During the era of the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), worship was marked by its simplicity. The central feature of their worship was the altar. In Old Testament times its chief purpose was to be the place where a sacrifice for the atonement of sin was offered.
Although today we do not use material altars in our services, the altar still carries special meaning for us as worshipers, because it embodies so much of what is essential to true worship.
THE SPIRITUAL MEANING OF THE ALTAR
Today the true altar stands in the heart of every sincere worshiper of God. But what does the altar teach us about worship?
1. The altar is a response to God’s love.
When the Lord appeared to Abraham after his obedient departure from Harran, He said to him, “To your offspring I will give this land” (Genesis 12:7). There, on that spot, Abraham built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. That altar was an expression of his gratitude and his devotion to God. The altar symbolizes the surrender of our hearts, minds, relationships, and actions — the giving of our whole life to God. This, in fact, is what worship is. It is a response to the loving kindness of our God. His boundless mercies stir us to spiritual service (Romans 12:1).
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. (Romans 12:1)
2. The altar represents the very act of worship.
Because they had a consciousness of God, the patriarchs chose to express their inward faith and devotion to Him by setting apart a place, and dedicating time and resources, through which to voice their gratitude to the Lord. The one who worships in the Spirit fulfills that same longing through spiritual worship, which flows from the altar of his heart.
3. The altar bears witness to a genuine awareness of God’s holiness.
It signals that God can be approached only through sacrifice. And because God is holy, the sacrifice too must be perfect. For this reason the sacrifice offered for us was the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who alone is without sin (2 Corinthians 5:21).
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
What is more, because we know our own human condition, we know that we too must offer ourselves as a spiritual sacrifice before the Lord. We do this through our repentance and humility before Him. In this sense we become a “sacrifice” when we come before God with a broken heart.
It is important to note, however, that this spiritual sacrifice is not a sacrifice for sin. Only Christ is such a sacrifice. We sacrifice our abilities, our time, and our resources by not using them for ourselves, but offering them to God as a token of gratitude in the name of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:5; Hebrews 13:15).
you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:5)
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. (Hebrews 13:15)
THE ALTAR OF NOAH
As we read the Bible, it is easy to notice that the altar was present in the lives of many of God’s great men. The first time it is explicitly mentioned is in Genesis 8:20-22:
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. 22 “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” (Genesis 8:20-22)
Notice the wonderful promises the Lord spoke in response to this sacrifice.
If we read the earlier verses of this eighth chapter of Genesis, we will see that building the altar was Noah’s first act after he set foot on solid ground. This action reveals a heart filled with gratitude for God’s merciful providence. That very attitude of thankfulness is one of the most important ingredients of spiritual worship. We must have grateful hearts in order for our worship to be complete. Up to this point, all of Noah’s actions had been carried out in obedience to God’s commands. The building of the altar, however, was done on his own initiative. He wanted somehow to express his gratitude to God, and he chose the altar as the means to do so.
THE ALTARS OF ABRAHAM
Abraham too built altars to the Lord wherever he went. He usually did so for two reasons: out of gratitude to God for His promises and provision (Genesis 12:7), and to seek God’s blessing and guidance whenever he found himself in new, unfamiliar situations (Genesis 12:8).
Abraham’s life was marked by two things — a tent and an altar. The tent symbolized his brief stay in this world; the altar symbolized a life surrendered to the Lord. Yet Abraham was accepted by God not because of the physical altars he built, but because of his faith in God’s promises (Hebrews 11:8-10).
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. (Hebrews 11:8-10)
THE ALTARS OF MOSES
In the time of Moses, God gave the Israelites specific instructions for the construction and use of the various altars. In them we can find a number of helpful applications for our own spiritual worship.
THE ALTAR OF UNDRESSED STONES (Exodus 20:24-26)
“‘Make an altar of earth for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats and your cattle. Wherever I cause my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you. 25 If you make an altar of stones for me, do not build it with dressed stones, for you will defile it if you use a tool on it. 26 And do not go up to my altar on steps, or your private parts may be exposed.’ (Exodus 20:24-26)
This altar was to be built of earth and undressed stones, and it was to have no steps. It speaks to us of two things — holiness and simplicity. To cut and shape the stones would defile the altar. The exposure caused by climbing steps would do the same. This teaches us that we must approach God very carefully and with great reverence toward Him, because of His holiness.
