In Exodus 3, God designates the real purpose of His commandment to Pharaoh to let Israel go. It is to “sacrifice to the Lord our God.”
The word "sacrifice” specifically denotes the “peace offering” within which the sacrificial food is shared between God and Israel. This commandment is given in the same speech where God promises to verify before the “Elders of Israel” His faithfulness by miraculous signs. This sacrificial meal shared between God and Israel occurs in Exodus 24 where the Seventy Elders seal the covenant with Yahweh by eating and drinking as they gaze upon the God of Israel. So we see that the particular Name which is caused to be remembered is the Name which signifies absolute divine faithfulness and theophanic revelation to create a covenantal, marital (thus the joint-meal- a covenant is always a marital bond) link between God and His people. Altars throughout Scripture are miniature holy mountains at the top of which the sacrificial fire and smoke corresponds to the fiery glory of God which dwelt on Sinai, causing it to smoke.
(Exodus 19:18) Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly.
This language is strongly allusive to the sacrificial altar: the Lord descends in His glory-fire (as He did on the burning bush) and causes smoke to ascend to heaven. This descent by God to creation is matched by a corresponding ascent: the fire comes down, the smoke rises. The revelation of the Divine Name is a matter of divine initiative and is spatially focused. The altar is a miniature mountain, a ladder to heaven which commemorates and perpetuates the union actualized by God. Again, the centrality of divine initiative explains the problem with Israel’s high places. In most cases, the high places were cultic sites which had bene built in the service of the devils worshiped by the Canaanites. They were intrinsicaly connected with the “name” of the gods whose “memory” was commemorated at the high place. The revelation of the one God as absolutely supreme and victorious over the devils occurs in the destruction of the high places.
Let’s consider one other text in Deuteronomy mitigating against the assumption that it mandates only one altar for sacrificial worship:
(Deuteronomy 16:21-22) "You shall not plant any tree as an Asherah beside an altar of the Lord your God that you shall make. And you shall not set up a pillar, which the Lord your God hates.
The ESV renders “an altar of the Lord your God” with the definite article: “the altar of the Lord your God”, creating the impression that it refers to the one altar in the Courtyard of the Tabernacle. Given the design and specific structure of the Tabernacle and Temple, this is unlikely. Moreover the only other place in Deuteronomy where building an altar is mentioned is found in Deuteronomy 27:5-6 at Ebal.
Considering all of the above, let’s look at specific instances where a sacrificial altar is legitimately built and utilized by an Israelite after the Torah covenant is made. Given what is said in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 12, we should expect that altars are associated with prophecy and are constructed in a place where God has made His Name and presence distinctly manifest. In the next post, we will examine three such cases from the Book of Judges.