An altar in Scripture indicates approach to God, or communion with Him, and the altar was often the place of sacrifice, teaching us that our approach to God, and communion with Him, is based on the one great sacrifice of Christ, to which all the sacrifices of the Old Testament point forward. Before any altar is seen, approach to God is shown to be by sacrifice, in the offering of Abel, who was accepted by God in the efficacy of the innocent victims that died in his stead.
There is very little said in Scripture of the men who lived before the flood, but of Enoch it is recorded that he "walked with God" (Gen. 5:24), and the writer to the Hebrews tells us that "before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God" (Heb. 11:5). In walking With God, Enoch had communion with God, even although there is no mention of an altar till after the flood. When Noah came out of the ark on to the renewed earth, he "builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar" (Gen. 8:20).
Noah's altar was an altar of sacrifice, which introduces the many burnt offerings of the Old Testament, offerings that tell of the sweet smelling savour of the death of Christ to His God and Father. The new earth was introduced on the ground of sacrifice, even as will be in the coming day the millennial earth, where the nations will live after passing through the judgments of God, and where Christ will be King of kings and Lord of lords with His earthly centre in Jerusalem among His people Israel.
We have no indication from Scripture of Noah using his altar after the offering of his sacrifices on coming forth from the ark, or that he ever built another altar to maintain communion with God. With Abraham it was different. He had no altar that we know of in Ur of the Chaldees, but after the call of God, and after coming into the land to which God had directed him, his altar is first raised. This first altar was after he had passed through the land and God had appeared to him the second time. He could not have communion with God in Ur or even in Haran; but having come to where God had called him, he could rear his altar to have communion with God in relation to His sovereign call of grace.
Abraham's communion was in a hostile scene, for "the Canaanite was then in the land" (Gen. 12:6), but in that land there was a place where God appeared to him, and where He said, "Unto thy seed will I give this land". Resting on the promise of God, Abraham builds his altar in the place of Sichem, in the plain of Moreh. Sichem means shoulder and Moreh means teacher, which surely teaches us that the saint of God had come to the place where he relied on the strength of God's shoulder and was taught of God.
On removing from Sichem, Abraham came "unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the Name of the Lord" (Gen. 12:8). For Abraham, his altar was the means of his communion with the Lord who had appeared to him, and if he changed his place on his pilgrim way, his safety and joy depended upon the presence of the Lord with him. The pilgrim pitches his tent, the saint of God builds his altar, and there he calls on the Name of the Lord, manifesting his dependence upon the One who had called him.
The mountain, an elevated place, was above the influences of the world around; and with Bethel on the west, Abraham's altar keeps before us the truth of the house of God; and on the other hand was Hai, which means "an heap", the realisation that the world through which we pass is but a ruin in the sight of God, and what it will surely be when God has done with it in judgment. How good it is when God's pilgrims have ever before them that this is a judged world, as the Lord said in John 16:11, and that God has His own house as a testimony for Himself (1 Tim. 3:15) amidst the ruins of this world.
When famine came to Canaan, Abraham, instead of relying on God as hitherto, forsook the land to which he had been called and went down into Egypt. God's pilgrim had gone from his true place, from the land to which God had called him, so that we are not surprised that he has no altar, no communion with God in Egypt, but rather shame and dishonour, even if accompanied with the wealth of this world. Yet how good it is to see Abraham returning to the point of departure, "unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first: and there Abraham called on the Name of the Lord" (Gen. 13:4).
After Lot had chosen the plain of Sodom and separated from Abraham, the Lord again appeared to Abraham, renewing His promise to him, and saying "Walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee" (Gen. 13:17). Obedient to the word of God, Abraham "removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord". Mamre means vigour and Hebron means company. There is strength and vigour for those who maintain communion with the Lord, and in communion they have His company, if separation from the world deprives them of the company of those who seek the things of the world.
