This is the third part of our discourse on the topic “Deeper knowledge and understanding of the mystery of altars”. I hope that you have read parts one and two for a better understanding?
If you have not read part two, please GO HERE to read it. In part one, we looked at the introduction of the mystery of altars and in part two, we looked at the voices of altars. In this segment, we shall be looking at one instance of the negative voice of the altar and what actually gives altars voices.
As we saw in part one, the first deeper knowledge and understanding we should have about the mystery of altars is that altars have voices, and it speaks, either positively or negatively.
Godly altars are for God, and it speaks positively for us while evil altars are for satan, and it has negative voices. But what gives voices to altars? Majorly, what gives any altar voice is the blood on the altar(sacrifices).
In other words, the quality of the blood (sacrifice). Please, this calls for a deeper understanding because, in this New Testament, we don’t pour or place the physical blood on the altar. However, if the money you place on the altar can buy chicken, it is taken, or it means that you sacrificed chicken on the altar.
We saw the voices of godly altars in part two and in this part, we shall go ahead to see one instance of the negative impact or voices of the evil altar. This can be seen in 2 Kings 3:24-27.
In the above portion of the Bible, there was a fierce battle between Israel and the Moabites. So when the Moabites came to the camp of Israel, Israel rose up and attacked the Moabites, so that they fled before them; and they entered their land, killing the Moabites.
Then they destroyed the cities, and each man threw a stone on every good piece of land and filled it, and they stopped up all the springs of water and cut down all the good trees. But they left the stones of Kir Haraseth intact.
However, the slingers surrounded and attacked it. And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too fierce for him, he took with him seven hundred men who drew swords, to break through to the king of Edom, but they could not.
Then he took his eldest son who would have reigned in his place, and offered him as a burnt offering upon the wall; there was great indignation against Israel. So they departed from him and returned to their own land.
As can be seen from above, no matter who you are, there is always a reaction whenever blood drops on the altar, either negative or positive reactions.
Like God made a sworn blessing or declaration in favor of Abraham, here there was a negative reaction against Israelites, immediately the blood of the eldest son of the king of Moab dropped on the altar.
The understanding we need to get here is that human blood sacrifice is the greatest blood sacrifice that can be offered. What of the situation in which our own blood finds its way on an evil altar? We will end this segment by trying to understand what happened here in the book of 2 Sam 24:10-25. This bible portion was what happened after King David sinned against God.
And David’s heart condemned him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the Lord,”I have sinned greatly in what I have done; but now, I pray, O Lord, take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly.”
Now when David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, “Go and tell David, ‘Thus says the Lord: “I offer you three things; choose one of them for yourself, that I may do it to you.”‘”
So Gad came to David and told him; and he said to him, “Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or shall you flee three months before your enemies, while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ plague in your land? Now consider and see what answer I should take back to Him who sent me.”
And David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Please let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man.” As a result of the sin of David, So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel from the morning till the appointed time.
From Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand men of the people died.
And when the angel stretched out His hand-over Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the destruction, and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “It is enough; now restrain your hand.”
And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people and said, “Surely I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done?
Let Your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father’s house.” And Gad came that day to David, and said to him, “Go up, erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” Please, what happened here calls for deeper understanding. As a result of that sin of David, God sent a plague against Israel that killed thousands of people.
David repented and asked God for mercy, he prayed or interceded for the people of Israel. God assured him that he has heard his prayers, but still required him saying, “Go up, erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”
In other words, David was required to go and erect an altar of sacrifice to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite” meaning that there are situations that require rearing altar for us in addition to our prayers.
So David, according to the word of Gad, went up as the Lord commanded. Now Araunah looked, and saw the king and his servants coming toward him. So Araunah went out and bowed before the king with his face to the ground.
Then Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” And David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to the Lord, that the plague may be withdrawn from the people.”
Now Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up whatever seems good to him. Look, here are oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing implements and the yokes of the oxen for wood.
All these, O king, Araunah has given to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the Lord your God accept you.” Then the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
Secondly, what happened above is another basic understanding we should have. Here David was offered the items for the sacrifice for free. However, David refused, saying, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing.”
The understanding is that some people are erecting an altar that cost them nothing and expect such altars to have voices to speak for them. Please, this is totally wrong. The altar must cost us quality sacrifice if such altars must have voices to speak for us or on our behalf.
And David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel. This is the end of part three. Please keep a date with us, as we will continue our discourse in part four. Shalom!
