THE ALTAR

We're going to talk about the Progressive Transitioning of the Altar Through Scripture, how the Altar came through into the New.

What is an Altar?

An Altar was to burn sacrifices as an act of worship. They put them on high places to slaughter animals. Their praises, a ray of light, a power, a sweet smelling sacrifice of praise.

The Sacrificial Offerings built all through Scriptures like a fumigation of driving out the occupants to smoke out the things that were in them, turning them into fragrance by fire, that burning up and turning that animal sacrifice into a fragrance to Yahuah, a ray of light, a power. And that became a sweet smelling offering to Yahuah they raise structures or high places, and they use them for sacrifices, sacrifice of Worship or Prayer, built to acknowledge their Praise to Alahim. And they were ignited by the hand of Alahim.

Noah built the first Altar, giving thanks to Yahuah for saving him from the flood that destroyed the First World. And then we transgress through Scriptures to today.

Today there is an Altar - The Altar of our hearts. This is where the Sacrifice goes on. Because our body is the Temple. From this place we sacrifice He wants our desires From the place where we sacrifice our wants, our desires for Yahusha’s way and desire for us. So Yahusha wants us to put off all those things our wants and desires. That's a lot of things in our day, in our walk

In ROMANS 12:1-2 "I urge you, brothers and sisters, to present your bodies a living sacrifice". So we to be urged, encouraged to go on, offer your bodies, offer yourselves as a living sacrifice set apart well pleasing to Yahusha a true and proper worship. This is our worship.

What does this mean?

That is an Altar of our heart?

Yahusha’s Spirit has come into our hearts and where animals were sacrificed originally, He wants our sacrifice to transform from the old pleasures. The old ways, the old words. Because words are murderous, words can kill, words spoken down to harsh words. Cruel words. Words can kill the spirit.

So we change how we think and be truly, truly sorry. This is a place to come to where we can sacrifice our old ways and burn them up with the fire that Yahusha ignites through us. To be really sorry, to have remorse, to have shame, not just to say sorry. I'm sorry to this. I'm sorry for that. Not sorry. Sorry goes nowhere unless it's from the heart and it is truly remorseful. And we have shame.

There is an Altar in the Assembly - The Sacrifice of Praise.

Ignited by the Spirit of Yahusha. When we come together the transitioning there going through from the Old Covenant continually. In HEBREWS 13, it tells us Yahusha sacrificed His self, He sacrificed His blood. He was the last sacrifice on the Altar, on the hill where He went, the sacrifice that He gave. Let's go to Him continually offering sacrifices of praise, the progression going into that, the fruit of our lips. Thanksgiving, thanking Yahusha. Being so grateful and overwhelmed by His amazing sacrifice that He has actually set us free from sin and death, doing good and sharing with others. Sharing that love that He gives us is pleasing to Yahusha.

Don't we want to please Yahusha in ourselves, in our behaviour? So in our hearts, this is activated by love. The light is going up to Yahusha from the Altar as it did in that progressive way, going through progressive into the New Covenant of love in our behaviour and that change in our behaviour. Once we sacrifice and put everything on the Altar and burn it up, ignited by His Spirit of truth, the truth sets you free, Brothers and Sisters facing the truth and showing Yahusha that you love Him more than you love yourself and the world. That behaviour is to be seen by all.

THIS IS THE PROGRESSIVE TRANSITIONING OF THE ALTAR THROUGH SCRIPTURE. AND IT'S SO EXCITING BECAUSE YAHUSHA HAS GIVEN US THE WAVE OF HOW WE CAN BEHAVE AND BECOME CLEAN VESSELS FOR HIM TO FILL AND USE IN THE LAST DAYS.

ENCOURAGEMENT & FURTHER STUDY :

By Shodan D'Souza

Thanks for sharing! Here is what I see and thought to share with everyone here. Everything is pointing us to behaviour which we must display in the New Creation Order when the commands have transitioned to the spiritual Royal Laws and the elements also (as Altar is where the Royal Law abides) i.e. the heart.

Heb 13:10 “We have an altar from which those who serve the tent [ a] have no right to eat.

The Hebrew word for heart is 'leb' לב where the lamed ל is the shepherd's staff leading us to the 'body' for which beyt ב stands for. Everything points to Yahusha's body as He came in an earthy-like body for our redemption, but was the Heavenly-Man as Scriptures depict Him for His body was prepared and not created from the soil as Adams was.

Gen 3:23 And therefore Yahuah Elohim sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from there which he was taken.

1Cor 15:47 "It is the first man from the earth of dust (earthly); the second man is the Adon (Master) from the heavens

Rom 5:14 "Adam was a type of Him (Yahusha) who was to come".

Luke 6:45 "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart/leb לב bringeth forth that which is good: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth that which is evil. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

Matt6:21 “For in the place where your treasure is in it, there your heart/leb לב shall be also.”

The place in Hebrew where the intended love (behavior) and the Royal Laws should be occupying is the word 'maqom' מקןם which is an elevated place. The Altar even in the OT was an elevated place where the priests had to climb the stairs to go up to sacrifice and that's why it says in Torah to make linen shorts for Aharon and his sons so that their nakedness is not seen when the climb the stairs and die.