The altars of Sichem, Bethel and Hebron were not altars for sacrifice, as far as we learn from the Scriptures considered, but built to indicate communion with the Lord and dependence upon Him. It was a different kind of altar that Abraham built on mount Moriah, to which God had directed him, saying, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of" (Gen. 22:2).
How blessedly the obedience of Abraham is evinced in this matter, for he "rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him". He did not delay, no, not for a single day; and it was early morn when he arose to carry out the will of God. Nor did the length of the journey deter him, even though he did not see the place of the altar until the third day, and even then he saw it afar off.
The confidence in God of the patriarch shines as brightly as his obedience, for he said to the young men, "Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you". He was confident that the lad would return with him, even if he could not understand all that was before him; and the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews interprets this for us, where he writes that Abraham accounted "that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure" (Heb. 11:19).
Abraham's obedience is fully tested, for God allows him to bind his son, put him on the altar, and to lift his hand with the knife in it, before calling to him from heaven, "Abraham, Abraham … Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him; for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me". Faith, which begets obedience and confidence in God, marks Abraham as the father of the faithful, the fear of God outweighing every other consideration that might have arisen in his mind.
There is also the typical teaching of this wondrous altar. Surely we can see, in the willingness of a father to sacrifice his only son, the sovereign love of God who "spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all" (Rom. 8:32). How dear Isaac was to Abraham, his only-begotten, the one in whom all the promises rested; but the great love for Isaac only brings out the greatness of the sacrifice, even as God's infinite love for His only-begotten Son measures the gift He gave to make eternal life available for us.
See, too, the meek submission of Isaac, as he says, "Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" After his receiving the reply, "My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering", they "went both of them together". With the Son of God there was full knowledge of all that lay before Him, and He went onward to the cross in constant communion with His Father, not to be spared like Isaac, but to be the burnt offering that fully glorified the Father, yea, and the sin offering to lay the basis for the accomplishing of all God's will, and to bring infinite and eternal blessing to those who have the faith of Abraham.
After the Lord intervened to provide a substitute for Isaac in the ram caught in the thicket, Abraham called the place Jehovah-jireh, meaning, the Lord will provide. Abraham had said to Isaac, "God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering", and his faith had been answered. It was then that the Lord renewed the promise to Abraham, confirming it with an oath. How much is brought before us of the wondrous grace of God, and of the faith of His servant in Jehovah-jireh.
Isaac was a man of faith as Hebrews 11:20 tells us, though there was not the same energy of faith that marked Abraham his father. When famine came to Canaan, Isaac went to the land of the Philistines, and the Lord appeared to him, forbidding him to go down to Egypt. In Gerar he sowed and his harvest from the Lord was great, and his prosperity aroused the envy of the Philistines. Departing from the city, Isaac pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar and digged again the wells his father had digged before him, but the men of that place strove with him, and he left the well he had digged. It was the same at Sitnah; but at Rehoboth there was no striving, and Isaac said, "The Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land".
When Isaac came to Beer-sheba, the Lord appeared again to him, telling him not to fear, and renewing to him the promise made to his father Abraham of blessing and increase (Gen. 26:24). It was then that Isaac built his altar, and called on the Name of the Lord. Among the Philistines he had the protection of the Lord and increase of his worldly goods, but he had no altar there, for communion with God must be in the path of separation and pilgrimage to which he had been called as the son of his father Abraham. We can only properly call on the Name of the Lord as walking in the path of His will.
Abraham had already called the name of that place Beer-sheba, because of the oath between himself and Abimelech, whose servants had violently taken away a well of water from him; but the name is given afresh when Abimelech comes from Gerar to make a covenant with Isaac because he saw that the Lord was With him (Gen. 21:32; Gen. 26:33).
While Jacob was still with Laban, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "I am the God of Beth-el … arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred" (Gen. 31:13). Answering to the divine call, Jacob set off for the land of promise, but he had many experiences on the way. Laban came after him, but God spoke to Laban before he came up with Jacob, warning him to be careful of what he said to Jacob. The angels of God met Jacob, and God Himself came to him before he met Esau his brother. On leaving Esau, he came to Shechem, and there pitched his tent, and bought a field.
