Judges 6:25-26
“….Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height….”
The altar is the raised place for praise, worship, sacrifice and prayer. The altar can best be described as God's table.
Most altars were built for sacrificial purposes, but some were built so that future generations would remember what had happened.
Sometimes God stated just how the altar was to be built and of what materials (e.g., Exod. 20:24-26). With the building of the TABERNACLE, altars were constructed by the Hebrews for two chief purposes: the offering of sacrifices and the burning of INCENSE. Moses was given meticulous instruction on building the altar of burnt offerings. These offerings were not about honoring God or remembering something – they were for atonement, to get right with God.
Once the fire on this altar was kindled, it was required that it burn continually (Lev. 6:13). It burned continuously until the Babylonians destroyed the temple over 700 years later!
Don’t let fire on the altar of your heart go out! Because where there’s no fire, there’s no sacrifice and if there’s no sacrifice there’s no power and if there’s no power, there’s no point!!
Fire won’t fall in empty spaces!
OT the altar was where sacrifices were made. It was a place where God’s anger over sin was turned away, and where people could be forgiven and made holy. When people saw the altar as they approached the Tabernacle (a place where God was worshiped), it reminded them that without the shedding of blood (a sacrifice), they couldn’t come to God or be forgiven of their sins.
The OT altar pointed to the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus would make when He died on the cross. In the OT, the altar was the focal point of worship. It was where sacrifices were made, and where people met God. It was tangible. You could see it, touch it, even smell the offering burning. But that was just the setup for something greater—because God never intended worship to stay confined to a piece of furniture or a specific place.
Then Jesus came and suddenly, the altar wasn’t made of stone or wood anymore. The altar became our hearts. Worship moved from the external to the internal. No longer about just a burnt offering or a ritual—worship became about the posture of our lives.
It’s not about bringing something to the altar; it’s about becoming the altar.
Romans 12:1 puts it like this: “Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”
In Judges 6-7, God gives the Israelites a miraculous victory over the Midianites. The Midianites were substantially superior in number and strength and yet Gideon leads just 300 men to bring about an incredible victory without even raising a sword!
If I was to pin that mind-blowing victory on anything, it would be on that seemingly inconsequential line,
v25-26
“….Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height….”
The first assignment God gave to Gideon was not to overcome the Midianites, it was to overcome himself.
“Tear down your father’s idols.”
His father had these altars to Baal, and now Gideon is commanded to destroy them. Can you imagine? Here he is, already feeling like an underdog, and now he’s supposed to upset his whole family and community? He’s the least in his family! These idols were what his family and community relied on. And instead of God sending him to war against the enemy, Gideon feels like God is asking him to go to war with his family!
The fact he even mentions that is the least in his family and his clan is the weakest in Israel to the angel tells us he values them!
God asks Gideon to give him what he values most.
And this is what an altar is. It’s not giving God what we don’t want; it’s giving God what we want most.
So here’s what Gideon does: he smashes the idol and builds an altar.
Every one of us has an idol to smash and an altar to build.
Maybe you’re asking God to do a miracle?
Maybe you’re believing for life change?
If you want to live in the victory that Jesus has given you, you must make your heart the altar!
Fire does not fall in empty places.
If you build the altar, He will send the fire!
Comments