The Altar is Meant to Alter
1 Chronicles 21:26-29 Amplified Bible (AMP)
26And 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.27Then the Lord commanded the [avenging] angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath. 28When David saw that the Lord had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there.29For the tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time in the high place at Gibeon.
One of my most challenging moments in writing these devotionals each day is the challenge of time and sometimes is seeing things how I intended them to be written, but the words being wrong, because what you are reading is not actually what was written. Yesterday was one of those days, and my brother who has a background in journalism, takes great pleasure in sending me editorial emails; yesterday’s single side spoke of an encounter at the altar but I had, but in the devotional I wrote alter. As I read his email that was in this case not just one of an editorial nature but one that cross referenced the devotionals content with a sermon he had just heard, I was prompted to go back and reread the first portion of the email which was a lesson in vocabulary that he had supplied me with and the words “the altar, alters” came to me. Yes, it does, or so it should, but why is it sometimes it doesn’t. Anytime I have made my way to the altar, I have gone with expectancy of being changed, my status or situation altered and God to answer.
David, had took a census, although in one scripture it identified God told him to take the census but by cross reference the scripture we find it really wasn’t God who told him to take the census, but the devil. Again we find the devil, in his best role as deceiver and he again beguiled and deceived David into thinking it was God when it was actual him, giving the order. David had fallen prey, and fallen into disobedience and there was still a penalty that had to be paid, and repentance to be sought. David built an altar, on the threshing floor, seeking God’s forgiveness and seeking God to alter his circumstance, and it is there he found it. But I found as I read through numerous scriptures in reference to the altar, the altar was misused and abused, it was used for selfish gain, and defiled with pagan ritual and intent. It is only when those approaching the altar with a heart after God, a heart to seek after God’s will were their lives, their minds, their circumstances and situations altered. You see the altar is a representation of where God spirit abides, but it is also a representation of a place of sacrifice. Many of us go to the altar not willing to sacrifice anything. We want to go to the altar, not giving or giving up anything, but yet we are still in expectation of GOD moving and altering our situation. But that is not the process by which God alters, it requires us to become a sacrifice, or for us to be able to sacrifice something, bringing something for God to work with.
What are you bringing to God, for Him to work with? What are you doing to cause Him to answer in your life? You see going to the altar even in our homes should represent our submission and willingness to bring God something, to give up something. It means going with a heart that is after God and not after self. The altar is meant to show us we need forgiveness and to have our lives altered to conform to the will of God and away from the will of self. Are you giving God what He needs at the altar of your life to alter your life?
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