At Shechem Jacob evidently intended to stay, for having purchased his field he built an altar and called it El-elohe-Israel (Gen. 33:20), which means, God, the God of Israel. Jacob's intentions were good, but it seems clear that he had not fully entered into the mind of God. It was Bethel that God had spoken to him of while still in Padan-aram, for had He not said, "I am the God of Bethel"?
The sad story of Genesis 34 is a warning to us of the sorrows that can come through coming short of the purpose of God for us as His saints. God allowed his dear servant to pass through his trials and testings that we might learn from His ways with him. Having allowed Jacob to learn the lessons of Shechem, "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" (Gen. 35:1). At once Jacob realises afresh that he has to do with a holy God, for he says to his household, "Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments".
Although Jacob had his altar at Shechem, there had been the allowance of much that the God of Bethel could not allow to proceed, and this surely accounts for the solemn and sad discipline that came on the house of Jacob. There was the outward appearance of communion with God in the altar of El-elohe-Israel, but the God of Israel could not tolerate the idolatry that was evidently in the house of Jacob, and known to him. God had allowed shame and dishonour to enter the house of Jacob, and his sons had sought to deal with it in a fleshly way, only to bring fear on Jacob. God has to intervene to tell his servant the way to separation from evil and to divine blessing.
All that was dishonouring to God having been put away, hidden by Jacob under the oak by Shechem, the patriarch and his household go up to Bethel, as God had commanded. God put His terror on the cities surrounding Shechem, so that Jacob and his house were not molested by those who would have done him harm. Coming to Bethel, Jacob built the altar for which God had asked, and he called the place El-beth-el, which means, God of the House of God. The patriarch had now entered into God's purpose for him, that which he had spoken of so long before, when, fleeing from the anger of his brother, he had vowed, "If God will be with me … so that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God: and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house" (Gen. 28:20-22). How good it is when the soul enters into God's purpose and acts in accordance with it.
The altars of Exodus, like the altars of Genesis, have their own special teaching for the saints of God today. All the altars of Genesis were reared by individual saints of God, and are largely connected with their experiences. Noah built his altar in relation to the renewed earth, sacrificing burnt offerings to the God Who had brought him and his house safely through the waters of judgment. The altars of Abraham are bound up with his history, only one being connected with sacrifice, that on which Isaac was laid. All the other altars of Abraham, like those of Isaac and Jacob, signified that they were in relationship with God, and in dependence upon Him.
When Amalek came to fight with Israel, Moses commanded Joshua to select men for the battle, but he himself went to the top of the hill to intercede with God. He knew full well that the issue of the conflict lay with Jehovah, and that it was more important to be before God than to have powerful forces to meet the enemy. There is no record of any word spoken to Jehovah, but the attitude of Moses was manifested by his uplifted hands. It was a sign that it was to God that he looked for the victory; and the Lord acknowledged this, for when the hands of Moses were lifted, Israel prevailed, but when they fell, Amalek prevailed.
Moses had taken Aaron and Hur with him to the place of intercession, and also the rod of God. The rod that had made a way through the Red Sea, and that had been demonstrated before Pharaoh as the rod of God's authority and power, signified that Moses depended on the power of God in this conflict. Moses, unlike the One Who intercedes in heaven for us and Whose hands are never weary, needed the support of God's priest, and of Hur, whose name means free or noble. Moses, Aaron and Hur together give a faint foreshadowing of Him Who intercedes for His saints during their time of conflict here, and His intercession assures us of the victory.
After Israel had prevailed, "the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven" (Ex. 17:14). God had been watching all the while; the enemies of Israel were His enemies, but He would ever have His people depending upon Him. Amalek, the inveterate enemy of God and His people, would be finally dealt with, but the Lord would have war with him from generation to generation. All the world's hatred against God and His people found full expression against the Son of God, but He overcame the world, and, in the divine nature and by faith in God, we too can overcome the world (See 1 John 5:4-5).
