Abraham & his 5 altars

1. The altar by the oak tree at Moreh near Shechem

Genesis 12:6-7, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring, I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

The story of Abraham begins not in Genesis 12, but in Acts 7. Verses 2-5 said, and Stephen said: “Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he lived in Haran, and said to him, Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’ Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living. Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot’s length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child.

According to Joshua, Terah, Abraham’s father, was an idolater. Joshua 24:2-3, and Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac.

So God Himself who came to Abram (Abraham) first by appearing to him, not the other way around. Abram originally came from a pagan family, as Joshua mentioned above. It is not clear whether he was an active idolater or not. Terah was, and he was from the city of Ur, the main city that worshipped the moon-god. The name Terah itself is very close to the Hebrew word for the moon, yare’ah. When he moved to Haran, Haran was also a city that worshipped the moon-god. The distance between Ur and Haran is around 950 km.

Notice here that God’s call came to Abram only and not to Terah. But who brought Abram out of Ur the first time was his father and they stopped at Haran, they did not continue to Canaan until Terah himself died. Then only Abram came out of there. Terah’s destination was not the promised land, most likely he was looking only for a better place. That’s why when they found Haran, they settled there. It is not clear when the first time God appeared to Abram in Acts 7:2. It is not clear either when Terah left Ur and moved to Haran, or when he died. But only after he died, then Abram’s call was restarted again in Genesis 12:1, by then Abram was elderly already. He was 75 years old now, Genesis 12:4.

Menarik untuk diperhatikan, tidak banyak dalam Alkitab manusia dipanggil Tuhan ketika mereka sudah sangat berumur. Kebanyakan masih muda, bahkan masih anak-anak. Samuel, Daud, Samson, dan masih banyak lainnya lagi. Tapi Abram berumur 75 tahun, Kejadian 12:4, ketika ia meresponi panggilan Tuhan. Bukan ketika ia pertama kali dipanggil. Kisah 7:2 menunjukkan bahwa Tuhan telah menampakkan diri jauh sebelumnya kepada Abram ketika ia masih di Ur. Tapi Abram sama sekali tidak menjawab panggilan tersebut. Ada banyak tahun berlalu, sampai Terah membawa mereka semua pindah ke Haran.

Interesting to note, there are not many people in the Bible called by God when they were old already. Most were young, even still as children. Samuel, David, Samson, and many others. But Abram was 75 years old already in Genesis 12:4 when he responded to God’s call. Not when he was called the first time. Acts 7:2 shows that God had appeared to Abram long before, even while he was still in Ur. But Abram didn’t answer that call at all. Many years passed by first until Terah took them all to Haran. Perhaps they did head to Canaan, as Genesis 11:31 mentions. And probably Abram also told his father about God’s appearance to him. But since Terah was the one who led them out of Ur, then it was also easily decided by him to stop and settle in Haran. People who do not receive God’s call will easily divert their focus to something else, especially when they discover a good thing according to their own eyes. Unfortunately, Abraham followed Terah here. Then some more years passed by again, not until Terah died then God appeared to Abraham again. Maybe that’s also why he then had to wait a long time, 25 years, for Isaac’s promise to be fulfilled in him. Do you think God should immediately keep His promises to you when you linger, procrastinate, to answer His calls in your life? Those who continue to linger in answering God’s call shown a heart that does not trust the One who called them.

When Abram finally reached Canaan (from Haran, it is about 650 km), Genesis 12:5-6, Abram continued through the land to a place near Shechem, which was at the oak tree of Moreh. More or Moreh here is often understood as the owner of the land and the big tree, the tarbantin or oak tree. Moreh here means teacher or oracle. It seems that the nearby Shechem in Abram’s day was the center and the busiest area of that neighborhood, the center of commerce, the place of people coming and going. This town area later became the place for Simeon and Levi to rage their anger when their sister Dinah was raped by the ruler, Genesis 34. Also in this area, Jacob planted into the ground all the foreign gods that belonged to his party and the earrings that were in the ears under the big tree near Shechem. Genesis 35:4, most likely it was the same tree in Genesis 12:6.

God then appeared to Abram there, Genesis 12:7. Gave His promise again, I will give this land to your descendants. Abram built an altar to the LORD there. This was Abram’s first altar, erected for God who appeared to him.

An altar is an act of someone making a sacrifice. A slaughtered and burned offering to A Divine is a sign of submission to that Divine authority. Today, this is idolatry. But in ancient times, in the age of the Old Testament (OT), this was an act of faith of the Israelites in Yahweh, God. Especially, faith in His promise of the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ. So in Jesus, this altar of sacrifice has its fulfillment because He was the one-time sin offering for all who believe in Him. Hebrews 10:14, John 3:16. That is why now, an altar is no longer erected to offer a sacrifice, even considered as an act of idolatry.

An altar indicates a close relationship, a personal relationship between the one who erects it and the one who received the act. So in today’s modern era, an altar is an act of worship, a prayer that rises from a believer to God.

For Abram, this first altar represented a worship given to the One who had appeared to Him, He who called him and He who gave His promise. His altar became his thanksgiving, his response to His call to him. A relationship which now started officially. And this is His promise to Abraham, Genesis 12:1-3.

Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.

• And I will make of you a great nation,
• and I will bless you
• and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
• I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse,
• and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

2. The Altar at Bethel

Genesis 12:8, from there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD. And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.

The word move in verse 8 here has an interesting meaning in its original language. The word move means when Abram retired … when he retired, in his old age he moved to the mountains east of Bethel. Beth-el or Bethel means the house of God. But the place did not get its name until Jacob, Abraham’s grandson spending the night there and had a dream of seeing the stairs to Heaven where angels were descending and ascending, Genesis 28:19. Ai itself means a pile of rubble. The city was later destroyed by Joshua in Joshua 7-8. This place is about 30 km from the area of Shechem.

He pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. This sounds like.., Abram built his life with the House of God on one side and his past on the other. The word east, Ai to the east, in the original Hebrew, has a meaning of origin, past, ancient times. Interestingly, he built an altar there and called on the name of God. Yes, we all need our altar to keep burning in this life we have, leaving the past, going to the House of God into eternity. Abram’s altar here shows much dependence on God even until he becomes old to guide him all along the path of his life.

Unfortunately, in the next verse 9, Abraham kept on walking to the south (Negeb). Verse 10 then states that famine arose in Canaan and instead of Abram turning to Bethel, he headed for Egypt directly. He should have turned to the altar he was building between Bethel and Ai, not to Egypt. When a similar famine occurred in Isaac’s generation, Isaac did not go to Egypt but remained in that area, an area later controlled by the Philistines. Genesis 26. Because Abram went to Egypt, it was there Pharaoh gave him Hagar as a gift, along with male and female slaves and much other livestock. As a gift in exchange for Pharaoh taking Sarai, Abram’s wife. Genesis 12:16.

If Abram would have returned to Bethel, not to Egypt, maybe Hagar and Ishmael would never have been there at the beginning. Maybe our cousins would have never existed either.

3. The Altar at Bethel again, after back from Egypt

Genesis 13:4, to the place where he had made an altar at the first. And there Abram called upon the name of the LORD.

When Abram returned from Egypt, he then returned to where he was. Genesis 12:8. There again he called the name of God. This shows Abram once again restoring his altar, making sacrifices to God, and calling on His name. From Bethel to Egypt, Abram traveled some 350 km, vice versa.

Here then we see how God separated Lot from Abram. Lot grabbed the best part of the promised land, Genesis 13:10. And caused Abram to move out of there, Genesis 13:18. He moved to Mamre near Hebron, nearly 60 km from Bethel.