An altar of earth thou shalt make unto Me,
and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings,
and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen:
in all places where I record My name I will come unto thee,
and I will bless thee.
And if thou wilt make Me an altar of stone,
thou shalt not build it of hewn stone:
for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.
Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto Mine altar,
that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon. Exodus 20:24-26
I noticed this passage when I was reading the Book of Exodus
God wanted the altar to Himself made with natural stones, no cutting
Just leave them as they are
I started looking up altars and it’s a big study,
there are several types of altars that are mentioned in the bible.
From the natural stones, to altars of particular types of wood,
some altars are overlaid with gold.
In Revelation 8,
And another angel came and stood at the altar,
having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense,
that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints
.upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.
And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar,
and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings,
and lightnings, and an earthquake. verses 3-5
Also in Revelation 6, And when he had opened the fifth seal,
I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: verse 9
The Altar in the Book of Revelation was the Main Altar, it seems.
The souls were under the Altar. Must be a gigantic Altar.
Even bigger than this earthly one:
And when they came to the region of the Jordan
which is in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben,
the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh
built an altar there by the Jordan—a great, impressive altar. Joshua 22:10
On Earth, there are many altars that have been built,
that God directed to be built for each circumstance and each situation.
When Jacob fled from Esau, God told him to make an altar:
And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there:
and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee
when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. Genesis 35:1
Moses made a few Altars as he led the Israelites to the Promised Land.
And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovahnissi: Exodus 17:15
The Lord is my banner.
Solomon made a bronze Altar:
Moreover he made an altar of brass, twenty cubits the length thereof,
and twenty cubits the breadth thereof, and ten cubits the height thereof.
2 Chronicles 4:1
So back to the whole idea that spurred this impromptu study,
not cutting the stones.
The first thing that came to mind when I saw that was that we are
to let God be God, not try to change things,
just make an Altar, honorable to Him,
not trying to add anything to it, just letting it be.
Honoring Him, worshiping Him and not adding flesh,
taking the stones we are given and creating a place to worship Him.
And there shalt thou build an altar unto the Lord thy God, an altar of stones: thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them. Deuteronomy 27:5
So let it be.
Let God’s will be done.
We are here and are active participants,
but we are followers, followers of Jesus.
We can’t make some things better and by trying,
we might be removing important elements.
Like always, God’s word is multi-faceted, much included in every word.
The Altar?
The place we worship Him, in our hearts, in reality, in every venue.
See what He says to you about it.
We’re going to be seeking, wanting to learn more about Jesus
and discovering new treasures for all eternity.