Glory, Presence & Altars

I think a lot of people were either surprised or confused when I announced that a 'theology of altars' would be my research topic for the month of March. Little did they know that this was the topic I was most excited for so far. I find that every post I write I am more passionate about the topic. This is most definitely true here.

To begin, here's Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology's definition of "altars": "places where the divine and human worlds interacted. Altars were places of exchange, communication and influence". Altars can either be built as a response to the presence of God or God's powerful acts like in Abram's case (Gen. 12:7). They can also be a way of posturing and asking God to reveal Himself as David did in 1 Chronicles 21:26. In both cases, there is worship and praise and sacrifice to God.

The Old Testament has always amazed me with these extraordinary "God-encounters" which, from now on, I would like to call "altar moments". Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and many others would all have these powerful, personal encounters with the Living God. Whenever I read those passages, I stop and lift up a prayer like Moses did, "God, show me your glory." I so badly want a powerful altar moment as they did. To my delight, I have had multiple which I will share later!

Here's the direction we're going to go today. First, we're going to do some case studies of two of my favourite "altar moments" in the Scriptures: Jacob's dream (Gen. 28:10-22) and Gideon's encounter with the angel of the LORD (Judges 6:19-27). Second, I will share some of my most recent altar moments. Finally, I will close by answering the question, "What does it mean to make altars today?" and, like always, encourage you to try something with a practical piece. Let's begin!

Jacob, A Ladder and a Stone Pillow

Take a look at Genesis 28:10-22:

Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”

Amazing. Jacob had a dream where he saw the Lord standing above a ladder on which angels ascended and descended. The Lord makes a promise with Jacob. How special and intimate! Next, after Jacob wakes up he realizes that he had an altar moment: "This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven" (Gen. 28:17). The first thing he does early in the morning is take the stone he was sleeping on and use it to mark the place that he had met with God, anointing it with oil and naming it Bethel. He honoured God's revelation to him by building an altar. (Here's a question for you to think about: If you read on in Jacob's story, what was the impact of this event? What changed about Jacob?)

Gideon Meets the Angel of the LORD Face to Face

Here's another story found in the Book of Judges 6:19-27:

So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” And he did so. Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight. Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord. And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.” But the Lord said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, The Lord Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.

That night the Lord said to him, “Take your father's bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it and build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night.

Another very unusual passage, but so powerful! Gideon seems to be preparing a yummy present for the LORD when an angel burns it to smithereens and leaves. Then, Gideon perceives that that angel was the angel of the LORD. He had just seen God and lived! In response to his fear, God tells him, "Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die". Then in reverence and awe, Gideon builds an altar to the Lord, which he calls The Lord Is Peace.

You may be wondering why I have included those verses afterwards. I have included them to demonstrate the transformation that Gideon has undergone. A lowly, shy, insecure Gideon is asked by God to do something bold and controversial. He must pull down the altar of Baal that belonged to his father and cut down his Asherah. Not only that, but he must offer his father's bull to God as a burnt offering fueled by the wood of his father's god Asherah! Unspeakable!

Blow up his dad's toys? Disrespectful!

Use his own dad's toys as fuel for a sacrifice to another God? Unheard of!

But Gideon obeys! He "did as the Lord had told him" even though he feared his family and what the men of the town would do to him. Where did that courage come from? I'd like to suggest it came from the altar moment - it came from God's personal revelation to him and His word, "Do not fear; you shall not die."

My Altar Moments

I'm proud to declare that I too have had encounters with the same God that met Jacob and Gideon! My altar moments almost always happen in the Bible or during my prayer time. I will give you two recent examples that I'm so proud I have graciously experienced!

On the day of my writing this (March 29, 2020), I have had two grand altar moments. How unbelievably lucky I am! The first was in the Psalms. I was reading Psalm 27 with my family at the dinner table before our online church service and the language seemed like gold to me.

"One thing have I asked of the LORD that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple" (Ps. 27:4). My jaw dropped as my heart immediately felt one with the Psalmist's. "That's all I want, God! I just want to see your face! I just want You!" It was as if my deepest heart cry was perfectly articulated in the words of David.

Next, "You have said, 'Seek my face.'" (Ps. 27:8). Wow! I could hear Him speak directly into the deepest part of my being, "Seek My face, Brandon."

Finally the anthem of hope: "I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living" (Ps. 27:13). I know that when I do indeed seek the face of God, I will see His face.

I’m sorry if my writing ability hinders you from perceiving how glorious my experience was. It was absolutely amazing! Not to mention, we read more Psalms in the night (17, 63, 103). They are so good! The Word of God is alive and active, "more precious than gold" and "sweeter than honey" (Ps. 19:10)!

