"...I will go unto the altar of God, unto God the gladness of my joy"
“Satan [an adversary] stood up against Israel and stirred up David to number Israel. David said to Joab and the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel from Beersheba to Dan, and bring me the total, that I may know it...
And God was displeased with this [reliance on human resources], and He smote Israel. And David said to God, I have sinned greatly because I have done this thing. But now, I beseech You, take away the hateful wickedness of Your servant; for I have done very foolishly.
And the Lord said to Gad, David's seer, Go and tell David, Thus says the Lord: I offer you three things; choose one of them, that I may do it to you. So Gad came to David and said to him, Thus says the Lord: Take which one you will:
Either three years of famine, or three months of devastation before your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or else three days of the sword of the Lord and pestilence in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the borders of Israel. Now therefore, consider what answer I shall return to Him Who sent me.
And David said to Gad, I am in great and distressing perplexity; let me fall, I pray you, into the hands of the Lord, for very great and many are His mercies; but let me not fall into the hands of man. So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel, and there fell of Israel 70,000 men.
God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, and as he was destroying, the Lord beheld, and He regretted and relented of the evil and said to the destroying angel, It is enough; now stay your hand. And the angel of the Lord stood by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and the heavens, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.
And David said to God, Is it not I who commanded the people to be numbered? I it is who has sinned and done evil indeed; but as for these sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, I pray You, O Lord my God, be on me and on my father's house, but not on Your people, that they should be plagued.
Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up and set up an altar to the Lord in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. So David went up at Gad's word, which he spoke in the name of the Lord.
Now Ornan was threshing wheat, and he turned back and saw the angel; and his four sons hid themselves. And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw him, and went out from the threshing floor and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.
Then David said to Ornan, Grant me the site of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar on it to the Lord. You shall charge me the full price for it, that the plague may be averted from the people. Ornan said to David, Take it; and let my lord the king do what is good in his eyes. I give you the oxen also for burnt offerings and the threshing sledges for wood and the wheat for the meal offering. I give it all.
And King David said to Ornan, No, but I will pay the full price. I will not take what is yours for the Lord, nor offer burnt offering which cost me nothing. So David gave to Ornan for the site 600 shekels of gold by weight. And David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings and called upon the Lord; and He answered him by fire from heaven upon the altar of burnt offering.
Then the Lord commanded the [avenging] angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath. When David saw that the Lord had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there.
For the tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offerings were at that time in the high place at Gibeon. But David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the Lord.
Then David said, Here [the threshing floor of Ornan] shall be the house of the Lord God, and here the altar of the burnt offering for Israel.” (1 Chronicles 21:1-22:1)
The Lord Will Provide
The threshing floor of Ornan was located on the top of mount Moriah. It was the location that David built an altar to sacrifice to God and stopped the plague. It was also the location that David's son Solomon placed the altar and built the temple.
Moriah means 'seen by Jehovah' or 'chosen by Jehovah', Strong's #4179. It was the very place that Abraham offered up Isaac on the altar he built, telling him “My son, God Himself will provide a lamb for the burnt offering.” (Gen. 22:8) [1]
One article writes, “The Lord God provided a ram as a substitute to die in the place of Isaac. And there Abraham raised up an everlasting memorial to his God. Read verse 14. 'And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.' The name by which God revealed himself to Abraham, 'Jehovah-jireh,' may be translated in three ways. It could be translated 'The Lord will See,' or 'The Lord will Provide,' or 'The Lord shall be Seen.' However we translate this name of our God, Jehovah-jireh expresses the idea of God seeing and of God being seen. For God, to see is to provide. You know how we sometimes say, 'I will see to it,' when we mean, 'I will take care of it,' or 'I will provide for it.' That is the meaning here.” [2]
“I will lift my eyes to You” sings in the background.
My Bible commentary notes that Abraham was speaking prophetically, referring to the “Lamb of God which He had provided for Himself, Who in the fullness of time would take away the sin of the world, and of Whom Isaac was a most expressive type.” [3]
The article referenced above notes something similar, “As these words were spoken prophetically by Abraham concerning Isaac and his substitute, they were also a direct prophecy of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Substitute whom God has provided for sinners. He was, by the Spirit of prophecy, saying to us, as God provided a substitute for Isaac, so he will provide a Substitute for all his covenant people in whom the Lord will be seen. That Substitute is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. He was also telling us that, as God provided for him in his time of extremity, so he will provide for all who trust him.” [4]
It was on this very ground that Ornan built his threshing floor and David “built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings and called upon the Lord; and He answered him by fire from heaven upon the altar of burnt offering.” (1 Chronicles 21:26)
This is a type and shadow of Jesus. It is only through Jesus that our sins are atoned for and the curse is stopped. David called on the name of the Lord and offered a pleasing sacrifice on the altar that was upon the threshing floor. God answered by accepting the offering, sending fire from heaven to consume it .
