Take Care of the Altar

Take Care of the Altar

We must take care of the altar! In the old covenant, it was the tribe of Levi’s foremost responsibility to take care of the altar. God has always carefully observed what was happening at the altar. Israel often sacrificed lame and blind animals to God—but everything should have been of the best quality. However, they sacrificed what was unacceptable to God. Therefore, God said to Malachi, “‘Who is there among you who would shut the doors, so that you would not kindle fires on My altar in vain? I have no pleasure in you.’” Mal. 1:10. God does not delight in such sacrifices. However, when a whole burnt offering is brough from the altar, then God is pleased.

“Therefore you and your sons with you shall attend to your priesthood for everything at the altar and behind the veil; and you shall serve. I give your priesthood to you as a gift for service, but the outsider who comes near shall be put to death.” Num. 18:7.

This ministry was a type of the hidden ministry we have behind the veil. Everything is to be done according to the laws of the Spirit of life. We have a hidden and a manifest ministry. We also have a hidden and a manifest life. We must take care of the hidden life we live with Christ in God, so that we do not live it with the lusts of our flesh. Col. 3:1-3. If we ae not pleasing to God in the hidden, then we do not please Him with our manifest life either. “I have not found your works perfect before God.” This was said to the servant of the church in Sardis. Rev. 3:2. He no longer had an inner life with Christ in God; it had died out, although he had done many good works and had a name of being alive.

All the priests of the new covenant have been brought near by the blood of Christ (Eph. 2:13), and we are called to take care of the ministry behind the veil. If we are faithful in this ministry, then we can hear God’s voice, and He can speak to us. Then we can also proclaim His virtues who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. 1 Pet. 2:9. This marvelous light will then burn in our hearts and preserve our heavenly vision. Acts 26:19.

“Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; let them bring me to Your holy hill and to Your tabernacle. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; and on the harp I will praise You, O God, my God.” Ps. 43:3-4. At the altar, we meet God, our exceeding joy. Only there can He rejoice over us and be glad together with us.

“Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young—Even Your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.” Ps. 84:3. We find true rest at God’s altar, there it is safe to dwell. And if we take care of this altar ministry in the hidden, then our ministry will be a great and glorious blessing, also for others. Then they will sense that you are living this life! This life gives you joy and gladness.

Jesus was anointed with the oil of gladness more than His brothers. Heb. 1:9. However, all His brothers are happy people. They are filled with rest, peace, and joy because they serve at the altar in the hidden.

The priesthood, the law, and the altar were changed by Jesus. Heb. 7:12-17. Now it was no longer a human family, the children of Levi, who served at the altar. Everything was transferred to the inner being according to the power of an indestructible life, for God had no pleasure in an altar made of stone, but He desired an altar in the innermost part of the heart. Jesus says in Luke 17:21 that God’s kingdom is within us, and Paul writes that our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and that we should glorify God with our body. 1 Cor. 6:19. This was the altar Jesus consecrated, as we read in Heb. 10:7: “Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—in the volume of the book it is written of Me—to do Your will, O God.’” By this, “Your will, O God,” we enter the new covenant. And by this will, we are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ Jesus once and for all. When you can say, “Here I am, O God, I want to do Your will,” then you are sanctified. Then you are taken out for salvation. Being sanctified means being taken out from among the masses, from the rest of the flock. This also happens when God is to perform a work in us and through us. By this will, we are sanctified. Heb. 10:10.

“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them.” Heb. 10:16.

“But the Lord said to him, ‘Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness, Foolish ones! Did not He who made the outside make the inside also? But rather give alms of such things as you have [within—NASB]; then all things are clean to you.” Luke 11:39-41. Here we see the old ministry of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

Keeping the cup and the dish clean on the outside is only serving the tabernacle. Heb. 13:10. That is a ministry for the forgiveness of sins. The sins you confess will return; therefore you have to confess them again and again. This ministry will never lead to development and growth. However, when the inward part is cleansed, a new life will come forth.

This new life is to use my body according to God’s will. Heb. 10:36 and 13:21.