My second altar moment happened during a family prayer session for COVID-19 just minutes after this reading of Psalm 27. We don't ever pray together so I wasn't expecting it. In no particular order, we went around praying for people that we cared about and so on when I felt like the Spirit was nudging me to pray for doctors and medical workers. He had brought to mind an article that I had read a few days ago about the conditions in the hospital and the most inconceivably difficult decisions that they had to make. As I started to pray for them, my heart started to break and I could almost cry (But I didn't because I didn't want to be embarrassed; yes I know, horrible excuse!). As I was praying for them, my spirit united with God's Spirit. I think this is what Jude talked about when he said "pray in the Spirit" (Jude 20). It was a supernatural prayer. I felt I could pray with so much confidence. I think of Jesus who said, "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you" (John 15:7). I strongly believed, as I was praying, that I was praying what God had wanted me to pray, with the heart that he wanted me to pray in. I was so confident that He would answer that prayer. It made me feel so alive and refreshed.

Contemporary Altars

I hope I have expressed my heart about these things and that this range of altar moments that I have presented, each unique and different in their own way, provide you with scope for you to analyze your own life and see how God's met you. He might meet you in different ways than I. I've had the rare altar moment from observing or studying nature. I've had altar moments during conversations with my best friends late at night. I've had altar moments leading Bible studies. I've even had altar moments just sitting silently in my bedroom or on the bus thinking about God. God meets you in different ways, you just have to recognize it as Jacob and Gideon did!

How powerful these altar moments are! They are not fleeting events. They are not simply moments in time that come and go without effect. They are occasions during which heaven and earth meet and reality change. They are moments in time that have lasting impact. They are memorable experiences that change you. They change your heart. They change how you see the world. They change how you see God. They change how you relate to other people. They are personal, breath-taking encounters with the Creator of the Universe - the Living, Holy God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and they are to be desired!

If you've identified some experiences in your life that you believe were altar moments, then you have work to do. You must respond. For Jacob, it was worship, building a pillar and making a vow with God. For Gideon, it was obedience in accordance with a new-found sense of confidence and fearlessness that gave him the ability to do something controversial. For me in my two experiences, it's "seeking God's face" and abiding in Jesus and letting His words abide in me so I can pray with more power and effectiveness. You must find out what God is telling you to do and do it. Obedience is always the correct response to an altar moment.

So maybe you're asking, "How are altars relevant for today? I don't have huge uncut rocks to build altars, nor do I have animals that I'm willing to sacrifice on them!" Paul and I have something to say to you: "Offer yourselves up as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to the Lord" (Rom. 12:1). Your life fully submitted to Jesus is the proper response to an altar moment. Jesus asks everyone to "deny himself and take up his cross and follow him" (Matt. 16:24). Altar moments are not only amazing and breath-taking in themselves, but they are a way God asks that we deny ourselves and pursue Him instead.

Practice #3

This month, I've spent some time reflecting and reminiscing on all the altar moments I've had in the last year or so (or as far as my limited memory can go). I have a note on my Apple Notes app of all the altar moments I can remember with their date, location and the means by which God met me. Here's a brief peek of what it looks like (date | means | location):

• Unknown | Deuteronomy 4:7

• Unknown | 1 John 3:19-20 | My bedroom (Note to self: come back to think about this and remember the circumstances you were in when God spoke this)

• Feb.23.20 | Jeremiah 9:23 | Study room at home

• Feb.26.20 | "Nothing Else" by Cody Carnes | MN6128 @ UtM

• Mar.2.20 | Jeremiah 32:37-41 | CCF office

• Mar.14.20 | Deuteronomy 5:29 | Study room at home

• Mar.18.20 | Lamentations 3 | Study room at home

• Mar.29.20 | Prayer session with family and Psalms 19, 27, 63 and 103 | Dinner table & Living room

There are more that are not listed here, but my goodness, was March a good month or what?? Some of my friends may recognize some of these passages because I've always shared with them when God's revealed gold to me! I get really excited. Some may even recognize the dates associated with them.

This is the practice I want to encourage you to join me in: Take note of all the altar moments you have with God. First, sit down for a good hour and think about the past. As many as you can remember, take down the date, make note of the place, even describe the experience! Then, from now on, never let an altar moment go by without recording it. Sometimes I go to those locations where I met God and just whisper to the Spirit, "Thanks for showing up here. It changed my life." You should do the same.

God warns the generation of Israelites who are about to enter the Promised Land with these words: "Take care lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery" (Deut. 6:12). If we don't "take care", we will forget. (We will forget! That's a fact!). What a tragedy to forget the amazing things that God has done!

Now, I can look at my list, knowing it is a fraction of all the experiences I've had in my life and think "Wow! God spoke to me in the past. Why wouldn't he do it again? I remember how awesome those times were. I'm going to press in right now and seek God's face because I can't wait until I get to add another altar moment to my list."

---

Next month's (April's) topic is on prayer and fasting.