In Matthew 3:11-12 John the Baptist says about Jesus, “But He Who is coming after me is mightier than I, Whose sandals I am not worthy or fit to take off or carry; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fan (shovel, fork) is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear out and clean His threshing floor and gather and store His wheat in His barn, but the chaff, He will burn up with fire that cannot be put out.
The Altar
An altar is a place of sacrificial worship that is done according to God's terms and not mans. True worship of God costs us something. Receiving Jesus is a free gift but following Him will always cost us. David refused to make an offering to God “which cost me nothing.” Commentary notes, “While David could have rightfully accepted these gifts without paying for them, he felt that this would not suffice as sacrifice. A true sacrifice to God required labor and investment on David’s part.” [5]
An altar, mizbeach, Strongs# 4196, also depicts a “place of slaughtering.”[6] The sacrifice was a substitute offered to atone for sin. Therefore, the altar also represented a place of forgiveness for sin.
Altars were made of earth, uncut stones, or bronze. [7] The first altar that is mentioned in the bible is when Noah, his family, and all the creatures went forth from the ark. Noah built an altar to the Lord and took of every clean animal and bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. The Lord smelled the pleasing odor and promised never again to curse the ground because of man as the ground was cursed when Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Altars also represented a place of protection [8]: Exodus 21:14 says, “But if a man comes willfully upon another to slay him craftily, you shall take him from My altar [to which he may have fled for protection], that he may die.”
The altar was the place the Lord chose to put His name (His presence). In Deuteronomy 12:11 Moses told the people that when they entered the promised land and were given rest from their enemies, “Then there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause His Name [and His Presence] to dwell there; to it you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes and what the hand presents [as a first gift from the fruits of the ground], and all your choicest offerings which you vow to the Lord.”
Moses was speaking of the threshing floor at mount Moriah. In 1 Kings 8:29 Solomon prayed for the temple located in this location, “That Your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which You have said, My Name [and the token of My presence] shall be there...”
My bible commentary notes that the “'Name' of God is equivalent to His gracious presence... The place where God puts His Name is the place where the Lord Himself chooses to dwell.” [9]
Exodus 20:24 says, “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.”
As one article notes that an altar represented Jesus Himself. Psalm 43:3-4 says, “Let Thy light and Thy truth bring me unto the mountain of Thy holiness, and unto Thy habitations, that I may go In unto the altar of God, unto God.” [10]
While anyone or anything that touched something that was unclean became unclean, (such as a priest touching a dead person), it was actually the opposite with the altar of the Lord. Exodus 29:37 says, “Seven days thou shalt make atonement for the altar, and sanctify it; that the altar may be a holy of holies, and everything that shall touch it shall be made holy.” [11]
The only one that could make something that was unclean, clean was Jesus. Matthew 8:3 says, “Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately he was cured of his leprosy.”
Calling on the Name of the Lord
Calling on the Name of the Lord first occurred in Genesis 4:26 when a son named Enosh was born to Seth. It says, “At that time men began to call [upon God] by the name of the Lord.”
Romans 10:13 and Joel 2:32 says, for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
God answered David by sending down fire from heaven upon the offering that he made when David called on the Name of the Lord. Commentary notes, “Just as a three-year drought ended in the days of Elijah when the prophet called down fire on a sacrifice at Carmel (1 Kin. 18:38, 41), so the three-day plague God brought on Israel ended with the sacrifice at Ornan’s threshing floor.” [12]
Fire consumed the sacrifice on the altar. The sacrifice represented our need for atonement and the fire represented God fully receiving that sacrifice. Lev 9:24 says, “And there came a fire out from before the LORD, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces.”
Fire represents the passion and love of God (Song 8:7) , the wrath or anger of God (Lev. 10:1-2), and an aspect or an element of the Spirit that purges and purifies us from our sin, “burning up the chaff with a fire that cannot be quenched” (Matt. 3:12).
