The point of Building Altars
Genesis 12 -13
So when God chooses He also decides the course. This is the
thing. It is the thing that we can put our faith and hope in. It is also the
same thing that puts us to the test. For some reason we want to be chosen and
then we want to choose what comes next. But that is not God’s way. He chooses
us. We say yes. We become His; same thing every single time. We do what comes
next when He says what comes next. Think Jesus in John 5:19, “Truly, truly, I
say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the
Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.” Think
John 12:49, “For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent
me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak.”
Think John 5:30, “I can do nothing
on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my
own will but the will of him who sent me.” It’s consistent this way. Just do
what He says to do and things will go the way He wants them to go. So God has chosen Abram and off he goes.
He is heading to the land that God has chosen for him. When he gets there the
place is full of other people. Umm It’s a big world God so there must be a
place where we can do this garden, make a great nation thing in one of those places.
But this is God’s plan: This place where these other people are. God does not seem too concerned by who got where first. He tells
Abram, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So Abram builds an altar. You
would think he sets up shop here but instead he moves on. So here it is unclear
what is happening. Is he in disobedience?, is he reading God incorrectly? It is
difficult to know. He moves on to the hills east of Bethel and he sets up there
for a bit. He is still in Canaan, just further Southwest, nearer to Egypt. He
builds another altar. But here again he moves on further in the Negeb. And it
sort of ends like that. We are
told there is a famine and then Abram takes Sarai and they head into Egypt
where he causes all kinds of problems with some antics produced from fear. He
and Sarai do this sister/wife thing and it causes havoc for Pharaoh.
So here is where we can relate to the brutal truth of Abram.
He is chosen by God and he is walking whole heartedly. He is all in. He leaves
home. He is talking with God. He is building altars and he is making sacrifice.
It seems that there is no wrong step to be made. In our mind this man should be
blessed. After all, we are pretty sure that we should have blessing as we draw
nearer to Him. And yet that is not how it plays out. Abram builds two altars in
the land and he settles with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And Famine
ensues. This is so God. This is consistent God. He chooses, He marks, He leads
and then He introduces the desert place. Abram you are chosen so what will you
do in the hard times? Abram heads
to Egypt. It is not clear if Abram has entered into sin with this choice. The
bible is not obvious with this. However, there are some interesting events that
occur while Abram is in Egypt that seem to reveal a separation between Abram and God in this
time.At least it seems clear that Abram has altered the relationship on his end.
From the time Abram leaves his home he is in constant
communication with God. He also builds an altar everywhere he settles. Finally,
he never seems to be worried about the land or who occupies the land. But
contrast all that we know with what we see in Egypt. He enters Egypt and he
does not set up an altar. He enters Egypt and he does not speak with God. He enters
Egypt and we immediately see that he is afraid for his life. This entrance to
Egypt is so radically different from his entry to any other place during the
journey. So what ensues is a series of odd events. Abram and Sarai pretend they
are brother and sister. Pharaoh thinks she’s pretty hot so he decides to date
her. He hooks Abram up with all kinds of wealth. God shows up and plagues Pharaoh’s house with all kinds of
troubles. Pharaoh learns that Sarai is actually Abram’s wife and he runs them
both out of town. Nobody gets hurt and Abram has improved his bank account by
quite a bit. We are told he is very rich. They leave Egypt and head for the
altar they set up between Bethel and Ai.
Wow! So here is what we have learned. While it may be true
that Abram forgot about God while he was living in fear in Egypt, God had not
forgotten him. He protects Sarai by Plaguing Pharaoh. He blesses Abram with valuable property. He has them both run out of town and they run back to
Him, back to the place where He had placed them. They run into His arms and He
is there. This is an amazing God. We build altars because we will need a place
to run to after we forget what it is we are supposed to be doing. He will
always be there. He will have orchestrated the return. We build the altar
because we are a forgetful people. We are inclined to think we may have been
the ones who did the cool thing or we may think that somehow it was fate or
chance, random dumb luck. We build the altar because it is the reminder that it was Him, that it
is always Him.