Generation after generation of the saints find themselves in conflict with a persecuting and seducing world, but we have the Lord as our banner, Jehovah-nissi is still unfurled by the saints of God, and, being strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, we need not fear Amalek in the wilderness or the enemies in the land. Amalek had not only challenged Israel but Jehovah the God of Israel: nor were God's people to forget how Amalek smote the weak and hindmost when Israel were "faint and weary" (Deut. 25:17-19). The world today is still a system that hates God and His people, and that fears not God.
After the law had been given, as told in the words of Exodus 20, Israel were warned not to make gods of silver and gold. Then the Lord said to Moses, "An altar of earth thou shalt make unto Me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings … in all places where I record My Name" (verse 24). There might be the temptation to copy the altars of the heathen even if they did not worship their gods; and imitating their altars might readily lead to following their idolatrous worship.
When the tabernacle was built, there would be the altars for God's worship there; but even before the tabernacle was built there would be opportunity for sacrificing to the living God. The sacrifices on the altars all spoke to God of the one great sacrifice that would glorify God; but in approaching God, Israel were to indicate in their altars what they were in themselves, for they were but dust, even as the Psalmist wrote, "For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust" (Ps. 103:14). The natural man is vain enough to exalt himself in the presence of God, while worshipping before Him, but God would have every man to remember what he really is before Him.
How very sad it was when king Ahaz, going to Damascus and admiring the altar of a heathen god and making one like it, sinned against the God of Israel. In marked contrast, when Naaman the Syrian was cleansed by the power of the God of Israel, he said to Elisha, "Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules' burden of earth? for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the Lord." Naaman had learned his nothingness when dipping in the waters of Jordan, and it would seem that he desired two mules' burden of Israel's earth to sacrifice thereon to Israel's God.
In the next verse of Exodus 20 it is written, "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." God is making it perfectly plain that the works of man have no place in his approach to Him, a doctrine that is expounded to us in the New Testament. When writing to the saints at Ephesus, Paul says, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8-9). Paul makes it very clear in other Scriptures, such as Romans 4:1-7 and Titus 3:5, that the blessing of God is not to be obtained by any work of man, but by the sovereign kindness and love of God. This then is the lesson we are to learn from the prohibition of work on the stones of the altar.
The last verse of Exodus 20 reads, "Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto Mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon." There is nothing more objectionable than man seeking to exalt himself in the things of God, and especially in relation to the worship of God. Those who attempt to do this but expose themselves in their shame before the eye of God, and in the eyes of those who have any sense of the greatness of the One Whom we worship in spirit and in truth. At Corinth there were some who, in speaking with tongues, were seeking their own glory (1 Cor. 13:1), using their gifts as steps on the altar for their own exaltation before men.
It was a very solemn moment in Israel's history when, after hearing "all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments", all the people answered with one voice, and said, "All the words which the Lord hath said will we do" (Ex. 24:3). They had committed themselves to keep the whole law, not realising their utter inability to do so. Having written all the words of the Lord, Moses "builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel." On this altar the young men, sent by Moses, "offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the Lord."
Half the blood of the sacrifices was sprinkled on the altar, and the other half put in basons, and after the people had again said, "All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient … Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words." It was serious enough for them to promise to obey the words of the law, but how much more serious to bind themselves in a covenant of death to keep the whole law.
After their sin at the foot of Sinai, when they worshipped the golden calf, those with any real intelligence must have looked back on the altar that Moses reared as an altar of judgment, for there were not only blessings promised to those who kept the law, but curse and death for those who broke it. Still, it is blessed to understand that the very sacrifices upon that altar beneath Sinai looked forward to Christ, Who, by His death, would redeem His people from the curse of the law under which all were who were on the ground of law before God.
