Altared - Pt. 4 - The Avoided Altar
I. Introduction
For some it was padded. For others it folded down. For some a simple rail. For others it was built in and for others it was a separate piece of furniture that often became a display location for offering plates, plastic flowers, and croquette covered tissue boxes. Many, if not all of us, have had life changing moments around an altar. The altar isn't our idea! In fact, as I mentioned last week, the concept of the altar is rooted in the heart of God, mentioned 370 different times in Scripture! The message is abundantly clear . . . God meets man at the altar.
And so we began by talking about Paul's call for us to live an altared lifestyle in Romans 12:1-2. We avoid the pain, death, blood, and time required to stop at the altar. However, Paul was very clear that if we don't lived altared we will become cultured and look more like our culture than our king.
Then we dealt with the 2nd altar occurrence in Scripture and from Noah's experience we talked about how after one of the most horrific experiences he built an altar. He teaches us to build altars even when we have gone through tough times. He teaches us that we must establish a daily altar of remembrance or we will become bitter, selfish, and complainers. So I challenged you to become like David and make a covenant that "I will remember"!
Then last week I took you to three altar encounters that Abraham had and each one was in direct response to a promise he had received from God. God is still a promise making God. He has a pinky and He isn't afraid to use it. He will swear to you! He will make and keep promises if we will learn to be silent long enough to hear what He is saying! If we don't learn to be quiet and listen, then we begin to confuse our voice for His voice! Abraham also taught us that we have to fight for our promise. The vultures of doubt and fear will try to swoop in and get us to give up on the promises that God has made. However, if you spend time at an altar and hear from God you will get a promise that is worth fighting for!
So we have talked about an altar of remembrance and an altar of promise so let's move forward to what is perhaps the most avoided altar. I don't mind remembering (although I tend to forget to do so). I love promises even with their conditions of obedience that are always attached. However, this is the altar we don't like and try to avoid. It is the altar of sacrifice.
II. Text
Genesis 22:1-13
After all this, (after all you been through you are not exempt from being tested) God tested Abraham. God said, “Abraham!”“Yes?” answered Abraham. “I’m listening.” He said, “Take your dear son Isaac (your only son) whom you love and go to the land of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I’ll point out to you.” Abraham got up early in the morning and saddled his donkey. He took two of his young servants and his son Isaac. He had split wood for the burnt offering. He set out for the place God had directed him. On the third day he looked up and saw the place in the distance. Abraham told his two young servants, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I are going over there to worship; then we’ll (He can only make this statement because he had first visited an altar of promise - Hebrews says His faith in the promise was so strong that he knew God could raise Isaac from the dead if He had to because God is bound by His word!) come back to you.” Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and gave it to Isaac his son to carry. He carried the flint and the knife. The two of them went off together. Isaac said to Abraham his father, “Father?” “Yes, my son.” “We have flint and wood, but where’s the sheep for the burnt offering?” Abraham said, “Son, God will see to it that there’s a sheep for the burnt offering.” And they kept on walking together. They arrived at the place to which God had directed him. Abraham built an altar. He laid out the wood. Then he tied up Isaac and laid him on the wood. Abraham reached out and took the knife to kill his son. Just then an angel of God called to him out of Heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Yes, I’m listening.” “Don’t lay a hand on that boy! Don’t touch him! Now I know how fearlessly you fear God; you didn’t hesitate to place your son, your dear son, on the altar for me.” Abraham looked up. He saw a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. Abraham took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
The altar of sacrifice exposes our idols.
There are two very interesting statements in this account. God says to Abraham take your son of promise, Isaac, whom you love and sacrifice him. An excruciating demand. Not so bad if He had asked for Ishmael. . . but Isaac? That is an entirely different matter.
Here is the deal we don't mind giving God what we hate. I hate my addiction. I hate my sickness. I hate my deficiency. I hate my weakness. But what if God requires what I love? What if I love to spend hours on a golf course and He requires me to sacrifice that? What if I love to spend money without thinking and He requires me to give it instead? What if I love spending time with this particular person and He requires me to give that up? We avoid the altar of sacrifice because it makes us give up things we love!
(This is for free . . . Imagine the lesson this taught Isaac! My dad loves God more than me. What/who do your children see that you love more? They see you sacrifice to work, to play but do they see any sacrifice to God?)
The second statement is to bring Isaac your only son. This is interesting because we know that Isaac wasn't his only son - Ishmael - Abraham took matters into his own hands and God doesn't accept or validate our answers as His answers! I find this interesting because we will so often hear a call to sacrifice and we substitute! Rather than obeying completely and specifically we like to substitute something that we choose, something we love less, something we don't mind losing as bad and call it good!
That is why we avoid this altar. This altar exposes our idols!
The altar of sacrifice forces us to access our hope!
It would have been very easy and understandable that Abraham's hope would be placed in Isaac. He was the fulfillment of the promise. He was the heir. He was the missing link in his lineage. However, this altar forces Abraham to reposition his hope in God.
Where is your hope positioned? Doctor? IRA? Friend? Family? Materials?
An idol is anything that takes God's place in your life. If the hope and trust that you should place in God is placed in your 401K, your ability, your looks, your house, your intelligence then you have an idol in your life. This altar draws a line in the sand and demands that God become first again!
Abraham would laugh at our painless, cheap altar experiences. We want the altar to be about a dance and his was about death. We want the altar to be about a shout and his was about a slaughter. We want altar to be about pleasure and his was about pain. We have made the altar about getting! Abraham's altar experience was entirely about giving!
This altar is an altar about hard choices! Have you had an altar experience lately that has forced you to make any hard decisions or choices? Abraham took the knife in hand to kill . . . this wasn't a game. He wasn't going to scratch or nick his son. He was going to bury the knife in his chest.
What do you need to lay on the altar and kill for God? What needs to die in order for you to obey God? Your will? Your desires? Your preferences? Your fear? Your anger? Your ______? What/who is your Isaac? In order for your life to be marked by life you must also be marked by death! I question whether you have visited this altar unless something has been removed from your life!
The altar of sacrifice tests us and reveals whether we can be trusted!
We often view altars about testing whether or not we can trust God. However, this altar flips the script! This altar reveals that unless we are tested we can't be trusted. The reason many of us are never trusted is because we continue to fail the testing. We hear the command and compromise. We hear the command delay. Abraham got up the next morning and prepared. He didn't just mentally submit to the command he gathered wood, knife and supplies to make the journey! When you procrastinate obedience you disobey God! This altar proves Abraham can be trusted!
We want trust we don't like tests! I want God to bless me, pour favor on me, bless me, give me promotion, give me opportunities but God will test to see if He can trust!
We have stopped at the altar of remembrance and discovered He is trustworthy! But it isn't until we come to the altar of sacrifice that God discovers if we are trustworthy!
Too often we don't see God's provision because we fail to pass the test! True faith is tested faith! Andrew Fuller has well said that a man has only as much faith as he can command in the day of trial.
Trust gets you into trials and gets provision out of thickets!
