Honey From The Rock

www.poeministries.org

Honey From The Rock
Psalm 81:16

"Sweet Stuff From God's Word"

A daily Bible study with Victor Knowles
Copyright 2007

TRAIL OF ALTARS, Part 4

This entry was posted on 10-15-2009 and is filed under ALTARS.

We have said that you can trace the travels of Abraham by following the trial of altars he left behind. But suddenly we come to a lapse of faith in the life of Abram (as he was then known). After building an altar at Bethel we come to this: "Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev. Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for awhile because the famine was severe" (Gen. 12:9,10 NIV).

What is going on here? Abram had arrived in Canaan, the land of promise, the land of blessing, but he suddenly takes off for Egypt. I do not read where God told him to do this. Perhaps the famine was so great that Abram felt he had to go south in search of food for his family, servants, and livestock. But remember that when Abram built his first altar, at Shechem, God appeared to him and said, "To your offspring I will give this land" (Gen. 12:7). This land (Canaan, later Israel). Not that land (Egypt). Abram's lapse of faith leads to a lapse in altar building, for we do not find him building a single altar while he is in Egypt. In fact, he alters (pardon the pun) his lifestyle and starts out off on the wrong foot by conspiring with Sarai to pass her off as his sister rather than just telling the truth. When you abandon your place of personal worship (the altar) all kinds of bad things may be in store! Read Genesis 12:11-20 and see the collateral damage Abram inflicted on others because of his lapse of faith. Our spiritual lives, or lack thereof, can adversely affect others. We can alter our lives - and the lives of others - when we have an altar. And our altar is Christ.

Hymn: "There is a place of quiet rest, near to the heart of God, A place where sin cannot molest, near to the heart of God. O Jesus, blest Redeemer, sent from the heart of God, Hold us who wait before Thee near to the heart of God" (Cleland B. McAfee, 1901)