The Altar

The Great Exchange

The Primary term, for Altar in the Bible is Mizbeah (400x) which is derived from the root zbh, to slaughter. Altars are a surface on which things are put to death in exchange for communion with God

The Altar is a place of offering sacrifices

A sacrifice is a gift of something you own or possess that you are willing to exchange for God’s ways.

One of the purposes of Altars in the old testament was to offer sacrifices for the forgiveness of sins.

Noah was the first to build and Altar to God! After the flood, He built and alter to give God Glory for His salvation

This was an altar of worship. Which resulted in God making a covenant with Noah.

An Altar is a place, a physical location, that is built by us! not God!

Noah took stones and put them together to make a place to worship God by killing animals and burning them at the altar.

The Sacrifice of Praise

Another Purpose for the Alter was to burn incense on

Exodus 30:6–8 NKJV

And you shall put it before the veil that is before the ark of the Testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the Testimony, where I will meet with you. “Aaron shall burn on it sweet incense every morning; when he tends the lamps, he shall burn incense on it. And when Aaron lights the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense on it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations.

Worship and Praise are the way into Gods presence.

it was to be placed before the veil, before the ark of the Covenant where God meets with us!

Genesis 8:20 NKJV

Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

Genesis 8:21 NKJV

And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.

Incense was to be burnt

Exodus 30:34–35 NKJV

And the Lord said to Moses: “Take sweet spices, stacte and onycha and galbanum, and pure frankincense with these sweet spices; there shall be equal amounts of each. You shall make of these an incense, a compound according to the art of the perfumer, salted, pure, and holy.

Exodus 30:36–38 NKJV

And you shall beat some of it very fine, and put some of it before the Testimony in the tabernacle of meeting where I will meet with you. It shall be most holy to you. But as for the incense which you shall make, you shall not make any for yourselves, according to its composition. It shall be to you holy for the Lord. Whoever makes any like it, to smell it, he shall be cut off from his people.”

Praise belongs to our God! The purity of our hearts intentions are what connect us to God’s presence.

When we come to worship what is it that we are offering?

Words, songs poems, melody, music? What is this sacrifice of praise?

Romans 12:1 NKJV

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

Are we truly coming to God bringing a sacrifice? a gift? or are we coming empty handed hoping to take something?

The principal of the Altar is very important because it is a physical example of how our relationship with God works.

This Altar is to be built by us.

If we desire to worship God we are to gather the rocks. Build a place for the offering.

What kind of an altar are we building?

The We offer that which is valuable to us!

Time, money , effort, work, all of these are not what God wants.

He really wants our hearts. but These things demonstrate where our hearts are.

Is there purity in us?

What are we bringing to the altar? Is what we are bringing truly to be given to God or are we really not giving anything...

The specifications for the gifts at the altar are very clear,

The best of us! The purest, they valuable, The thing that our heart loves and desires. These things are to be offered at the Altar of God

Many of our trouble and our lack is because we forgot what the altar of praise and incense is all about.

Hebrews 13:15–16 NKJV

Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.