Moreover, this altar was entirely free of superfluous ornament and adornment. It was marked by utter simplicity. Anyone could make it. There was nothing in it to draw attention away from God and toward itself. This reminds us that our worship must be sincere and free of every human invention and excess.
THE BRONZE ALTAR (Exodus 39:39)
Different instructions were given for the altars of the outer court and of the Holy Place of the tabernacle. Each of them had its own distinct function. Their use was bound up both with the way they were made and where they stood, and with their place in the order of worship in the tabernacle.
The first of these two altars was the bronze one. It was made of wood overlaid with bronze, and two bronze poles were attached to it to make it easy to carry. It was the first object one saw upon entering through the gate of the tabernacle. Standing before the entrance to the Holy Place, it was the altar on which the burnt offering and the sin offering were made (Exodus 40:6, 29).
In spiritual terms, the bronze altar points us to the place where sin was taken away from us. It was a place of substitution. The person who had sinned would bring an animal to die in his place. Leviticus 1:4 explains how this happened:
You are to lay your hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on your behalf to make atonement for you. (Leviticus 1:4)
So the bronze altar speaks to us of salvation from sin — of the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross of Golgotha, through which we were redeemed (Isaiah 53:5-6).
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:5-6)
The bronze altar also spiritually represents a place of safety for our souls. There Satan cannot reach us. According to tradition, when someone was guilty of a crime, or wanted to find refuge and protection from another, he would go and take hold of the horns of the altar, throwing himself upon the mercy of the one he had wronged (Exodus 21:14; 1 Kings 1:50-53). This reminds us that through Christ and His sacrifice we are protected from the devil and the unclean powers that desire to harm us.
THE GOLDEN ALTAR (Exodus 30:1-3)
“Make an altar of acacia wood for burning incense. 2 It is to be square, a cubit long and a cubit wide, and two cubits high—its horns of one piece with it. 3 Overlay the top and all the sides and the horns with pure gold, and make a gold molding around it. (Exodus 30:1-3)
The golden altar was smaller than the bronze one and stood in the Holy Place. Coals were placed in it, heating its grate to a glow. Upon this grate the priests threw the incense, which produced a fragrant smoke. This smoke shielded the priest from the presence of God (Luke 1:8-12). The golden altar was often called the altar of incense. On it the high priest burned incense morning and evening (Exodus 30:6-8).
Put the altar in front of the curtain that shields the ark of the covenant law—before the atonement cover that is over the tablets of the covenant law—where I will meet with you. 7 “Aaron must burn fragrant incense on the altar every morning when he tends the lamps. 8 He must burn incense again when he lights the lamps at twilight so incense will burn regularly before the Lord for the generations to come. (Exodus 30:6-8)
How vividly this altar of incense reminds us of our daily personal fellowship with God — our morning and evening prayers. This worship takes place in the Holy Place! Revelation 8:3-4 is a passage that casts an interesting further light on the great significance of the golden altar and helps us grasp the importance of the prayers of God’s people:
Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. 4 The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand. (Revelation 8:3-4)
Our prayers are a pleasing aroma to the Lord! They matter greatly to Him. They are a precious element of our life of worship. It is no accident that the psalmist prays in Psalm 141:2 with these words:
May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice. (Psalm 141:2)
WE HAVE AN ALTAR
In the New Testament, in Hebrews 13:10, it says that “we have an altar.” Our altar is Golgotha. There our sacrifice for sin was offered. And although we do not physically eat from it, its benefits and effects (our justification, cleansing, and healing) are entirely real for all who have placed their faith and trust in the Savior, Christ.
Our altar is also our worship. And as to how we may make it better and more pleasing to the Lord, we can learn from the Old Testament altars.
- From the altar of Noah we can learn gratitude;
- From the altars of Abraham, faith and the seeking of God’s guidance;
- From the stone altar we can take holiness and simplicity;
- From the bronze altar — faith and security in Christ’s sacrifice;
- From the golden altar — the constancy and importance of worship, prayer, and personal fellowship.
Let us apply the principles and lessons we have learned from these Old Testament altars to our own altar. And may God help our altar to be blessed — our spiritual sacrifices to be accepted — our worship and adoration to be truly pleasing to Him. Amen!