COMMEMORATING DIVINE HAPPENINGS - 14 June 2019
A PLACE OF GIVING UP SOMETHING:
ALTARS mentioned in Scriptures were ELEVATED CONSTRUCTIONS or FORMATIONS used by the PEOPLE to PLACE SACRIFICES ON. It was a PLACE of GIVING UP SOMETHING ...
ALTARS - MONUMENTS to COMMEMORATE a DIVINE HAPPENING:
Altars were EXCLUSIVELY and EXPLICITLY BUILT as a MONUMENT to REMEMBER or COMMEMORATE A DIVINE HAPPENING which TOOK PLACE at a SPECIFIC LOCATION.
COMMUNION with YAHWEH God:
In ancient Israel, ALTARS were a PLACE of COMMUNION and WORSHIPING - a PLACE of INTIMACY and RELATIONSHIP with YAHWEH God - a PLACE of SPIRITUAL UNION, CLOSENESS, UNITY and ALSO EMPATHY.
EMPATHY:
The ALTAR was also a PLACE of UNDERSTANDING, COMPASSION, RESPONSIVENESS and FELLOWSHIP with YAHWEH God and PROMISE ...
APPROACH YAH and REMEMBER:
The ALTAR was a PLACE of "APPROACH" where the people CALLED UPON the NAME of the ALMIGHTY and REMEMBER HIS PROMISES.
A TABLE of EARTH AND STONE:
In Abram's times, ALTARS were MADE of EARTH or STONES FOUND in the FIELD. NO TOOLS were USED and there were NO STEPS. It SERVED AS A TABLE (to PLACE the SACRIFICE ON).
It was a plain and simple MEETING PLACE with the LIVING YAH (God).
A PLACE OF "WITNESS"
An ALTAR has also been remembered as a WITNESS of what HAPPENED there when Yah (God) and man met.
It was a PLACE of SACRED ENCOUNTERING the ALMIGHTY. (" ... NOT for BURNT OFFERING, NOR SACRIFICE, but as A WITNESS." (Ex. Joshua 22:26-27).
WORSHIP and WITNESS - An ALTAR of PRAYER:
The first altar (of PRAISE) that Abraham built was in the plain of Sechem - lower-ground - then he moved to higher ground (DEEPENING in his FAITH) and pitched his tent between BETHEL (HOUSE of YAH) and AI (HEAP OF RUINS) and built a second altar (of PRAYER) there.
WHEN WORSHIP, PRAYER and WITNESSING become a LIFESTYLE:
WORSHIPPING, PRAYER and WITNESSING became Abraham's new identity. His DEPENDANCE was on his Creator Who FORMED him in the womb. His Creator Who KNEW him from before he was even born.
A SEVERE FAMINE - ABRAM went to EGYPT:
Then a severe famine came into the land of Canaan and Abraham and all who accompanied him, moved to Egypt.
BACK to BETHEL - ALTAR of PRAYER AND REPENTANCE:
In Egypt Abram lied about Sarah being his wife. Scripture tells us that Abraham was sent out of Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, AND LOT with him, and they journeyed into the South country of Judah.
They went BACK as FAR AS BETHEL, to the PLACE where ABRAM PITCHED his TENT and built an ALTAR of PRAYER to YAHWEH between BETHEL (WORSHIP) AND AI (HEAP OF RUINS) and right there Abram CALLED on the NAME OF the ALMIGHTY CREATOR in PRAYER. (Gen. 13:1-5)
TROUBLE BREWING:
STRIFE AMONGST the HERDSMEN:
Scripture tells us that Lot also had flocks and herds and tents and that the land could not support both Abraham and Lot, for their possessions were too great for them to live together.(Gen. 13:5-6)
Gen. 13:7 "And there was STRIFE BETWEEN the herdsmen of Abram's cattle and the herdsmen of Lot's cattle".
"And the CANAANITE and the PERRIZITE were DWELLING in the land." (Gen. 13:7b)
ABRAM ask for PEACE:
Abram said to Lot, "LET THERE BE NO STRIFE, I BEG of you, between you and me, or between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are RELATIVES. Is not the whole LAND BEFORE you? SEPARATE YOURSELF, I beg you, FOM me. If you take the LEFT HAND, then I WILL GO to the RIGHT; or if you CHOOSE the right hand, then I WILL GO to the LEFT." [Gen. 13:6-9].
LOT CHOSE the LAND RIGHT NEXT to SODOM AND GEMORRAH:
Gen. 13:10 "And Lot looked and SAW that EVERYWHERE the Jordan Valley was WELL WATERED. Before Yahweh DESTROYED Sodom and Gomorrah, it was all like the garden of Yah, like the land of Egypt, as you go to Zoar."
:11 Then Lot CHOSE for HIMSELF ALL the Jordan Valley and he traveled east, So they SEPARATED."
So with Lot to move east, right next to the wicked and the WICKEDNESS in Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham moved to MAMRE (VIGOUR - STRENGTH) in HEBRON (FELLOWSHIP).
