Abram Builds an Altar

Read Genesis 13:18

In Genesis 12:7,8 and now 13:18, Abram builds an altar. As he continues to move further and further south throughout the land of Canaan he builds these altars where he offers sacrifices to God.

This practice had been there since the beginning, it was a show of thankfulness and gratitude to God. Cain and Abel did it, Noah did it, and now so does Abram. It was pivotal to his worship of God.

It would continue to be central for his descendants as later they would have the tabernacle, and also later the temple, where they offer sacrifices and which became a most pivotal part of Jewish life and their worship to God.

You see in this we see the heart of Abram, he is not prompted to offer a sacrifice, he is commanded to, he does it of his own free volition. He was praising God for goodness towards him. And here we may perceive part of God’s choice in selecting Abram to receive the promises.

He was a man he knew he did not deserve such a gift, he was old, his wife was past her child-bearing years. But yet God has continually blessed him and for that he could not stop himself from offering up praise and thanks to God.

You see our worship often becomes stunted and ungrateful when we lose sight of how truly undeserving we are of everything we receive. We have still been given no reason why Abram should deserve such great promises, and so you will find it is the same with us. We are lavished with a million blessings, of which we are completely and utterly undeserving of receiving.

But it is often due to our lack of meditation upon what we truly deserve i.e. hell, eternal torment and suffering. And what receive instead i.e. eternal life, relationship with God, freedom from slavery to sin.

Just as you see the overwhelming joy in those who win the lottery, we should emulate them realising we have received far more than all the riches of the world could offer. And if you are wondering how to show thankfulness to God?

Romans 12:1 - “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

No longer do we offer up cows and sheep. No we offer up ourselves to God, our entire lives to do with as he sees fit. That is the kind of worship that God deserves and desires.

Question:

Do you feel like your worship to God is a bit dead or empty? Why or why not?

Do you think it is your heart or something else, outside of you, that often causes the problem with our lack of desire to worship God?