Commentary notes, “To signify that God’s anger was turned away from him, the fire that might justly have fastened upon the sinner fastened upon the sacrifice and consumed that; and, upon this, the destroying sword was returned into its sheath. Thus Christ was made sin and a curse for us, and it pleased the Lord to bruise him, that through him God might be to us, not a consuming fire, but a reconciled Father.” [13]
Fire also came down from heaven when Solomon built the temple of the Lord and then offered sacrifices to the Lord. 2 Chronicles 7:1-4 says, “Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the LORD filled the house. And the priests could not enter into the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD had filled the LORD’S house. And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the LORD upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshipped, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever."
Pleasing Offerings
As the offering burned, it would become a pleasing aroma to the Lord. Genesiss 8:21 says, "When the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma" when Noah had made offerings of 'clean animals' of every kind.
The offerings that were made on the altar were a form of worship of the Lord. The first time anyone made an offering to the Lord was in Genesis 4. Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground and Abel brought the firstborn of his flock and the fat portions. The Lord regarded the offering of Abel while He rejected the offering of Cain.
My bible commentary notes about this, “In bringing the offering he did, Cain denied that he was a sinful creature under the sentence of divine condemnation. He insisted on approaching God on the ground of personal worthiness. Instead of accepting God's way, he offered to God the fruits of the ground which God had cursed. He presented the product of his own toil, the work of his own hands, and God refused to receive it.” [14]
“May it be a pleasing fragrance that I bring to you, oh my lord, I am so in need of your presence...” sings
The first time that David tried to bring the ark of God's presence to Jerusalem, he tried to do it his own way. He used a new cart pulled by Oxen. They made it part way when Uzzah reached out to steady the ark and he was struck dead. (1 Chronicles 13)
David decided he would try again a second time and gathered the descendants of Aaron and the Levites. He told them they needed to consecrate themselves and said, “For the Lord our God burst out in anger against us because you Levites were not with us the first time, for we didn't inquire of Him about the proper procedures.” This time, rather than using a cart, the consecrated Levites carried the ark of God the way Moses ahd commanded according to the word of the Lord: on their shoulders using poles. (1 Chronicles 15)
In the same way, one needed to build an altar and offer sacrifices according to 'proper procedures.' In Leviticus 10:1-2, Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, “offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.”
Fire here was the wrath of God. Nadab and Abihu were presenting an offering in their own way and by their own will. They were not doing it based upon the commands of the Lord but their own will. They were presenting 'unauthorized fire.' As a result, fire of the Lord came out from the altar and they perished.
One commentary notes, “Since the altar speaks of Calvary, it was as if they tried to approach God in some way other than through the atoning work of Christ.” [15]
Jesus the Blessed Reality of the Shadow
When Jesus went to the cross on Calvary, He atoned once and for all for our sin. The old ways of building altars and sacrificing animals became obsolete. What was a shadow (the altar and the sacrifice) of blessed realities were fulfilled by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Hebrews 8:13 says, “By calling this covenant 'new,' he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.”
Hebrews 10:1-18 says, “Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the actual form of those realities, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year. Otherwise, wouldn't they have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, once purified, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in the sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take ways sins.
Therefore, as He was coming into the world, He said: You did not want sacrifice and offering, but You prepared a body for Me. You did not delight in whole burnt offerings and sin offerings. Then I said, 'See -it is written about Me in the volume of the scroll – I have come to do Your will, God!'
After He says above, You did not want or delight in sacrifices and offerings, whole burnt offerings and sin offerings (which are offered according to the law), He then says, See, I have come to do Your will. He takes away the first to establish the second. By this will of God, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once and for all.
Every priest stands day after day ministering and offering the same sacrifices time after time, which can never take away sins. But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down a the right hand of God... Now where there is forgiveness of these (sins), there is no longer an offering for sin.”
Metaphoric Reality
While Jesus is the blessed reality and there is no longer a need for altars to atone for our sin, 'altars' still have a metaphoric reality. Isaiah 19:19 says, “On that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the center of the land of Egypt and a pillar to the Lord near her border.”
'On that day' may be referring to a specific future point in time or it may be referring to the Day of the Lord. While the pillar is a memorial to the Lord, the altar is a place of worship where the Lord is honored in a way that is pleasing to Him (according to His ways).
And Paul, speaking metaphorically, says in Romans 12:1, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.”
