Let's Go To The Altar
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Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.
And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.
And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south. And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. And he went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Hai; Unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first: and there Abram called on the name of the LORD.
And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee. Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the LORD.
Main Points:
A Call to Worship (possible)
Altars- A construction mad of stone, earth, wood, or metal for the offering of sacrifice. They were devices that were erected and used in both true and false religions. The etymology of the word altar or mizbeah signifies “to slaughter for sacrifice”. In addition, altars were not isolated to use for animal sacrifice, they were also used for foodstuffs, like grain, oil, salt, incense, wine, etc.
Altars according to Israelite history were built or erected at sites where God’s presence or power had been experienced:
Noah after the great flood, immediately when he steps off of the boat he gathers stones and builds an altar. Why? Because he experienced the presence and the power of God! He experiences God’s grace and mercy and because he knew God had been merciful to him, he shows God reverence by building an altar and sacrificing on the altar. As a result of Noah building an altar and offering a sacrifice, God acknowledges and speaks with Noah!
Our text informs us that Abram that God “appears” to Abram. This is totally different than when God spoke to Abram and told Abram to leave out from amongst country and your kindred to a land which I will show you. Abram in faith, steps out on faith, packs his stuff, gathers up his family and then leaves. Abram does not know where he is going.....but he is going in faith, believing that God was going to lead and guide him in the right path. So as Abram is going in faith, the bible says that Abram and his family arrives at Shechem.
God reveals Himself to Abram and tells Abram “Unto thy seed will I give this land” and Abram after he experiences God after God has revealed himself to Abram, Abram now builds an altar.
Altars were a place where truth and justice was discovered. Not only was the altar designated as a place of sacrifice, it is a place for communion with God and the confession of one’s total dependence upon Him. The goal of the altar was not only for sacrifice or for communication with God, it was also a place where a person could focus on God in this holy spot.
Finding Our Way Back to Worship (possible)
The scripture now tells us that a famine hits the land. Abram begins to make his way down to Egypt. However if we would remember the words of God, God never said go down to Egypt, God said walk and I’ll lead you to where you need to go. Abram, takes matters into his own hands and understandably so because there was a famine in the land that he was at. So now we have Abram going to a place that was not ordained of God to go and you know what happens when we start taking matters in our own hands.....WE GET IN TROUBLE!
As the enter Egypt, Abram tells his wife Sarai, look here.....you are beautiful to look at. So when we get to Egypt, tell the people that you are my sister, because if you tell them you are my wife, they might kill me.
See we often times like to talk about Abraham being a man of faith, but we don’t like to talk about the process. Abram didn’t become Abraham over night.....he had to go through a process. This is one reason why some churches fail at retention because when people get saved we try to rush them through the process. People give up and backslide because they feel that they don’t have to or that they don’t want to go through the process. You need to understand in order to know who God is and to have a relationship with Him there is a process that you have to go through and everybody's process is not the same. So fear causes Abram to go somewhere that he had no business being. Now fear brings him to a place that it causes him to lie about his marriage status. If we are not careful “fear” can impact us the same way, we’ll find ourselves in places that we ought not be in. Fear will have us saying things we ought not to say.
So the bible says the king’s servants rants and raves about how beautiful Sarai is and the bible says that the king takes Sarai in to be his wife and gives Abram all kind of valuables. But here is the thing......God made a promise to Abram “I’m going to give this land to your seed”. When God makes a promise.....He has to make good on it......God cannot lie! Even when Abram was unfaithful.....God was still faithful. When Abram couldn’t fight for himself and did not know how to fight and did not know what to God, God fought for him! When you don’t know what to do....have faith in the faithful God that will fight for you!
God begins to trouble the king of Egypt to the point that the king realized he messed up. So the king summons Abram and asks Abram “Why did you lie to me and tell me that Sarai was your sister when in fact she was your wife?” The bible says that the king of Egypt tells Abram “pack your stuff.....and get out”. Abram packs his stuff and gets out of dodge.....now he is back in the same place that he left. He returns back to the land of famine.....but you know what. A light goes off in his head....”let’s return to the place where I first met the Lord”. Let’s go back to the altar!
