Altar

An altar was a raised structure of earth, stone, or bronze on which sacrifices were offered. From the very beginning the patriarchs built them to worship and call on the LORD — Noah after the Flood, Abraham across the land of promise — marking places of encounter with God.

The tabernacle had two: the large bronze altar of burnt offering in the courtyard, where blood was shed, and the small golden altar of incense inside, where prayer ascended. The altar’s projecting “horns” were a place of refuge a desperate person might grasp, and the blood applied to them spoke of atonement and mercy.

Because every altar pointed to sacrifice for sin, the New Testament can say of the cross, “We have an altar.” The endless animal offerings looked forward to the one perfect sacrifice; the place of slaughter was, all along, the place of grace.