Family Altar

By
The Man Who Saw God Face To Face
Raphael Okechukwu Nweze


Meaning Of Family Altar
         A family altar is a place specially reserved and dedicated to God, as a dwelling place or a throne of God. It could be a room, a parlour, a corner, a table, or floor space.

Importance Of The Family Altar
  1. God is present in the house, among His people. 8 “And let them build Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.”Exodus 25:8
  2. Angles fight and defeat the family’s enemies and their plans.
  3. God’s protection is assured.
  4. Divine solutions are readily available to the members of the family.
  5. Whenever the enemy sends in charms, the Holy Spirit will reveal it and the Angels will destroy it.
  6. God will be with you in your going out and in your coming in. You become blessed because the blessings of Abraham manifest in your life, which blessings are the blessings of peace, protection, health, success and prosperity.
  7. It shows that you worship only the one true God.
  8. If there is any other god or shrine in the compound, it shall leave the compound or be destroyed by the powers of Heaven.
Location Of The Family Altar
         It could be a room, a parlour, a corner, a table, or floor space.

Examples In The Bible
         God asked Gideon to build an altar.
         Now the Angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him, and said to him, "The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor!"
         13 Gideon said to Him, "O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites."
14 Then the LORD turned to him and said,"Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?"
         15 So he said to Him, "O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house."
16 And the LORD said to him,"Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man."
         17 Then he said to Him, "If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who talk with me. 18 Do not depart from here, I pray, until I come to You and bring out my offering and set it before You."
And He said, "I will wait until you come back."
         19 So Gideon went in and prepared a young goat, and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot; and he brought them out to Him under the terebinth tree and presented them. 20 The Angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And he did so.
         21 Then the Angel of the LORD put out the end of the staff that was in His hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. And the Angel of the LORD departed out of his sight.
22 Now Gideon perceived that He was the Angel of the LORD. So Gideon said, "Alas, O Lord GOD! For I have seen the Angel of the LORD face to face."
         23 Then the LORD said to him,"Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die." 24 So Gideon built an altar there to the LORD, and called it The-LORD-Is-Peace. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
         25 Now it came to pass the same night that the LORD said to him, "Take your father's young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the wooden image that is beside it; 26 and build an altar to the LORD your God on top of this rock in the proper arrangement, and take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down." 27 So Gideon took ten men from among his servants and did as the LORD had said to him. But because he feared his father's household and the men of the city too much to do it by day, he did it by night. Judges 6:11-27

Abraham Built An Altar To The Lord.
         7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said,"To your descendants I will give this land." And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. 8 And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD. 9 So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South. Genesis 12:7-9

Jacob Built An Altar To The Lord.
         10 Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. 12 Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
         13 And behold, the LORD stood above it and said:"I am the LORD God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. 14 Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you."
         16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it." 17 And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!"
         18 Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. 19 And he called the name of that place Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously. 20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, 21 so that I come back to my father's house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God. 22 And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God's house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You." Genesis 28:10-22

Holiness
         The family altar is a holy place. Therefore, the necessary laws of holiness have to be observed. The laws include:
  1. A woman in menstruation should not enter into the place, for the seven (7) days period of her menstruation.
  2. A man, who has had wet dream, should not enter into the place, until he has taken bath in the evening and washed his clothes.
  3. Corpse is not allowed into the place.
  4. Likewise, any person who has touched corpse, grave or the bone of a dead body should not enter the place for seven days.