Exo 20:26 "Nor do you go up by steps to My slaughter-place, lest your nakedness be exposed on it."

Ex28:42 "You shall make for them linen breeches to cover the flesh of nakedness, they shall be from the loins unto the thighs".

Ex 28:43 "They shall be on Aharon and on his sons when they enter into the tent of appointment, or when they approach unto the altar to minister in the holy place, so that they do not bear guilt and die. It shall be a statute forever to him and to his descendants after him".

The proof of the text lies in the undergarment which Yahusha wore to the stake which they stripped Him off but didn’t tear it but cast lots for it.

Jhn 19:23 "Then the soldiers, when they had impaled יהושע, took His outer garments and made four parts, to each soldier a part, and the inner garment. But the inner garment was without seam, woven from the top in one piece".

Jhn 19:24 "So they said to each other, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it – whose it shall be,” in order that the Scripture might be filled which says, “They divided My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots.”

Psa 22:18 "The soldiers therefore indeed did this".

He was lifted up in nakedness (in a sense of no priestly under garment when going up to the altar) unto death. This is evidence that the Levitical priesthood which represented the people in the guilt offering could actually never represent the people for Exo 28:43 is crystal clear as it says “…so that they do not bear crookedness and die a law forever to him and to his seed after him.”

Only Yahusha could bear the crookedness of His people in His nakedness of being stripped of the linen trousers which the soldiers took off and cast lots for.

Lastly the Altar before the first Temple was always made of earth.

Shir Hama'aloth (שיר המעלות )

There are 15 Psalms 120 to 134 which are song of ascents.

What is an ascent?

H4609 is an invisible stair ascending to the heavenly leading one into the depths of the shamayim/heavenly in the Ruach/Spirit.

Exo 20:24 "Make a slaughter-place of earth for Me, and you shall slaughter on it your ascending offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your cattle. In every place where I cause My Name to be remembered I shall come to you and bless you".

Exo 20:25 "And if you make Me a slaughter-place of stone, do not build it of cut stone, for if you use your chisel on it, you have profaned it."

After giving the Covenant Laws which were the only laws ratified by a covenant meal recorded in Exo 24 we have Exodus mentioning that the altar should be made of earth and if it’s made of stone, it should be not made of cut stone for no chisel or iron tool should be used to shape it.

Deu 27:5 "and build a slaughter-place to יהוה your Elohim there, a slaughter-place of stones – do not use an iron tool on them".

Deu 27:6 “Build the slaughter-place of יהוה your Elohim with complete stones, and you shall offer ascending offerings on it to יהוה your Elohim,

The slaughter place/altar was to be of earth or mud or stones and if stones it should be uncut stones. This all changed later as the altars post the golden calf incident was brazen and overlaid with gold. There was no earthiness left in them. But the men of Alahym like Elijah in the mount Carmel victory built an altar to Yahuah out of uncut stones. It says...

1Ki18:30 "And EliYahu said to all the people, Come near to me. So all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of JYahuah that had been torn down".

1Ki18:31 "EliYahu took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Yaaqob, to whom the word of Yahuah had come, saying, Yisra’El shall be your name".

1Ki18:32 "And he built an ****altar with the stones in the name of Yahuah**** , and he made a trench around the altar, large as two measures of seed".

Naaman the leper when cleansed of his leprosy requested Elisha that a couple of mules burden of earth be given to your servant, why? So that he could build and altar to Yahuah to sacrifice to only Him. This was after written Torah came. The change in behavior was towards loving Alahym, which shows he got the understanding and saw the transition of Yahuah to and earthy body.

2Ki5:17 "Naaman said, If not, please let a couple of mules’ burden of earth be given to your servant; for your servant shall no longer offer burnt offering nor shall he sacrifice to other mighty ones, but to Yahuah ".

The Scriptures are clear as to the altar in the Tent of the appointment, whether it was earthy or brazen. We read in Exo 20 before the golden calf sin that Yahuah asked Moses to make the earthen altar and in Exo 39:39 later, it changed to brazen altar. Compare the 2 scripture texts below.

Exo 20:24 "Make a slaughter-place of earth for Me, and you shall slaughter on it your ascending offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your cattle. In every place where I cause My Name to be remembered I shall come to you and bless you."

Exo 20:25 "And if you make Me a slaughter-place of stone, do not build it of cut stone, for if you use your chisel on it, you have profaned it.

Ex39:39 the bronze altar and its bronze grating which was for it, its poles and all its utensils, the laver and its stand".

It's clear that these men whose heart was converted understood the earthiness of the heart i.e. heart of flesh to receive the Royal Laws and displayed the right behaviour as they got a glimpse of Yahuah in manifesting in a journey of transition through the ministration of the Spirit of Prophecy, as required as per the New Creation Order. These things only can be decoded when we understand how gradually Yasharal after the flesh lost their earthiness to an Intermin Priesthood who took them to brazen and golden Altars which stood as elements with no earthiness in them until the time of reformation where only the remnant will change and display the right behaviour with the Royal Laws written on the heart.