cast four rings for the four ends of the grate of brass, to be places for the staves.  And he made the staves of shittim wood, and overlaid them with brass. And he put the staves into the rings on the sides of the altar, to bear it withal; he made the altar hollow with boards.
And he made the laver of brass, and the foot of it of brass, of the lookingglasses of the women assembling, which assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
Exodus 38:1-8