When Do You Build the Altar

Many of us have had experiences of God's abundant provision at various
times of our lives. Sometimes He surprises us, and other times He
responds to our desperate pleas. We tend to remember those times and
honor Him in some sort of way: bursting forth in spontaneous worship,
noting the occasion in our journal, maybe even holding onto some sort
of memento to remind us of what God has done.

In the Bible, Abraham does those kinds of things way before we do. I
don't mean "way before" as in "he lived thousands of years before us,"
but rather as in "he remembered God's acts earlier in their
development than we do." Meaning that while we might respond to God
in worship after He has done something for us, Abraham responds to God
in worship before He has done something for Him, but after He has
promised to do something for him.

In the book of Genesis, Abraham builds a number of altars after God
makes abundant and at times audacious promises to him. He promises
land to him, a wanderer, and a multitude of descendants to him, an old
man with a barren wife. We may not be in the business of building
altars nowadays, but still it is easy to imagine the scene: God makes
a promise, Abraham responds with a tangible act of worship and
remembrance. He believes that the promises of land and descendants
are so sure to be fulfilled that he need not wait for even the whiff
of fulfillment to begin worshipping God.

It is good to remember when God surprises us with His abundant
provision, better still to ask for it and to receive it and to create
a memento to remind us to pray the next time. But Abraham shows us a
far better way: hear God's word, believe against belief in the
fulfillment of that word, and worship Him.