WE HAVE AN ALTAR -- Monday:
"We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle." KJV (Heb 13:10)
An eternal advantage is now in place for the saints of the most high God! "We have an altar . . . " It is not that we SHOULD have an altar. We DO have one! This is not a prophecy, it is an announcement – a present reality! This altar is not for angels, it is for mankind. It is not something we are to earn, it is something we are to enjoy.
AN EFFECTIVE SACRIFICE
An effective sacrifice has been provided for us! It is a sacrifice that pleases God and will also please us. The Father is satisfied with this sacrifice, and those who partake of it will also be satisfied! The altar is effective because of this situation. A sacrifice that pleased God but brought no benefit to man would not be appropriate. One that gave apparent advantages to man, but was rejected by God would bring disadvantage to those embracing it. We have no such altar!
IT IS ACCESSIBLE
By saying "we have an altar," the Spirit is emphasizing the accessibility of the provision. It can be appropriated, and its benefits can be enjoyed. This is not a philosophical altar, known only through profitless imaginations. It is not a vaporous idea incapable of changing the condition of those embracing it. An altar that cannot be accessed by those to whom it is presented has no value. "We HAVE an altar." It is ours by appointment. It is ours by accessibility!
IT IS SATISFYING
An altar that is accessible but ineffectual is not what we need! The altar within the tabernacle outer court was accessible, but what was offered upon it could not take away sin (Heb 10:4). Those sacrifices could not cleanse the conscience. At the peak of involvement with that altar, there was a "remembrance of sins" (Heb 10:3).
It is not so with our altar! What God has provided CAN be enjoyed – personally and satisfyingly enjoyed! It touches the heart of the matter because it is for us! Blessed altar that encourages us to remember our sins are gone! Blessed altar that proclaims an effective death and fellowship with God! "WE have an altar."
The Spirit accentuates the glorious privilege of the saints of the Most High God. They participate in something the loftiest servants of all could not enjoy before Jesus. Of the altar to which we have access, it is said, "from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat" (NIV). The immediate reference is to the High Priests of old. They could not eat of the greatest sacrifice of all – the sin offering. Thus it is written, " . . . any sin offering whose blood is brought into the Tent of Meeting to make atonement in the Holy Place must NOT be eaten; it must be burned" (Lev 6:28-30, NIV). For clarification, the "Tent of Meeting" (NIV), or "Tabernacle of the congregation" (KJV), was not a place where the people congregated. It is where they were represented, where God communed with the appointed representative over the mercy seat.
The sin offering, whose blood was brought into the tabernacle, was to be consumed by fire. No part of it could be eaten: no personal identity with the sacrifice, no participation in the atonement. This sin-offering was for God, and God alone! It was dedicatory, and was to be held most sacred. It was disassociated from the common sacrifices. Once offered, the carcass was to be taken outside the camp and consumed with fire.
The detailed law for this offering is found in Leviticus 4:3-21.The blood of this sacrifice was brought within the tabernacle. The priest dipped his finger in the blood and sprinkled it seven times before the veil before the Holiest place (v. 6). "Some" of the blood was also placed upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense, which was inside the tabernacle (v. 7). "All of the blood of the bullock" was to be "poured out" at the base of the altar for burnt offerings which was at "the entrance to the Tent of Meeting" (v. 7b). All of the fatty portions of the sacrifice were to be "turned into smoke" on the altar of burnt offering (v. 10). "But the skin of the bull and all its flesh, as well as its head, its legs, its entrails, and its dung – all the rest of the bull – " were to be carried to a ceremonially clean area outside of the camp and burned in a wood-fire over an ash heap (v. 11-12, NRSV). None of this sacrifice was to be consumed by the priests! This ceremony foreshadowed the death of Christ outside the city of Jerusalem.
Let all who seek refuge in a Law-system take note. You cannot serve the Law and consume the sacrifice for sin! You cannot be absorbed with routine, and be refreshed by Jesus. It is not that it will not happen – it CANNOT happen! Those who seek justification by law "ARE fallen from grace" (Gal 5:4). An approach to God based upon law is not a minor error! An attempt to so come to God introduces a situation where "faith has no value and the promise is worthless" (Rom 4:14, NIV). The Word of the Lord is precise on this matter, giving no room for the flesh whatsoever. "I do not nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly" (Gal 2:21, NASB). It is not possible for a condition to be more serious!
Those who come to God by faith and through Christ "have an altar." They have the right to eat from it, partaking of Christ and participating in His life. The sacrifice for sin is for them, a sort of diet for the soul.
PRAYER POINT: Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank You for the exclusive rights to the altar that comes when we are born again.