Worship Will Set You Up For Victory (possible)
Abram when he went to Egypt experienced failure! He failed, he went someone other than where God told him to go. He failed, in that he lied to the king of Egypt by saying that Sarai was his sister when in fact Sarai was his wife. He failed in being the protector of his wife. His failure resulted in him being evicted and casted out of Egypt. However the most amazing thing that Abraham does that is not a failure is that he went back to the ALTAR! He went back to the same place where God had revealed Himself to Abram, he knew that if I could just get back to the altar, if I can get back to God, if I call on the LORD that He will make everything alright! Build an Altar!
Even in your mess ups, remember the altar!
Altars require sacrifices! Sacrifice in the both the Old Testament and New Testament required effort on ones part. That means that you had to work in order for the sacrifice to happen. It took work, to bring a heifer to the altar, it took effort. It took effort to set a trap to capture a turtle dove, it took effort to go out into the fields to cut down grain to present a grain offering, it took effort to crush grapes, ferment the grapes, make wine, and then use this wine as a drink offering! It takes effort to build an altar, you have to cut down wood, you have to dig up stones, you have to melt precious metals to get gold and silver, you have to dig with shovels and pack mounds of dirt to make an earthen altar.
It is at the altar that God meets us, it is at the altar that God makes himself known to us, it is at the altar where God blesses us!
Altars were places of God’s presence! The reason why Abram built an altar was that he wanted to remember the place where God met him. He believed that if God met him in that place that it would be a good place for him to go back and meet the Lord again!
The altar represented covenant renewal!
Abram came back to the altar, the scriptures said “he called on God” but this time he didn’t hear from God. But notice what Abram does, he stayed there! He stayed within the vicinity of the altar he didn’t go anywhere else and he wasn’t going to move until he heard from God again.
It is not until after Abram’s nephew lot and his family separate themselves that God finally speaks again to Abram. In the place of solitude, does God speak to us, when we don’t have any distractions and when we can focus on Him is when God speaks to us. One of the reasons why some people have a hard time hearing God is because they are too busy listening to other people.
Now it is at the end of chapter 13 that God finally speaks to Abram. God says, lift up your eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee. Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the LORD.
How do we build an altar? We are not telling you to go outside and to get rocks, mounds of dirt, silver, or gold and build an altar. The pagans built foreign/illegal altars that were built for their gods (demons). They built these altars and sacrificed on these altars to hear from these false deities, but notice how the scripture differs. The patriarchs built altars not to hear from God, they built them because they experienced God! Every instance of the patriarchs in scripture tells us that when they experienced God, they experienced some kind of move of God they built an altar!
How do we build an altar, you do not build one physically, this is a spiritual altar. This is a metaphorical altar we are talking about.
The writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 13:10
We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.
The cross is our altar
Oft times in the Old Testament when a person wanted to reconciliate with another person or with God himself, they brought a sacrifice. The sacrifice made things right between the two parts. When Jesus died, he died to make things right between us and God!
What do we sacrifice? Jesus presented himself as a perfect sacrifice. We are to present ourselves as a living sacrifice!
When we die daily, when we die to things that are not like God, when we mortify and put to death are carnal mind or human (sinful tendencies) motions we are building an altar! When we put things in order, when we do like God says do, when we build an altar, we can be just like Elijah was, we can expect God to reply! Noah built an altar and God replied, Elijah built an altar and God replied, when we come to the altar, when we build our altar to God, God is going to reply! How does he reply? With FIRE!!!
Altars were place of refuge, places of protection for those who may have accidentally done wrong. Adonijah, David’s son did something he shouldn’t have done. He got the big-head and tried to seize the throne. The kingdom was suppose to go to Solomon. So when King David found out, King David made an official proclamation. So Adonijah becomes afraid and in his reasoning believes that Solomon will have him killed for trying to take the throne. So Adonijah runs to the tabernacle and what does he do.....grabs ahold of the altar!
And Adonijah feared because of Solomon, and arose, and went, and caught hold on the horns of the altar. And it was told Solomon, saying, Behold, Adonijah feareth king Solomon: for, lo, he hath caught hold on the horns of the altar, saying, Let king Solomon swear unto me to day that he will not slay his servant with the sword.
Had Adonijah ran, surely Solomon would have probably had him captured and executed for treason. But thank God he ran to the altar! When you mess up, when you make a mistake the last thing you need to do is run from the altar you need to run to the altar! Grab a hold of the altar! Put yourself on the altar, allow the consuming fire of God to consume every act of disobedience, every lustful thought, every lie, allow the fire of God to consume envy, hatred, anger, unforgiveness, pride, racism, witchcraft, manipulation, any disobedient thought any disobedient act!