When God brought into being the tabernacle system, the brazen altar had a most important function, for it was upon it that the burnt offerings and peace offerings were offered to Jehovah. Indeed, it is frequently referred to as the altar of burnt offering, the continual burnt offering, the morning and the evening sacrifices being offered upon it, in addition to all the other prescribed offerings and the voluntary offerings. Although there was no actual approach to God under the legal system, yet the way into God's presence was set forth in type in it, and, on entering the tabernacle, the first thing to be met was the altar of burnt offering (Ex. 27:1-8; Ex. 40:29).
Acceptance with God was through the burnt offering, the offerer resting with his hand on the head of the victim, and it was slain and offered wholly on the altar for the acceptance of the one who offered it. Something of the meaning of the type is given to us in Ephesians 5:2, where it is written, "Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour."
Of the peace offering, in which the offerer and priestly family shared, Jehovah's portion, all the inward excellency of the victim, was offered upon the altar. Jehovah's part of the meat offering, which contained all the frankincense, was also burnt there. The fat of the sin offering was also burned on the altar of burnt offering, even that of the offerings that were burned outside the camp, for God would never have us forget that the One Who suffered for our sins was intrinsically holy, and all that He was in His inward thoughts, desires and feelings, even when made sin, was infinitely delightful to Him.
The blood of the burnt offering was sprinkled on the altar round about, the universal testimony to the fact that the only means of approach to God is through the work of redemption effected by His own Son. The blood of the peace offering was also sprinkled on the altar, but the blood of the sin offering was put upon the horns of the altar, and poured at the bottom of the altar. The horns speak of power, but the altar would have been of no avail to any without the blood; and the whole foundation of our dealings with God rests upon redemption.
Like the altar of burnt offering, the design and dimensions of the golden altar were given very minutely by God to Moses (Ex. 30), nothing being left to the imagination of man, for the mind of man has no place either in the way of approach to God or in His worship. Sweet incense, that prescribed by God in this chapter (Ex. 30:34-38), was to be burned upon the altar every morning when the priest dressed the lamps, for God would ever have before Him in worship the preciousness of Christ in all the fragrance that marks Him as Man before Him.
In the tabernacle, the burning of the incense was the service of the high priest, no doubt signifying the present ministry of Christ, our Great High Priest, Who maintains for God the worship of His people. When the temple system was instituted, it was the lot of other priests to burn incense, as we see from Luke 1:9, when "according to the custom of the priest's office" the lot of the father of John Baptist "was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord." Our privilege, as priests of God, is not only to enter the holy place, but to enter into the holiest, by the blood of Jesus, and there we worship before the face of God.
Once a year the golden altar had blood put upon its horns from the sin offering on the day of atonement, making plain that all worship for God flows from the work wrought by His Son upon the cross, when He shed His precious blood to glorify God, and bring us before Him as a company of worshippers.
It was not long after Israel had committed themselves to keep the law that they manifested their inability to keep it, for in the making of the golden calf, they broke the first commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me" (Ex. 20:3). How very sad it was to find even Aaron taking a lead in making the idol. There was the profession of worship to Jehovah in it all, for after Aaron had built his altar before the golden calf, he said, "Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord" (Ex. 32:5).
Despite Aaron's attempt to put another face on the idolatrous worship, there was no denying its true character. It began with the delay of Moses on the mount with God. The people had no real faith in God, though His glory had been seen in the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire: they wanted something tangible and visible ever before them, so said, "Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him."
There was not one word about the Lord Who had brought them up out of Egypt: He was not in all their thoughts; and their sacrifices to the golden calf, and their eating, drinking and playing afterwards, displayed how utterly abandoned they were in their thoughts. This idolatrous altar, made for the golden calf, with all the pretension of worship to the Lord, brought down upon Israel the righteous judgment of a holy and jealous God.