Peter also notes in 1 Peter 2:5, “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.”
Lord, throughout time, You have always been the answer and the way. I am so grateful to live in the time that we can experience the blessed reality of your sacrifice at Calvary. You paid the price so that we could be holy. Thank you that You chose to dwell among men. We long to offer you worship that is a pleasing aroma to You. And we long to see your fire fall from heaven on the sacrifice of our offerings of worship.
1. Strong, James: The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible : Showing Every Word of the Text of the Common English Version of the Canonical Books, and Every Occurrence of Each Word in Regular Order. electronic ed. Ontario : Woodside Bible Fellowship., 1996.
2, 4. Fortner, Don. The Names of God, Lesson #2. Jehovah-Jireh - The Lord Will Provide, Genesis 22:14. Located at: http://www.freegrace.net/dfbooks/dfnamesGodbk/NAMES2.htm Last Accessed: 11/29/11.
3, 9, 14. Commentary. The Amplified Bible. Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI. 1987.
5. Radmacher, Earl D. ; Allen, Ronald Barclay ; House, H. Wayne: The Nelson Study Bible : New King James Version. Nashville : T. Nelson Publishers, 1997, S. 1 Ch 21:24
6-7. Radmacher, Earl D. ; Allen, Ronald Barclay ; House, H. Wayne: Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Commentary. Nashville : T. Nelson Publishers, 1999, S. Ex 27:21
8. Thomas Nelson Publishers: Nelson's Quick Reference Topical Bible Index. Nashville, Tenn. : Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995 (Nelson's Quick Reference), S. 36
10-11. E. Swedenborg (1688-1772). Spiritual Meaning of Altar. Located at: http://www.biblemeanings.info/Words/Religious/Altar.htm. Last Accessed: 11/29/11.
12. Radmacher, Earl D. ; Allen, Ronald Barclay ; House, H. Wayne: The Nelson Study Bible : New King James Version. Nashville : T. Nelson Publishers, 1997, S. 1 Ch 21:26
13. Henry, Matthew: Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible : Complete and Unabridged in One Volume. Peabody : Hendrickson, 1996, c1991, S. 1 Ch 21:18
15. MacDonald, William ; Farstad, Arthur: Believer's Bible Commentary : Old and New Testaments. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1995, S. Le 10:1
And God was displeased with this [reliance on human resources], and He smote Israel. And David said to God, I have sinned greatly because I have done this thing. But now, I beseech You, take away the hateful wickedness of Your servant; for I have done very foolishly.
And the Lord said to Gad, David's seer, Go and tell David, Thus says the Lord: I offer you three things; choose one of them, that I may do it to you. So Gad came to David and said to him, Thus says the Lord: Take which one you will:
Either three years of famine, or three months of devastation before your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or else three days of the sword of the Lord and pestilence in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the borders of Israel. Now therefore, consider what answer I shall return to Him Who sent me.
And David said to Gad, I am in great and distressing perplexity; let me fall, I pray you, into the hands of the Lord, for very great and many are His mercies; but let me not fall into the hands of man. So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel, and there fell of Israel 70,000 men.
God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, and as he was destroying, the Lord beheld, and He regretted and relented of the evil and said to the destroying angel, It is enough; now stay your hand. And the angel of the Lord stood by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and the heavens, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.
And David said to God, Is it not I who commanded the people to be numbered? I it is who has sinned and done evil indeed; but as for these sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, I pray You, O Lord my God, be on me and on my father's house, but not on Your people, that they should be plagued.
Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up and set up an altar to the Lord in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. So David went up at Gad's word, which he spoke in the name of the Lord.
Now Ornan was threshing wheat, and he turned back and saw the angel; and his four sons hid themselves. And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw him, and went out from the threshing floor and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.
Then David said to Ornan, Grant me the site of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar on it to the Lord. You shall charge me the full price for it, that the plague may be averted from the people. Ornan said to David, Take it; and let my lord the king do what is good in his eyes. I give you the oxen also for burnt offerings and the threshing sledges for wood and the wheat for the meal offering. I give it all.
And King David said to Ornan, No, but I will pay the full price. I will not take what is yours for the Lord, nor offer burnt offering which cost me nothing. So David gave to Ornan for the site 600 shekels of gold by weight. And David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings and called upon the Lord; and He answered him by fire from heaven upon the altar of burnt offering.
