Building Altars

And Abram(Abraham), built an altar (v7).
And an altar (v8).
And an.. wait.. No altar? (v10)

After the Lord promised Mr. Abe that he will be granted land, Abraham established an altar. What was an altar? Well, it was many things but in this situation it was gratitude, sacrifice, fellowship, and remembrance, all wrapped into one.

[GRATITUDE] Abe was so grateful and in awe of the promises that the Lord was giving him.

[COMMUNION] The gratitude instilled in Abraham the desire to partake in a pure and unadulterated communion with the Lord.

[SACRIFICE] Abe knew nothing he could offer the Lord would be enough, yet he still gave anyways. Why? Sacrifice. When you love someone you are willing to give up quite near anything for them, even if it is your "oh-so-valuable" time.

[FELLOWSHIP] Abe fellowshipped with the Lord at the altar. This fellowship gave him the wisdom of choices. Ever hear the phrase, "show me a man's friends and I will show you the man"? Well, there is far more truth in that simple adage then we often realize. Who you hang around is almost always who you become. With that in mind, hanging out with God and building altars was probably a good idea.

[REMEMBRANCE] Along with all the other beauties of establishing an altar, remembrance was a huge benefit. So many times we see God’s people forgetting His promises, His Salvation, His Grace, and the Redemption He has given us so FREELY. The altar was to be a remembrance of that promise, just as a rainbow is a reminder that God will never flood the earth again.

But alas! What happens in verse 10. There is a problem in the land and mister Abe begins to fret. They fled to Egypt (which is mostly symbolic of "the world" in Scriptures). No altar is built.
"So What?," you might ask, "We don't need to build an altar each time we do something and he was protecting his family."

Well check this out. In the next verses, what happens? What is this? Abe LIES?! He tells the Egyptians that his wife is really his sister, so they won’t swoop on her. A lack of faith begins to be prominent. That promise that God gave Abe wasn't as fresh as he once remembered it. There is no mention of an altar being built... for a reason.
This is merely speculation, but I believe that communion with the Lord reminds us of His promises. I also believe that running to the world helps us to forget them. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if Abram did stop to build that altar. Would he still have lied? Or would the Lord have saved Him as well as his family in a Supernatural, God-style, way?

If you keep reading, you see that Abram is still protected regardless of his lie, because we have an Awesome and Merciful God. But maybe Abram was onto something building those altars, the communion, the fellowship, the gratitude; I would argue that building altars to the Lord keeps us from sin.

Just sayin’

Created almost 2 years ago