Moses' first altar was for a memorial of what Jehovah had wrought against Amalek; but all the other altars considered were for the worship and service of God, saving that of Aaron, which exposed what man is in his thoughts, even when having a special place of favour before God.
In looking over the Scriptures, we can see that many of the altars mentioned were built for sacrifice, such as the altar of Noah and the altars of burnt offering in the tabernacle and the temple. Some altars, like those of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, were to show that they were in communion with God, and that they relied upon Him for care and protection. Others, like that of Jehovah-nissi, commemorated some special occasion; while the golden altars of the tabernacle and the temple were made for the burning of fragrant incense for the worship of Jehovah the God of Israel.
It might be difficult to say what was actually in Balaam's mind when he told Balak to build him seven altars, and to prepare him seven oxen and seven rams (Num. 23:1, 14, 29), for though he said to God, "I have prepared seven altars, and I have offered upon every altar a bullock and a ram" (verse 4), he did not say he had prepared them for Him. Indeed, though he said, "Peradventure the Lord will come to meet me" (verse 3), and God did meet him, it is evident from what is said in Numbers 24:1 that he did not go to meet the Lord, for "he went not, as at other times, to seek for enchantments". He really went to meet his familiar spirit, but God intervened to make Balaam speak His word.
Balaam had already partaken of the heathen sacrifices of Balak (Num. 22:40) and had no desire to meet the God of Israel. Whatever then was the purpose of Balaam in raising his altars, he had to learn that no amount of sacrifice could make Him change His mind, for "God is not a man that he should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent" (Num. 23:19). God could take account of Israel as His chosen people, altogether apart from what they were in themselves, so that "He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel". God viewed them in the light of His purpose. Not all the altars and sacrifices, whether to Jehovah or to the familiar spirit of Balaam, could alter the purpose of God to bless those He had chosen.
Before Moses passed from the scene of his labours, he commanded the people to build an altar of whole stones, on mount Ebal, on the other side of Jordan. No tool was to be lifted upon the stones, for the work of man can never make him acceptable before God. The stones no doubt indicated What the tribes of Israel were in God's sight, as His Workmanship, even as believers in the Lord Jesus are viewed in the Scriptures as living stones, the workmanship of God (1 Peter 2:5).
Israel were to offer burnt offerings and peace offerings on this altar, and to rejoice before the Lord. All the words of the law were to be written upon the stones, for Israel were still on the ground of law before God. What Moses commanded was faithfully carried out by Joshua (Deut. 27:4-7; Joshua 8:30-32). All the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings, were read to the people, but there is no word of their rejoicing before the Lord. How could there be any real rejoicing with the curses of the law read to them? The altar of Ebal was a witness to Israel's bondage to a law which they were unable to keep or from which they could not free themselves. Only that which was indicated in the sacrifices, the death of Christ, could free them from this bondage (Rom. 7:4; Gal. 5:1), the handwriting that was against God's people being nailed "to His cross" (Col. 2:14).
The warriors of the two and a half tribes, who had chosen their inheritance on the east side of the Jordan, had faithfully fulfilled their promise to fight with their brethren for possession of the land of Canaan, and were returning to their homes, but, as they reached the Jordan, they were aware that the river separated them from their brethren, and they feared lest, at some future time, they would not be acknowledged as belonging to Israel, and so built "an altar by Jordan, a great altar to see to" (Joshua 22:10).
At first, the other tribes viewed their act as rebellion against the Lord, and were afraid that divine judgment might overtake them on account of this new altar. Phinehas and ten princes of Israel were sent to enquire into the matter, and spoke faithfully to their brethren, speaking of this altar as "an altar beside the altar of the Lord our God". They offered them a possession where God's tabernacle was, if their portion was unclean. They also recalled to them the sin of Achan, which brought judgment on all the nation.
