This is part 2 of the Prophetic Word on Altars. You can read Part 1 here which talks about the first time Altars were mentioned in the Bible.
Since Noah exiting the Ark, we see that the next time an altar was built was by Abram. I believe that is 10 generations down the line. I found it interesting that no one else in the family built an altar until Abram many generations down the line. And it must’ve been discussed or a part of their life because if Abram knew about it, they must all know about it but didn’t do it.
After God tells Abram to leave is fathers’ house for a land God will show him here is what happens…
Genesis 12:4-19
4-6 So Abram left just as God said, and Lot left with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot with him, along with all the possessions and people they had gotten in Haran, and set out for the land of Canaan and arrived safe and sound.
Abram passed through the country as far as Shechem and the Oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites occupied the land.
7 God appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your children.” Abram built an altar at the place God had appeared to him.
While he had no idea where he was going and set out and as soon as God told him that he had arrived to his destination, he built the altar. Again as a sign of thanksgiving, gratitude and the beginning of a new life and celebrating God’s promise fulfilled.
Genesis 12:8
8 He moved on from there to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent between Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. He built an altar there and prayed to God.
I loved this because he created an environment where he welcomed God’s presence through the altar all along the way. Every place he went to he built an altar. Notice in this instance that God never said anything he just built it to invite God’s presence.
Genesis 12:9-19
9 Abram kept moving, steadily making his way south, to the Negev.
10-13 Then a famine came to the land. Abram went down to Egypt to live; it was a hard famine. As he drew near to Egypt, he said to his wife, Sarai, “Look. We both know that you’re a beautiful woman. When the Egyptians see you they’re going to say, ‘Aha! That’s his wife!’ and kill me. But they’ll let you live. Do me a favor: tell them you’re my sister. Because of you, they’ll welcome me and let me live.”
14-15 When Abram arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians took one look and saw that his wife was stunningly beautiful. Pharaoh’s princes raved over her to Pharaoh. She was taken to live with Pharaoh.
16-17 Because of her, Abram got along very well: he accumulated sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, men and women servants, and camels. But God hit Pharaoh hard because of Abram’s wife Sarai; everybody in the palace got seriously sick.
18-19 Pharaoh called for Abram, “What’s this that you’ve done to me? Why didn’t you tell me that she’s your wife? Why did you say, ‘She’s my sister’ so that I’d take her as my wife? Here’s your wife back—take her and get out!”
Here’s what I want you to see here, he was going along just fine going from place to place and then there was a famine.
What would your response have been if this happened to you? I would be thinking, God, you told me to come here what is happening?….BEFORE I moved one more inch! He didn’t do that, he immediately sought to rectify the problem by taking a decision that seemed “wise” by moving to a place where there is no famine.
Yes, on the surface it seemed like the logical decision to make but as he’s heading towards Egypt he’s moving further away from the altar, do you see that?
Does he build another one? No. He goes into another mode as he gets further away from the altar. It says it was a hard famine so that means these were drastic times, his livestock likely would’ve died off and people traveling with him would’ve died. I hope you didn’t miss that he was not only traveling with Lot and Sarai but many others! (Genesis 12:5). So he’s concerned for everyone traveling with him and not just himself.
What is interesting about this is that he left the presence of the altar and went into a territory where he didn’t build an altar and suddenly he’s now lying to preserve himself. He said Sarai was his sister not his wife because he was afraid that they would kill him to get her.
The further you get from your altar when you are surrounded by sin, demonic presence and worship of false gods the more prone you are to falling into sin.
Now here comes a part that you don’t hear about a lot in church so let’s go there….
Genesis 12:18-20
18 Then Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this that you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for myself as a wife? Now then, here is your wife, take her and go!” 20 And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they escorted him away, with his wife and all that belonged to him.
Yep! THAT happened. Because when you move away from the altar and you are surrounded by false god worship you will fall into sin.
Just imagine what the Lord is thinking…”Here it is a I am about to make a covenant with you to be the Father of many nation, through your wife Sarai and you really went and had her sleep with the Pharaoh????”
Do you understand why she had to be barren? God in His mercy knowing that they were going to make this mistake made sure that this wouldn’t result in a pregnancy.
The Lord caused the Pharaoh to figure out what is wrong and throw him out of Egypt because he was never suppose to be there!
God is sooooo good! You know, a lot of times the places that reject you,,,GOD is the one preserving you. Don’t get offended. Just say Thank you and move on without offense!
You’re not supposed to be there!
This shows you that no matter how anointed and appointed you are, as long as you are outside of the territory where God called you it will never work out. God had already told him where he should be and he went off track.
What he does next shows that he figured out and he needed to backtrack.
Genesis 13:1-4
1-2 So Abram left Egypt and went back to the Negev, he and his wife and everything he owned, and Lot still with him. By now Abram was very rich, loaded with cattle and silver and gold.
3-4 He moved on from the Negev, camping along the way, to Bethel, the place he had first set up his tent between Bethel and Ai and built his first altar. Abram prayed there to God.
He went back to the last place where he was that he felt the presence of the Lord.