Then the Lord commanded the [avenging] angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath. When David saw that the Lord had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there.
For the tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offerings were at that time in the high place at Gibeon. But David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the Lord.
Then David said, Here [the threshing floor of Ornan] shall be the house of the Lord God, and here the altar of the burnt offering for Israel.” (1 Chronicles 21:1-22:1)
The Lord Will Provide
The threshing floor of Ornan was located on the top of mount Moriah. It was the location that David built an altar to sacrifice to God and stopped the plague. It was also the location that David's son Solomon placed the altar and built the temple.
Moriah means 'seen by Jehovah' or 'chosen by Jehovah', Strong's #4179. It was the very place that Abraham offered up Isaac on the altar he built, telling him “My son, God Himself will provide a lamb for the burnt offering.” (Gen. 22:8) [1]
One article writes, “The Lord God provided a ram as a substitute to die in the place of Isaac. And there Abraham raised up an everlasting memorial to his God. Read verse 14. 'And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.' The name by which God revealed himself to Abraham, 'Jehovah-jireh,' may be translated in three ways. It could be translated 'The Lord will See,' or 'The Lord will Provide,' or 'The Lord shall be Seen.' However we translate this name of our God, Jehovah-jireh expresses the idea of God seeing and of God being seen. For God, to see is to provide. You know how we sometimes say, 'I will see to it,' when we mean, 'I will take care of it,' or 'I will provide for it.' That is the meaning here.” [2]
“I will lift my eyes to You” sings in the background.
My Bible commentary notes that Abraham was speaking prophetically, referring to the “Lamb of God which He had provided for Himself, Who in the fullness of time would take away the sin of the world, and of Whom Isaac was a most expressive type.” [3]
The article referenced above notes something similar, “As these words were spoken prophetically by Abraham concerning Isaac and his substitute, they were also a direct prophecy of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Substitute whom God has provided for sinners. He was, by the Spirit of prophecy, saying to us, as God provided a substitute for Isaac, so he will provide a Substitute for all his covenant people in whom the Lord will be seen. That Substitute is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. He was also telling us that, as God provided for him in his time of extremity, so he will provide for all who trust him.” [4]
It was on this very ground that Ornan built his threshing floor and David “built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings and called upon the Lord; and He answered him by fire from heaven upon the altar of burnt offering.” (1 Chronicles 21:26)
This is a type and shadow of Jesus. It is only through Jesus that our sins are atoned for and the curse is stopped. David called on the name of the Lord and offered a pleasing sacrifice on the altar that was upon the threshing floor. God answered by accepting the offering, sending fire from heaven to consume it .
In Matthew 3:11-12 John the Baptist says about Jesus, “But He Who is coming after me is mightier than I, Whose sandals I am not worthy or fit to take off or carry; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fan (shovel, fork) is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear out and clean His threshing floor and gather and store His wheat in His barn, but the chaff, He will burn up with fire that cannot be put out.
The Altar
An altar is a place of sacrificial worship that is done according to God's terms and not mans. True worship of God costs us something. Receiving Jesus is a free gift but following Him will always cost us. David refused to make an offering to God “which cost me nothing.” Commentary notes, “While David could have rightfully accepted these gifts without paying for them, he felt that this would not suffice as sacrifice. A true sacrifice to God required labor and investment on David’s part.” [5]
An altar, mizbeach, Strongs# 4196, also depicts a “place of slaughtering.”[6] The sacrifice was a substitute offered to atone for sin. Therefore, the altar also represented a place of forgiveness for sin.
Altars were made of earth, uncut stones, or bronze. [7] The first altar that is mentioned in the bible is when Noah, his family, and all the creatures went forth from the ark. Noah built an altar to the Lord and took of every clean animal and bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. The Lord smelled the pleasing odor and promised never again to curse the ground because of man as the ground was cursed when Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Altars also represented a place of protection [8]: Exodus 21:14 says, “But if a man comes willfully upon another to slay him craftily, you shall take him from My altar [to which he may have fled for protection], that he may die.”
The altar was the place the Lord chose to put His name (His presence). In Deuteronomy 12:11 Moses told the people that when they entered the promised land and were given rest from their enemies, “Then there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause His Name [and His Presence] to dwell there; to it you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes and what the hand presents [as a first gift from the fruits of the ground], and all your choicest offerings which you vow to the Lord.”
