Honey From The Rock

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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 7

This entry was posted on 10-20-2009 and is filed under ALTARS.

"So Abram moved his tent and went to live beside the oaks of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD" (Gen. 13:18 CSB).

It appears that Abram has settled down to live at Mamre, two miles north of Hebron. Mamre was famous for its oak trees. It must have been a pleasant place. When Sarah died, Abraham buried her in the field of Machpelah near Mamre (Gen. 23:1-20). Abraham himself would eventually be buried there as well (Gen. 25:7-10). So what was Abram/Abraham doing all those years? I would like to think that he had daily worship, meeting God through the avenue of the altar he had already built. Henry Whitney Bellows observed, "I have never known a man, who habitually and on principle absented himself from the public worship of God, who did not sooner or later bring sorrow upon himself and his family." I believe that a man needs an altar - a place where he and his family can hear the voice of God and call upon the name of the Lord. That place is the home and that place is also the church.

In Chapter 14 we find Abram paying tithes to Melchizedek (see also Heb. 7:1-10). In Chapter 15 God renewed His covenant with Abram. It is possible that the offering God required of Abraham was laid upon the altar at Mamre/Hebron, but I cannot say for sure that this was so. Abraham stayed up all night shooing away the birds of prey from the carcasses of the required birds and animals. Abraham's pleading for Sodom does not appear to have taken place at the altar (although it would have been a good place to intercede - see Gen. 18:16-33). We do know that Abraham suffered another faith lapse when he moved for a time to Gerar, between Kadesh and Shur. Once again he told a half-truth about Sarah. There is no mention of building an altar or of the Lord appearing or speaking to Abraham there. Is there not a faith lesson here for us? (God did appear to the pagan king to warn him that Sarah was a married woman.) And Abraham did pray to God (Gen. 20:17), asking God to heal those whom He had afflicted because of Abraham's lapse. When we stray from the altar bad things can happen to others, even family members. "Let me never stray from Thee aside!" (Ray Palmer).

Prayer/Hymn: "My faith looks up to Thee, Thou Lamb of Calvary, Savior divine! Now hear me while I pray, Take all my guilt away, O let me from this day be wholly Thine!" (Ray Palmer)