A PLACE OF PRAYER

In my previous writing we discussed the place in the Word which talks of the First Mention of Prayer in the Bible.  It is only a few chapters along the road where we find the second place in the Bible that speaks of men “calling out to God”.  Although that story only covers a few chapters and talks of only a few generations it spans a vast amount of years.  

We will turn our attention now to a man named Abram (You already know that later on God changed his name to Abraham).  You may know how God told Abram to leave his home, his family and the things that he knew and go to a place unknown to him.  He was simply to trust God to show him the place and how to get there. 

After much travel he winds up in a place called Bethel (house of God) and travels from there Eastward between Bethel and Hai.  (A good trivia question would be what is significant about the town of Hai or Ai?) 

At that place between Bethel and Hai Abram builds an altar.  I doubt that men waited this long (literally thousands of years) between the time that Seth and Enos prayed until they called out again, but it’s the next time that it is mentioned.  In Genesis 12:8 we are told” 

“..there he built and altar unto the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord”. 

Abram established an altar or a specific place to pray.  I could go down another trail here and talk about establishing a specific place where you pray.  I believe it is important to have that place where you go daily and meet with God.  But instead I want to talk to you about three reasons why we go to an altar.  Now this altar can be a specific place or simply any place where you call out to God, but this altar is established for at least three reasons.   

1.  We go to the alter (to prayer) out of Gratitude.  After the flood, the first thing Noah did when his feet hit dry ground was to build and altar to thank God for His protection and care.  We need to go to God in gratitude and thanksgiving more often than we do.   

2. Another reason men established and altar was to offer sacrifices to God.  The word sacrifice is a painful word, it is a giving up word, it is a word that is not a shallow, everyday praying kind of word.  The Hebrew word used here is “mizbe’ah”, meaning “a place of slaughter or sacrifice”.  There are times in our lives, more times than we want to admit, that we should sacrifice things to God.  More than the times of salvation and sanctification. (I’d love to talk about the two works of grace here but will refrain from chasing those rabbits as well).  Time that you and I should take inventory of our desires and wants and habits and proclivities and see what’s pleasing to God and “sacrifice” those things on the altar to Him.  We don’t do enough house cleaning.   

3.  The third reason men should come to the altar or should come to a place of prayer is to offer incense, or prayers of supplication.  The Hebrews were a “visual” people. They liked to have something to look at and handle.  So they had an altar on which the fire was continuously burning.  They brought incense there and offered it to God as a symbol of their prayer.  The ascending smoke signified their prayers rising up to God. 

We should follow their example.  When they came to offer sweet smelling sacrifices to God it was not something that they bought at the Dollar Store.  The incense cost them.  We should never bring cheap prayers to the altar.  These formal, structured, good sounding prayers probably “stink” to a God who is expecting and deserves prayers that are from deep in our souls.     

So consider these points the next time you pray.  Why are you going to God in prayer?  Is it to thank Him, to offer or sacrifice something to Him or to send up a sweet smelling request to Him.  Those are the reasons we have an altar.  That’s why we should pray.