The Altar of Sacrifice

 (from Pastor Jason's message on March 13, 2022)

There’s a pivotal story in the chronology of the Bible that takes place in the record of the Book of Genesis. It involves a man named Abraham and his son, Isaac. It takes place on a mountain named Moriah that is of huge geographic significance in Biblical history. Today, that location is known by several names, including the Dome of the Rock, the Temple Mount, and the Western Wall or Wailing Wall. The Dome was built there by followers of Islam in the 6th century A.D. This is also the location of the second Temple that the Pharisees thought Jesus was talking about when He said, “Destroy this temple and I will raise it in three days. This temple would be later destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D.

 

This was also the site of the original temple, destroyed in 586 B.C. by King Nebuchadnezzar, but originally planned by King David and built by King Solomon in 1000 B.C. The Jews would return from Babylonian exile 50 years later and rebuild this Temple. This was possible because it is the land that King David purchased that land from a man named Araunah – it had been used as a threshing floor – to offer a sacrifice to God as a means of atonement for sins Israel had committed and of stopping a plague that killed 70,000 people.

 

But, before all that, it was the site of a very significant event in Biblical history. That event is the reason that this particular location continued to be a sacred site throughout the pages of Scripture into this present day.  In Genesis 22:1-14 (NLT), we read:

 

God tested Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God called. “Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.” 2 “Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.” 3 The next morning Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him, along with his son, Isaac. Then he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 “Stay here with the donkey,” Abraham told the servants. “The boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there, and then we will come right back.” 6 So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac’s shoulders, while he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them walked on together, 7 Isaac turned to Abraham and said, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “We have the fire and the wood,” the boy said, “but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?” 8 “God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham answered. And they both walked on together. 9 When they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. Then he tied his son, Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. 10 And Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice. 11 At that moment the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Yes,” Abraham replied. “Here I am!” 12 “Don’t lay a hand on the boy!” the angel said. “Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son.” 13 Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So, he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son. 14 Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the LORD will provide”). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”

 

As students of the Word of God, we know that this is a foreshadow of the cross found in the Gospels, when Jesus Himself will become the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. The words “God will provide a lamb!” are proof of that. But it’s easy to look at the outcome and overlook the human will and emotions that are so pivotal in this story. For example, it says that Abraham left the very next morning! Oh, what must have transpired between verses 2 & 3! Abraham probably didn’t sleep that night, and I wonder if he even told Sarah what God has spoken? I can’t imagine the overwhelming grief that must have consumed him. Isaac was literally the fulfillment of prophecy over Abraham and Sarah’s life in their old age. Now God was asking Abraham to not only sacrifice the very promise of God but to actually do it himself!

 

But once God provided that lamb – at the last possible moment – the relief that Abraham must have felt over the saving of his son’s life! That’s the same way we should feel when we realize that Jesus paid the ultimate price for us and just how much we’ve been forgiven because of Jesus’ sacrifice. Abraham humbled himself – because of His complete trust in God – to become completely obedient to what he heard the Spirit say. Jesus modeled this for us in Philippians 2:8b (ESV):

 

“… he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

 

The blessing has always come in the obedience. Because of his choice to obey, God honored Abraham and kept His word to him. Look at what God says to Abraham in Genesis 22:15-18 (NLT):

 

15 Then the angel of the LORD called again to Abraham from heaven. 16 “This is what the LORD says: Because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your son, your only son, I swear by my own name that 17 I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies. 18 And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.”

 

Obedience is the key that unlocks the blessings and the goodness of God in our lives. Obedience is what allows God to move into our impossible situations and do miracles! Since God desires the best for us, why wouldn’t we obey? The key is understanding that true obedience comes from a place of trust.

 

Obedience alone can be easily reduced to just religion, but trust is always built on a proven relationship. We can obey out of fear or force and still be arrogant throughout our obedience. But when we learn to trust the One Who made us, the One Who saved us, the One who loves us and died for us, it always makes obedience worth it.

 

But here’s the problem: Obedience is always tied to sacrifice. The sacrifice of our will. The sacrifice of our desires. The sacrifice of our possessions. This flies directly in the face of some current teaching that suggests a Gospel where we can have whatever we want. No, we can’t! We can have whatever He wants us to have, and only if we’re ready to give it up when He asks for it back.

 

We mentioned that Mt. Moriah, the location of Abraham’s obedience, was also a site later purchased by King David. When Araunah, the owner of the land, learned why David wanted the land, he offered to give it to him. But David realized the lack of value in a sacrifice that didn’t have any personal cost. He said to Araunah, in 2 Samuel 24:24:

 

“No, I insist on buying it, for I will not present burnt offerings to the LORD my God that have cost me nothing.” So, David paid him fifty pieces of silver…

 

There are altars throughout the Bible. In modern churches, we tend to remove things like altars simply for space. But I grew up with an altar. It was a place where we committed our willingness to sacrifice whatever God asks of us, and not just the sins. It’s also the desires, preferences, dreams, and plans because we trusted God that our obedience would serve His Kingdom and His purposes.

 

It’s also interesting that David’s altar was built on a Threshing Floor. A threshing floor is a smooth, flat surface used in the process of harvesting grain. Before machinery, farmers used a threshing floor to separate the grain from the chaff. The harvest would be spread over the threshing floor and then people would use sticks to beat the sheaves apart (Ruth 2:17). The grain (wheat) would be separated from the husks (chaff) and then tossed into the air so that the wind could blow the chaff away, leaving behind only what was usable. This process was called “winnowing.”

 

The Holy Spirit is still winnowing today. The wind represents the Holy Spirit and the altar – the threshing floor – is the place where what was unusable is separated from the usable. Are we willing to allow the Holy Spirit to remove from our lives what’s unusable?

 

Oswald Chambers once wrote, in My Utmost for His Highest:

 

“You must be willing to be placed on the altar and go through the fire; willing to experience what the altar represents--burning, purification, and separation for only one purpose--the elimination of every desire and affection not grounded in or directed toward God. But you don't eliminate it, God does.”

 

That’s the beauty of our obedience on this Christian journey. When we declare our willingness to trust God and sacrifice whatever He asks, we don’t have to do the work, He does it for us! Oh, that we would be so desperate to see the will of God realized in our lives that we would place our very selves on the altar of sacrifice!

 

We used to sing an old song, and most of us know the lyrics to the first part of the song:

 

All to Jesus I surrender; all to him I freely give

I will ever love and trust him, in his presence daily live. 

I surrender all, I surrender all, 

All to thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all. 

 

We would sing it as a salvation song, but it was written to be so much more than that. Look at the next verse:

 

All to Jesus I surrender; humbly at his feet I bow, 

Worldly pleasures all forsaken; take me, Jesus, take me now. 

All to Jesus I surrender; make me, Savior, wholly thine; 

Fill me with thy love and power; truly know that thou art mine. 

 

It wasn’t just a song of salvation. It was a song of consecration. It was a song of giving everything for Jesus because Jesus gave everything for us. Are we willing to give our all at the altar for Him today?

 

Pastor’ Blessing:

- Be blessed as you choose to obey what the Holy Spirit speaks when you listen to His voice.

- Be blessed as you learn in your obedience to trust the heart of the Father who always knows and does what is best for you.

- Be blessed when you feel like you’re out on the threshing floor, as the chaff is being separated from the wheat, because you’re becoming even more usable in this life for the glory of God.

- Be blessed as you choose, day-after-day, to continue to surrender your all.

- Be blessed today in Jesus’ name…