Moses was speaking of the threshing floor at mount Moriah. In 1 Kings 8:29 Solomon prayed for the temple located in this location, “That Your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which You have said, My Name [and the token of My presence] shall be there...”
My bible commentary notes that the “'Name' of God is equivalent to His gracious presence... The place where God puts His Name is the place where the Lord Himself chooses to dwell.” [9]
Exodus 20:24 says, “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.”
As one article notes that an altar represented Jesus Himself. Psalm 43:3-4 says, “Let Thy light and Thy truth bring me unto the mountain of Thy holiness, and unto Thy habitations, that I may go In unto the altar of God, unto God.” [10]
While anyone or anything that touched something that was unclean became unclean, (such as a priest touching a dead person), it was actually the opposite with the altar of the Lord. Exodus 29:37 says, “Seven days thou shalt make atonement for the altar, and sanctify it; that the altar may be a holy of holies, and everything that shall touch it shall be made holy.” [11]
The only one that could make something that was unclean, clean was Jesus. Matthew 8:3 says, “Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately he was cured of his leprosy.”
Calling on the Name of the Lord
Calling on the Name of the Lord first occurred in Genesis 4:26 when a son named Enosh was born to Seth. It says, “At that time men began to call [upon God] by the name of the Lord.”
Romans 10:13 and Joel 2:32 says, for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
God answered David by sending down fire from heaven upon the offering that he made when David called on the Name of the Lord. Commentary notes, “Just as a three-year drought ended in the days of Elijah when the prophet called down fire on a sacrifice at Carmel (1 Kin. 18:38, 41), so the three-day plague God brought on Israel ended with the sacrifice at Ornan’s threshing floor.” [12]
Fire consumed the sacrifice on the altar. The sacrifice represented our need for atonement and the fire represented God fully receiving that sacrifice. Lev 9:24 says, “And there came a fire out from before the LORD, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces.”
Fire represents the passion and love of God (Song 8:7) , the wrath or anger of God (Lev. 10:1-2), and an aspect or an element of the Spirit that purges and purifies us from our sin, “burning up the chaff with a fire that cannot be quenched” (Matt. 3:12).
Commentary notes, “To signify that God’s anger was turned away from him, the fire that might justly have fastened upon the sinner fastened upon the sacrifice and consumed that; and, upon this, the destroying sword was returned into its sheath. Thus Christ was made sin and a curse for us, and it pleased the Lord to bruise him, that through him God might be to us, not a consuming fire, but a reconciled Father.” [13]
Fire also came down from heaven when Solomon built the temple of the Lord and then offered sacrifices to the Lord. 2 Chronicles 7:1-4 says, “Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the LORD filled the house. And the priests could not enter into the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD had filled the LORD’S house. And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the LORD upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshipped, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever."
Pleasing Offerings
As the offering burned, it would become a pleasing aroma to the Lord. Genesiss 8:21 says, "When the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma" when Noah had made offerings of 'clean animals' of every kind.
The offerings that were made on the altar were a form of worship of the Lord. The first time anyone made an offering to the Lord was in Genesis 4. Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground and Abel brought the firstborn of his flock and the fat portions. The Lord regarded the offering of Abel while He rejected the offering of Cain.
My bible commentary notes about this, “In bringing the offering he did, Cain denied that he was a sinful creature under the sentence of divine condemnation. He insisted on approaching God on the ground of personal worthiness. Instead of accepting God's way, he offered to God the fruits of the ground which God had cursed. He presented the product of his own toil, the work of his own hands, and God refused to receive it.” [14]
“May it be a pleasing fragrance that I bring to you, oh my lord, I am so in need of your presence...” sings
The first time that David tried to bring the ark of God's presence to Jerusalem, he tried to do it his own way. He used a new cart pulled by Oxen. They made it part way when Uzzah reached out to steady the ark and he was struck dead. (1 Chronicles 13)
David decided he would try again a second time and gathered the descendants of Aaron and the Levites. He told them they needed to consecrate themselves and said, “For the Lord our God burst out in anger against us because you Levites were not with us the first time, for we didn't inquire of Him about the proper procedures.” This time, rather than using a cart, the consecrated Levites carried the ark of God the way Moses ahd commanded according to the word of the Lord: on their shoulders using poles. (1 Chronicles 15)
In the same way, one needed to build an altar and offer sacrifices according to 'proper procedures.' In Leviticus 10:1-2, Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, “offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.”