After they explained their fears, saying that the altar was not for sacrifices, but only as a witness that they belonged to Israel, the explanation was accepted, and the brethren parted in peace. The fears of the two and a half tribes would never have arisen had they not decided to remain on the east of the Jordan, to stop short of God's purpose for His people; nor would they have given rise to the fears and exercises of their brethren, who recalled the solemn judgments that had earlier fallen upon the nation because of the sin of some in Israel. The altar of Ed, which means witness, remained as a witness that the two and a half tribes were of Israel, though also telling that the rich pastures of them from having their portion beside the tabernacle of the Lord.
On account of the idolatry of Israel, God had allowed the Midianites to oppress them, a work in which they were helped by Israel's old enemies, the Amalekites, who with others destroyed their produce. It was while Gideon was threshing wheat in secret that an angel of the Lord appeared to him, telling him that he was to deliver Israel from the oppression of the Midianites (Judges 6).
Having presented his offering, which the angel of the Lord accepted, Gideon was afraid, but the Lord said to him, "Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die". t was then that Gideon built an altar unto the Lord and called it "Jehovah-shalom", meaning Jehovah is peace. He had learned the peace that the Lord gives in times of fear and trouble, peace to sustain His servant as sent by Him to do His will. It was an altar to commemorate this wonderful occasion, when he had seen the angel of Jehovah, who had spoken peace to him.
Like Gideon, we have heard the Lord speak peace to us, even as He said to His disciples, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you" (John 14:27). All fear has been driven from our hearts, and the One who made peace by the blood of His cross has brought us into the richest of heavenly blessing, giving us eternal life that death cannot touch.
The Lord then commanded his servant to throw down the altar of Baal, and build an altar unto the Lord, and to sacrifice upon His altar his "father's second bullock". After obeying the word of the Lord to him, and having been fortified by signs from God to sustain his weak faith, Gideon is able to go forth to do the work for which the Lord had called him. This second altar expresses the obedience of God's servant, the obedience of faith, even if his faith was weak and required special signs to strengthen it.
When Manoah heard from his wife about the man of God who had appeared to her and spoken of the child she would conceive, there was faith in the Lord regarding the message, for he "intreated the Lord, and said, O my Lord, let the man of God which Thou didst send come again unto us, and teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born" (Judges 13:8). In response to this request, the angel of the Lord again appeared, and confirmed to Manoah that the child to be born was to be a Nazarite from his mother's womb.
Desirous of entertaining his divine messenger, Manoah offers to bring him a kid to eat, but this is refused; the stranger said, "If thou wit offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it unto the Lord". Not knowing that it was the angel of the Lord, Manoah asked Him His Name, so that he might honour Him when the child was born, and the answer was, "Why askest thou thus after My name, seeing it is secret? (or Wonderful)". This was nothing less than one of the Theophanies of the Old Testament, the Lord being present in angelic guise.
While offering a burnt offering and a meat offering on a rock to the Lord, the devoted couple see the wondrous actions of the Lord, then see Him ascend in the flame of their offering from off the altar. The rock on which they placed their offerings is accepted as an altar by the Lord. Like Gideon, Manoah thought he would die at seeing the angel of the Lord, but his wife shows remarkable intelligence in saying that the acceptance of their offerings, and the good tidings from the angel, clearly showed that the Lord would not kill them. We can learn much from the Lord's greatness, His grace and His glory from this altar, also the faith, piety and intelligence manifested by Manoah and his wife.
The sin of the children of Benjamin was grievous in the eyes of the Lord, and also in the eyes of the other tribes of Israel; and the slaughter that took place was God's government on the nation for the evil that existed among them. Yet, Israel sought the face of the Lord in the matter, Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, who had distinguished himself on other occasions, standing before the ark of the covenant to enquire of the Lord (Judges 20:27-28). After the dreadful work of judgment, "the people rose early, and built there an altar, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings" (Judges 21:4).