Can you imagine his first time back at the altar? Remember now that you can’t ask for anything without first repenting…
Lot, bring me the best goat, the best sheep, the best of the best of all the animals…
Sarai, bring me the best olive oil, the best wheat and barley, the best of the best of everything we have in the house, I gotta go fix this with God…
Oh Lord forgive me for going off track
Forgive me for giving into fear
Forgive me for not trusting that you could provide for us, even in a famine
Forgive me for lying and asking my wife to lie too
Forgive me for leading the people you entrusted to me into sin
Forgive me for finding solace in a place where false gods are being worshipped when I know that you are the one true and living God
Forgive me for having a heart that is led by self preservation
Forgive me for not standing boldly for you and building an altar out of fear
Forgive me for forsaking the altar
Forgive me for setting a bad example for Lot
Forgive me for using this sin to get wealthy
Forgive me for giving the wife that you gave to me to another man
Forgive me for the defilement that this brought on our family, I accept full responsibility for being the one who led her down that path
I thank you Lord God that she didn’t get pregnant so we don’t have any more consequences related this sin
Forgive me for causing a plague to come upon the land because of my sins, I pray you heal and restore them now.
I repent Lord God and I turn from these evil ways, thank you for leading me back to this altar. I am submitted to you and I wait for your instructions as you restore me. Amen.
Of course we know he wouldn’t have said “in Jesus’ Name, Amen”. LOL. and if you don’t know why he wouldn’t say that YOU and I need to have a serious conversation!!!
You know what? No matter how close you are to the Lord, how holy you are, how well you know the Lord, you can mess up! It’s called being human living in a body of flesh. Hence, we have to repent before the Lord when we do wrong so that He can restore us. I just imagine him laying prostrate before God repenting for all those years he was off track until God brought a Holy “kick him out” to get him back on track. Perhaps if the Pharaoh didn’t kick him out he would’ve stayed there for decades. The text doesn’t even say that the famine had ended. We assume that it did, but who knows?
God sometimes will bring us right back into the situation that we left, without it changing it, just to teach us how to deal…how to cope! Until we learn how to deal with it and then it changes and the truth is sometimes nothing changes but we learn how to worship and praise through it. As I like to say, you won’t see a miracle until you really need a miracle. You won’t walk in the supernatural until you are in a situation in which nothing from the natural realm can fix it. What better way for God to show that He is God than to bring him back to the same spot while the famine is still happening and cause him to prosper in the midst of the famine?? He’ll let the same things circle back to us until we respond correctly. This is how we learn and we grow.
Now back in the original place the two wealthy men (Abram and Lot) had their shepherds running out of land because they were growing so much.
Genesis 13:8-11
8-9 Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have fighting between us, between your shepherds and my shepherds. After all, we’re family. Look around. Isn’t there plenty of land out there? Let’s separate. If you go left, I’ll go right; if you go right, I’ll go left.”
10-11 Lot looked. He saw the whole plain of the Jordan spread out, well watered (this was before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah), like God’s garden, like Egypt, and stretching all the way to Zoar. Lot took the whole plain of the Jordan. Lot set out to the east.
Oh Boy! It looked like Egypt? Hmm after the experience with Egypt you think Lot would really seek God before choosing the next spot. Straight outa Egypt, straight into Sodom and Gomorrah. Wow!
Then as soon as he leaves the Lord speaks to Abram and tells him where he’s going next.
Genesis 13:14-18
14-17 After Lot separated from him, God said to Abram, “Open your eyes, look around. Look north, south, east, and west. Everything you see, the whole land spread out before you, I will give to you and your children forever. I’ll make your descendants like dust—counting your descendants will be as impossible as counting the dust of the Earth. So—on your feet, get moving! Walk through the country, its length and breadth; I’m giving it all to you.”
18 Abram moved his tent. He went and settled by the Oaks of Mamre in Hebron. There he built an altar to God.
We’re back baby!! LOL
You know what I love about the Lord? He doesn’t hold a grudge! You mess up, you confess, you seek Him with your whole heart, He responds, you’re back!!! That is how He is.
When people are afraid to repent, I believe they are seeing God like an earthly father in that if you repent and admit what you did wrong he’s going to send you outside to go pick the switch. If you know, you know.
The truth is, that is not how it is!!!! And you cannot be free until you repent. So the enemy uses our past trauma of admitting to wrong doing to being punished mercilessly if we admit it. Then we think it is better if we just hide it, grab that fig leaf and cover it up.
When the truth is that your freedom comes after you admit it in the presence of the Lord and ask Him for restoration.
Sometimes in His mercy you won’t have consequences but at other times there will be consequences,
When Abraham went back to the altar the revelation came, separate from Lot. I’m sure he loved Lot! Lot didn’t do anything wrong to him so why would he think he needed to separate from him? That’s his nephew! But man looks at the outside and God looks at the heart. And only God knows the purpose He has on your life so if He says you need to separate, then you need to separate.
Also makes me wonder why didn’t Lot say to him “Hey Unc, do you really think it is a good idea for us to go to Egypt?” He said nothing, they all just followed behind Abram without examining what was going on there.
They left on good terms.
Lot moved into Sodom and Gomorrah and he never built an altar and we all know the outcome from that situation.
You can’t be afraid to walk some portions of your journey alone because there will be seasons where that is exactly what God will require.
Being alone is not the issue. Being alone with no altar is the issue.
We already saw with Abram that traveling with a crowd of people and having no altar is just as bad, so being alone is not the issue. The presence of the Altar makes all the difference in the world.
You should never have your whole spiritual life ride on someone else’s altar. You need your own! You may be thinking well what about the altar at church on Sunday? That’s good, but that is one day a week, what is happening with you Monday through Saturday? What happened during Covid when you couldn’t go to church?
Out in the bushes with no one around is one thing, living far out in the “boondocks” as they call it is one thing, living in a city where there is much witchcraft, debauchery, false idol worship, with the churches in your neighborhood looking and sounding exactly like the world (<<< a sign they are having an Abram in Egypt moment or they are Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah)….you need to maintain your own altar. Otherwise, you will have some serious issues.
Next week, we’ll look at the different types of offerings made on an altar and what I believe they represent today.
Blessings!
