Wednesday Bible Study: Altars

 

At long last, The Lord is allowing me to work on the next plan in my Stone series: Altars.  Now, you might think, when I say Altar- of the one made for the Tabernacle:

And this was an "industrial scale" altar, used for all the people of Israel, a foreshadowing of Christ dying for the sins of all.  But I want to go back to the original, personal altars:

Exo 20:24  You shall make an altar of earth to Me, and shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In all places where I record My name I will come to you, and I will bless you. 

Exo 20:25  And if you will make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of cut stone. For if you lift up your tool upon it, you have defiled it. 

Exo 20:26  And you shall not go up by steps to My altar, that your nakedness be not uncovered on it. 

 So let's look at this.  This was not the FIRST altar, to be sure- since the days of Abel, men made altars like this to the Lord.  But this is the template.

First, the construction- either of earth, or of uncut stone.  Now the commentators bring up three schools of Jewish thought why God wanted it of such humble materials:

One: because tools were of iron; iron made weapons and drew blood.  Which seems logical until you consider that Abel and Seth were sacrificing before iron was discovered (as the Bible and the Jewish sources say that ironwork was taught be the Watchers to Lamech's son Tubal-Cain).  Plus, an altar, by and large was for sacrifices, and sacrifices required blood.

Two: Because cutting into the stone led to the temptation of making a graven image.  Realizing this command had not yet been given per se, one figures that the Holy One would have built this into the mindset of those who worship Him.  This seems like the main reason- if not the only one.

Three: That it be made of the native land on which it was built.  This smacks of magic.  Also, v24 says "in all places where I record My Name"; it's not the place that matters, but God's presence.  Plus, if you go back to the story of Balaam (and get past the talking donkey), Balak had Balaam attempt his "curse on Israel" from three different 'sacred places', and it made not one difference.

Next, the purposes.  When Abraham made the first explicitly named altar, it was "to call upon the Name of the Lord"- a process started by Seth and Enosh (as we saw last week.  It was a place at which to draw close to God.

Another purpose was to mark where the Lord made an appearance to the person involved.  Jacob built one at Bethel after the vision of the angels; Gideon built one after his commissioning to fight for Israel.

A third was as a memorial.  When the people crossed into the Promised Land, God commanded one such:

Jos 8:30  Then Joshua built an altar to Jehovah, the God of Israel in Mount Ebal, 

Jos 8:31  as Moses the servant of Jehovah commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the book of the Law of Moses, an altar of whole stones over which no man has lifted any iron. And they offered on it burnt offerings to Jehovah, and sacrificed peace offerings. 

Jos 8:32  And he wrote there on the stones a copy of the Law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the sons of Israel. 

Another purpose was to mark a covenant.  One such was the one between Jacob and Laban:

Gen 31:44  And come now, let us make a covenant, you and I. And let it be for a witness between you and me. 

Gen 31:45  And Jacob took a stone and set it up as a memorial pillar. 

Gen 31:46  And Jacob said to his brothers, Gather stones. And they took stones and made a heap. And they ate there upon the heap. 

Gen 31:47  And Laban called it in Syrian, Heap of the Testimony, and Jacob called it in Hebrew, Heap of Testimony. 

Another came shortly after the one Joshua built.  The tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, stayed on the far side of the Jordan, and they built "an altar of imposing size".  When the other tribes saw this, they thought at first it was a symbol of apostasy owing to its less-then-humble appearance.  But, the tribes explained:

Jos 22:24  No, but we did it from fear that in time to come your children might say to our children, ‘What have you to do with the LORD, the God of Israel? 

Jos 22:25  For the LORD has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you, you people of Reuben and people of Gad. You have no portion in the LORD.’ So your children might make our children cease to worship the LORD. 

Jos 22:26  Therefore we said, ‘Let us now build an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice, 

Jos 22:27  but to be a witness between us and you, and between our generations after us, that we do perform the service of the LORD in his presence with our burnt offerings and sacrifices and peace offerings, so your children will not say to our children in time to come, “You have no portion in the LORD.”’ 

Jos 22:28  And we thought, ‘If this should be said to us or to our descendants in time to come, we should say, “Behold, the copy of the altar of the LORD, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifice, but to be a witness between us and you.”’ 

So with this example, you can see that the true meaning of the altar can be lost.  The altar isn't holy, the God is.  Let me bring up one more example- this time of a bad altar.  King Saul was on his last legs with God; he had taken on himself to sacrifice to the Lord, instead of waiting on Samuel.  Samuel let him know he had lost favor with the Lord.  But there was still a war to be fought, and while Saul waited for a sign, his son Jonathan acted; seeing an opportunity for a few men to do a great thing, he said:

1Sa 14:6  Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor, “Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the LORD will work for us, for nothing can hinder the LORD from saving by many or by few.” 

Faith led Jonathan; and his attack was so successful, it caused a tumult in the Philistine camp which Saul heard, and went on the attack.  But, instead of simply trusting the Lord:

1Sa 14:24  And the men of Israel had been hard pressed that day, so Saul had laid an oath on the people, saying, “Cursed be the man who eats food until it is evening and I am avenged on my enemies.” So none of the people had tasted food. 

Which inevitably led, among other things, to a scene of chaos after the victory that God granted Jonathan:

1Sa 14:32  The people pounced on the spoil and took sheep and oxen and calves and slaughtered them on the ground. And the people ate them with the blood. 

1Sa 14:33  Then they told Saul, “Behold, the people are sinning against the LORD by eating with the blood.” And he said, “You have dealt treacherously; roll a great stone to me here.” 

1Sa 14:34  And Saul said, “Disperse yourselves among the people and say to them, ‘Let every man bring his ox or his sheep and slaughter them here and eat, and do not sin against the LORD by eating with the blood.’” So every one of the people brought his ox with him that night and they slaughtered them there. 

Note that Saul never took the blame upon himself.  Afterwards, he built an altar to the Lord- "it was the first altar that Saul built"- and tried to call upon the Name of the Lord...

1Sa 14:37  And Saul inquired of God, “Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will you give them into the hand of Israel?” But he did not answer him that day. 

Saul had "after the fact" consideration for the Lord; and God wasn't about to honor that.  Unable to admit his own sinfulness, he tried to blame it on ANYone else...

1Sa 14:41  Therefore Saul said, “O LORD God of Israel, why have you not answered your servant this day? If this guilt is in me or in Jonathan my son, O LORD, God of Israel, give Urim. But if this guilt is in your people Israel, give Thummim.” And Jonathan and Saul were taken, but the people escaped. 

It came down to Jonathan, who was unaware of the stupid oath, who had had a bit of honey during the battle.  And still Saul was willing to kill his son rather than admit the fault was his oath- but the people, who had been blessed in battle despite Saul- stopped him.

So in the end, an altar is just earth and stone.  But the meaning- that it is the meeting place between God and man- that is the holiness.  The Pharisees, however, went too far the other way:

Mat 23:18  And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ 

Mat 23:19  You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 

Mat 23:20  So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 

Mat 23:21  And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by Him who dwells in it. 

Just like Saul, they bound themselves in stupid oaths.  And now, our altar is the Cross, and Christ is the connection to God.  So if there is a value left in any altar, it is this: Let your yes be yes, and your no be no.