The altar, a profound symbol of the human heart, serves as a conduit for offerings and sacrifices. Since the destruction of the Temple, Judaism has sought to understand the symbolic significance of the sacrificial system and the Temple. The sages describe the altar as a family table, a place of reconciliation within relationships, compassion, hospitality, and prayer, creating a strong connection from the Tabernacle furnishings to our internal environment. The first Torah Portion of Leviticus, Vayikra, entails more instruction on the sacrifices and offerings placed on the altar that the last portion described as being built. You can read this portion in Leviticus 1:1-5:26.
Okay, I have tried to string a thread through the last few Torah Portions that describe the Tabernacle as a precursor to a human dwelling for the Divine Presence. If we continue with this understanding, the altar connects to a holy, purified heart so that whatever touches it will become sacred.
The Israelites must use organic materials to build an altar. It could only be made out of stones untouched by human hands, meaning the Israelites could not chisel or form a fancy altar with tools (Dt 27.5). Everything the Israelites placed on the altar came from the Earth. In Genesis 2:19, we read that God made all animals with the Earth. He made humans with Earth and divine breath or Spirit. Here we can see the entire Biblical plan. God did not make humans so we could create a dwelling for God in the heavens. The Holy One already dwells in the heavens.
Psalm 115:16: The heaven, [even] the heavens, [are] the LORD’s, but the Earth He has given to the children of men.
Psalm 123:1: A song of Ascents. Unto You I lift up my eyes, O You who dwell in the heavens.
He made us so that we, created from the Earth, could sanctify our earthly nature, also known as the flesh or the nefesh. When we learn how to do this, we are living Tabernacles with holy hearts that offer up sacrifices of mercy, praise, repentance, and reconciliation. Wherever we walk on the Earth, we are, in a sense, sanctifying the Earth for the Holy One to dwell here. This process of humans creating a holy space on Earth for the Holy One was the plan from the beginning! It is in Yeshua’s prayer;
Matthew 6:9-14: Therefore, pray in this way: “Our Father in heaven, sanctified be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the [wicked].
So many people spend their time figuring out how to cast down or command celestial beings or find secrets to gaining spiritual power in the heavenly realm, but that is where God dwells, reigns, and has complete sovereignty. God never gave us dominion over the heavenly realm; He gave humans dominion over the Earth (Gn 1.28). Having dominion over creation starts with ruling over our earthly, human, and animalistic nature. We have to allow Yeshua to redeem our humanity. Everything concerning the altar, symbolic of our heart, is earthly. The earthly altar, where earthly offerings and sacrifices are made, is the process we go through to redeem our human nature. We offer it up so that the Holy One purifies it and returns it to us, ready to be used to spread holiness.
A defiled altar would be a heart filled with hypocrisy, jealousy, envy, deceit, pride, and rebellion. Instead of a holy altar making everything that touches it consecrated, a blemished heart defiles whatever touches it. The altar consecrates the offerings and sacrifices placed on it, but the blood of a sacrifice also sanctifies the altar. Yeshua’s blood sanctifies our hearts because He lived a holy life, and our life force is in the blood (Lv 17.11). He cleanses our conscience from dead works or words and actions that do not bring life to ourselves or others. When we give our desires, passions, wills, motivations, emotions, and thoughts to God, we trust Him to refine them to become more powerful tools for restoring the world to whole-i-ness. Our cleansed hearts, then, make everything we give to the Holy One pure.
Exodus 29:37: Seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and sanctify it. And the altar shall be most holy. Whatever touches the altar must be holy.
Hebrews 9:13-14: For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Messiah-who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God-cleanse our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
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