Fire here was the wrath of God. Nadab and Abihu were presenting an offering in their own way and by their own will. They were not doing it based upon the commands of the Lord but their own will. They were presenting 'unauthorized fire.' As a result, fire of the Lord came out from the altar and they perished.
One commentary notes, “Since the altar speaks of Calvary, it was as if they tried to approach God in some way other than through the atoning work of Christ.” [15]
Jesus the Blessed Reality of the Shadow
When Jesus went to the cross on Calvary, He atoned once and for all for our sin. The old ways of building altars and sacrificing animals became obsolete. What was a shadow (the altar and the sacrifice) of blessed realities were fulfilled by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Hebrews 8:13 says, “By calling this covenant 'new,' he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.”
Hebrews 10:1-18 says, “Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the actual form of those realities, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year. Otherwise, wouldn't they have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, once purified, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in the sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take ways sins.
Therefore, as He was coming into the world, He said: You did not want sacrifice and offering, but You prepared a body for Me. You did not delight in whole burnt offerings and sin offerings. Then I said, 'See -it is written about Me in the volume of the scroll – I have come to do Your will, God!'
After He says above, You did not want or delight in sacrifices and offerings, whole burnt offerings and sin offerings (which are offered according to the law), He then says, See, I have come to do Your will. He takes away the first to establish the second. By this will of God, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once and for all.
Every priest stands day after day ministering and offering the same sacrifices time after time, which can never take away sins. But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down a the right hand of God... Now where there is forgiveness of these (sins), there is no longer an offering for sin.”
Metaphoric Reality
While Jesus is the blessed reality and there is no longer a need for altars to atone for our sin, 'altars' still have a metaphoric reality. Isaiah 19:19 says, “On that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the center of the land of Egypt and a pillar to the Lord near her border.”
'On that day' may be referring to a specific future point in time or it may be referring to the Day of the Lord. While the pillar is a memorial to the Lord, the altar is a place of worship where the Lord is honored in a way that is pleasing to Him (according to His ways).
And Paul, speaking metaphorically, says in Romans 12:1, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.”
Peter also notes in 1 Peter 2:5, “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.”
Lord, throughout time, You have always been the answer and the way. I am so grateful to live in the time that we can experience the blessed reality of your sacrifice at Calvary. You paid the price so that we could be holy. Thank you that You chose to dwell among men. We long to offer you worship that is a pleasing aroma to You. And we long to see your fire fall from heaven on the sacrifice of our offerings of worship.
1. Strong, James: The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible : Showing Every Word of the Text of the Common English Version of the Canonical Books, and Every Occurrence of Each Word in Regular Order. electronic ed. Ontario : Woodside Bible Fellowship., 1996.
2, 4. Fortner, Don. The Names of God, Lesson #2. Jehovah-Jireh - The Lord Will Provide, Genesis 22:14. Located at: http://www.freegrace.net/dfbooks/dfnamesGodbk/NAMES2.htm Last Accessed: 11/29/11.
3, 9, 14. Commentary. The Amplified Bible. Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI. 1987.
5. Radmacher, Earl D. ; Allen, Ronald Barclay ; House, H. Wayne: The Nelson Study Bible : New King James Version. Nashville : T. Nelson Publishers, 1997, S. 1 Ch 21:24
6-7. Radmacher, Earl D. ; Allen, Ronald Barclay ; House, H. Wayne: Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Commentary. Nashville : T. Nelson Publishers, 1999, S. Ex 27:21
8. Thomas Nelson Publishers: Nelson's Quick Reference Topical Bible Index. Nashville, Tenn. : Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995 (Nelson's Quick Reference), S. 36
10-11. E. Swedenborg (1688-1772). Spiritual Meaning of Altar. Located at: http://www.biblemeanings.info/Words/Religious/Altar.htm. Last Accessed: 11/29/11.
12. Radmacher, Earl D. ; Allen, Ronald Barclay ; House, H. Wayne: The Nelson Study Bible : New King James Version. Nashville : T. Nelson Publishers, 1997, S. 1 Ch 21:26
13. Henry, Matthew: Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible : Complete and Unabridged in One Volume. Peabody : Hendrickson, 1996, c1991, S. 1 Ch 21:18
15. MacDonald, William ; Farstad, Arthur: Believer's Bible Commentary : Old and New Testaments. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1995, S. Le 10:1
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