Altars

By Venessa Holtzhausen

Gen 35:1 Then God said to Jacob, “Get up! Go up to Beth-El and stay there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”
Gen 35:2 So Jacob said to his household and to everyone who was with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you. Cleanse yourselves and change your clothes.
Gen 35:3 Now let’s get up and go up to Beth-El so that I can make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and has been with me in the way that I have gone.”

Again we see that God intervene immediately after a patriarch feels fearful. It is amazing how God just step in to let His people reject fear and restore shalom.

After this ordeal with his sons and the Canaanites, God gives Jacob a command to go back where he made a altar when he sought God for protection, and where was that? Beit-el. House of God, literally translated.

The actions of removing false gods, becoming ritually clean, and changing garments would become necessary steps in Israel when approaching the Lord in worship.

Jacob had to make an altar to God. An altar is a place of sacrifice and worship. A place where you commune with your God. We still make ‘altars’ to God today. When you set aside a place in your house to pray or a place of worship, you are in actual fact, building an altar to God. It becomes a place of communion. A place dedicated to God. A place where you bring a sacrifice of praise. A place where God meets men.

Mat 6:6 But you, when you pray, go into your inner room; and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, shall reward you.

Amen!