This altar was built at a time of deep sorrow, for the "people came to the house of God, and abode there till even before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept sore" (Judges 21:2). Offerings from a people broken down before Him would no doubt be very acceptable before the Lord. His judgment upon Benjamin particularly, and also upon the rest of the nation, had a very blessed effect in bringing them with weeping into the presence of God. Yet it was a very solemn and sorrowful occasion, for the oath that they had sworn meant further slaughter. The low state of the nation is exposed in this matter, and the righteous government of God's house revealed, with solemn yet blessed results.
When David sent Joab to number the children of Israel, even the captain of the host knew that David was doing wrong and sought to dissuade him from his purpose. Joab was not a man who lived near the Lord, but he was naturally shrewd, and David should have realised that when such a man as Joab knew that his course was wrong, it must have been wrong. Each time Israel were numbered, each man was to give a ransom of half a shekel of silver, "that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them" (Ex. 30:12); and it would seem that the ransom money was not paid. (The people may not have had the money to pay, or may not have been willing to do so.)
When faced with the choice of famine, fleeing before his enemies or with pestilence, David chose to fall into the hands of the Lord, knowing that "His mercies are great". But the judgment had to fall upon Israel to vindicate the word of God, and when the destroying angel came to Jerusalem to destroy it, "the Lord repented Him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now thine hand" (2 Sam. 24:16). The destroying angel was by the threshing place of Araunah the Jebusite when his hand was stayed, and Gad the prophet came to David, "and said unto him, Go up, rear an altar unto the Lord in the threshing floor of Araunah".
David's altar and offerings were for the staying of the plague, but the threshing floor of Araunah, or Ornan the Jebusite, was the place where the temple of the Lord was built by Solomon, and where the altar of burnt offering, and the golden altar, were erected for the worship of Jehovah the God of Israel. This altar therefore reminds us of the sovereign mercy of God towards His people, the God who remembers mercy in judgment, and who selected the place where His mercy was shown for His dwelling place amidst His people (2 Sam. 24:21; 2 Chr. 3:1).
When Elijah gathered Israel to mount Carmel, he built his altar, "the altar of the Lord that was broken down", of "twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob" (1 Kings 18:30-31). His mission was to recover Israel to Jehovah, and he began by gathering the people and repairing the altar, recognising that there were twelve tribes, even if the kingdom was divided at that time. Like Elijah, we must view God's people as He sees them, in the case of the church in the unity of the body of Christ.
God answered the faith of His servant, for the burnt offering, which was on the altar that he built in the Name of Jehovah, was consumed by fire from heaven, a fire which consumed the wood, the stones, the dust and the water that had been abundantly poured on the burnt offering. This wonderful intervention of Jehovah caused the people to fall on their faces and cry, "Jehovah, He is God! Jehovah, He is God!" Elijah's altar therefore teaches us of God's intervention for the recovery of His people.
In showing the superiority of Christianity over Judaism, the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews often contrasts the two systems, and in chapter 13 writes, "We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle" (Heb. 13:10). As Christians, we have communion with God through the death of Christ, a communion which Judaism cannot have, for it has rejected the Christ of God, and its system has been set aside in that same death. Our place before God is in the redemption secured by the precious blood of Christ, foreshadowed in the blood taken into the holiest on the day of atonement.
Those who served the tabernacle, the Jewish priests, could eat of the ordinary sin offerings offered by the people, but they were not allowed to eat of the sin offerings on the day of atonement. All this clearly showed that there was no approach into God's presence, no true communion with Him, under the legal system of Judaism. Now that Christ has wrought for God's glory in securing redemption, we have boldness to enter His presence to worship and in communion with Him.
The sin offerings on the day of atonement were burned "outside the camp", foretelling that Christ would die outside the gate of Jerusalem with all its religious ceremony and system. This was the place that the most religious men of this world gave to the Son of God, a place of rejection, reproach and shame; and all who are true to Christ are exhorted to separate from that which has refused the Lord Jesus. If the Jews who embraced Christianity were to take their place outside the camp of Judaism, a system which, at the first, was divinely established, should not the true Christian be found outside the imitation camps of Christendom, which are but human religious organisations?