ABRAM'S THIRD ALTAR:
An ALTAR of PEACE:
Abraham was now SEPARATED and FREE from EGYPT (SIN) and free from STRIFE and there in MAMRE he built his third ALTAR to YAHWEH God, an ALTAR OF PEACE - ENJOYING the PRESENCE of his Maker.
PAGAN (OCCULT) ALTARS:
Right through ancient history, the gods of the pagan nations, were honored - worshiped and prayed for in shrines and temples and altars were built for their gods wherever they were.
The demi-gods:
These gods (evil-spirits, descendants of the Nephilim) are still the demi-gods of TODAY - they did not VANISH into thin air. They are still the DESPOTISMS and the MASTER SPIRITS OF EVILNESS of Ephesians 6:12 - with Satan as the HEAD of them ALL and Satan himself as the GOD of the WORLD.
They are still the demi-gods of ancient Babylon, the demi-gods of the Romans and the Greeks and the Egyptians and the Assyrians, and the Persians and the Phoenecians and Philistines and Perizzites and Hevites and Girgashites and Canaanites and Gaul and Germania and Portugal and Spain and Africa and India and Russia and Australia and New Zealand and America and England and Wales and Scotland and Holland and Ireland and Welsch and Germany and Italy and the Ukraine and Dubai and Hawai and Haiti and Mauritius and Tasmania ... and ... and ....
ANCIENT BABYLON - HIGHLY CIVILIZED:
For many centuries, we believed that the ancients were not civilized but extensive archaeological excavations of Ur by C Leonard Woolley in 1922 - 1934 disclosed that Abram's hometown was a highly CIVILIZED state in ancient Babylon (Mesopotamia).
Excavations show that the entire house of an average middle-class person in ancient pagan (occult) Babylon had from ten to twenty rooms, consisting out of two LEVELS.
The LOWER FLOOR was for the SERVANTS alone with the UPPER FLOOR as the FAMILY-home with a lavatory (preserved for visitors only) and additionally a GUEST CHAMBER.
Ancient pagan SCHOOLS:
Archaeologists also found a school with clay tablets that dated back to Abram's time. Pupils had reading, writing and arithmetic just as today. Multiplication and division tables even working at square and cube root were taught.
BABYLONIAN TEMPLE-COMPLEXES INCLUDED A TOWER:
Excavations also showed that the ancient cities of Babylon were dominated by a TEMPLE-COMPLEX, INCLUDING A TOWER.
The typical Mesopotamian TEMPLE TOWER was KNOWN as a ZIGGURAT. It was square at the base and had sloping, stepped sides that led upward to a SHRINE AT THE TOP.
The NEPHILIM DEMI-GODS also BLESS their followers:
ALL ZIGGURATS WERE DEDICATED to the DIFFERENT DEMI-GODS. The ziggurat's DESIGN made it CONVENIENT for a god to 'come down' to HIS TEMPLE, RECEIVING WORSHIP from his PEOPLE and BLESS them.
STAIRCASES to the DEMI-GODS:
Babylonian (Mesopotamian) ziggurats' NAMES were GIVEN in DEMONSTATING that they were to SERVE as STAIRCASES from EARTH to HEAVEN.
INSIDE BABYLON:
(Modern day Iraq as well as parts of Iran, Kuwait, Syria and Turkey) there were ziggurats found with different names:
The Ziggurat at BABEL were named:
The HOUSE of the FOUNDATION-PLATFORM of HEAVEN and EARTH;
Ziggurat at ASSHUR: The HOUSE of the MOUNTAIN of the UNIVERSE;
Ziggurat at LARSA: THE HOUSE of the LINK BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH; and
Ziggurat at BORSIPPA: THE HOUSE of the SEVEN GUIDES of HEAVEN AND EARTH.
THE LAND OF ISRAEL - YAHWEH'S OWN:
Of all the land of the earth, Yahweh CHOSE the land of Canaan to be His own. He wanted to ELIMINATE the EVILNESS that came upon the earth especially in the land of Canaan that would be named after Jacob when Yahweh GAVE him his NEW NAME - "ISRAEL".
Yahweh wanted to CLEANSE ISRAEL, but first he had to raise up a NATION for the entire world was lost.
Yahweh wanted to RAISE UP a NATION that WOULD BE HIS OWN. Through Abram, Yahweh was working on His MASTERPLAN to ONE DAY, SENT His Son to be the ALTAR - the MEETING PLACE where nothing would SEPARATE Him from His people.
With Abram that pitched his tent among the terebinth trees of MAMRE, which are at HEBRON, He PROMISED the childless ABRAM descendants as many as the dust of the earth.
There at the ALTAR of PEACE Yahweh said to Abram ...
Gen. 13:17 "ARISE, WALK THROUGH the LAND, the LENGTH of it and the BREADTH of it, for I WILL GIVE IT to you."