The table of showbread and the lampstand were, along with the altar of incense, made with gold and acacia wood ( Exodus 40:1-3).

Some Christians use their “altars” for personal worship as a reminder of Romans 12:1. Churches have altars for prayer, communion, weddings, and other purposes.

When Solomon built the altar, it was made of pure gold ( 1 Kings 7:48).Īn altar, in the broadest sense of the term, is a designed place where someone consecrates themselves to someone or something. The altar was to have four horn-like projections with one at each corner and to be large enough to hold bulls, sheep, and goats to be used for sacrifices. On this altar, the people of God made sacrifices that the Lord God accepted as an atonement for sin. Within the instructions given by the Lord at the tabernacle, He gave further instruction for the type of altar the courtyard should contain ( Exodus 27:1-8). Since atonement is the work of God, the Law specified that an altar made of stones must be made with natural uncut stones, as Exodus 20:5 says. The significance of this altar helped future generations remember the Lord. The Lord sometimes commanded altars to be built after He had amazingly delivered someone ( Exodus 30:1 Deuteronomy 27:4-7). It was here, on this rebuilt altar, that the Lord rained down fire and put the Baal worshipers to shame ( 1 Kings 18:38-39). Additionally, Elijah symbolized the unity of God’s people in the construction of altars ( 1 Kings 18:31-32).

Elijah’s restoration of the altar is critical because of the paganism of his day. Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel and “repaired the altar of the Lord, which had been torn down” ( 1 Kings 18:30). An altar represents a genuine desire of the person to give themselves wholly to the Lord because of His work in them to memorialize that work.ĭuring the time of Israel’s rebellion and idolatry, altars began to fall into disrepair. Examples of this include the following:Īll these men built altars and worshiped the Lord at them. Such an altar was built to commemorate an encounter with the Lord and to signify the event between the Lord and man at that time. Before the time of Moses, when the Lord gave the Law to Moses, men made altars out of available materials. Examples of Altars in the BibleĪn altar also represents a place of consecration to the Lord. The idea of an altar is present in Genesis 4:3-4, where Cain and Abel brought their sacrifices to the Lord, which was done most likely on some type of altar. The word altar is first used in Genesis 8:20 when Noah built an altar after leaving the Ark. In the Scriptures, there are over 400 references to altars. The altar was a raised platform with a flat surface. An altar is a structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes.

Definition of christian worship