When Sacred Places Become Idols: The Subtle Distraction from Christ.



 In the old covenant, names like Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Nissi, Jehovah Shalom, Beer-lahai-roi etc. were given to physical places & altars where people encountered God, as a religious memorial.

In Genesis 16:14 where the Egyptian bondwoman, Hagar encountered God & called him El-roi, it was the well(in the place of that encounter) that was named as a memorial of the encounter 👇🏽

"Wherefore the well was called Beerlahairoi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered."

In Genesis 22:14 it is the place where Abraham encountered divine provision of the ram caught in a thicket that he called Jehovah Jireh.👇🏽

"And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen."

In Genesis 28:16-19 & 35:6-7 Jacob encountered God in a dream of a ladder reaching to heaven. He named the place Bethel, declaring that it was the house of God and the gate of heaven. On his return, he built an altar there and called the place El-bethel, meaning “God of Bethel.”

In Genesis 32:24-30, after wrestling with a divine figure until daybreak, Jacob named the place Peniel, saying, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.”

In the next chapter, Genesis 33:18-20 Jacob erected an altar near Shechem and called it El-Elohe-Israel after his safe return to Canaan. The name identified the God whom Jacob worshipped as his God.; El-Elohe-Israel - “God, the God of Israel”.

Then in Exodus 17:15, Jehovah Nissi was the name Moses gave to the altar he built in commemoration of the discomfiture of the Amalekites. 👇🏽

"And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovahnissi."

Likewise Jehovah Shalom was the name Gideon gave to the altar he built after encountering the angel of the Lord - Judges 6:24 👇🏽

"Then Gideon built an altar there unto the LORD, and called it Jehovahshalom: unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites."

Finally, 1st Samuel 7:10-12 shows that after the Lord helped Israel defeat the Philistines, Samuel set up a stone and named it Ebenezer, declaring, “Hitherto hath the LORD helped us.”

All of these fragmentary revelations of God were tied/bound to physical places & altars made with hands where men encountered God, as a memorial.

In Christianity we have no such religious memorials and monuments to relate or fellowship with.

In Christianity the revelation of God and the name of God is not tied to or bound to any physical place or altar made with hands, but in a person...in his Son; and in Him we have the fullness of the revelation of God, all the fullness of the Godhead dwelling in him bodily(Colossians 2:9).

Contrary to conventional religious thinking, Christianity is not in anyway, a continuation of fellowship with diverse, fragmentary revelations of God's attributes & names in memorials of the old testament; it is rather the full revelation of God in His Son Jesus, in whom dwells all the fullness of God and through whom we are brought into fellowship and Oneness with the Father.

Any religious subscription of faith to physical places & altars as places of divine encounter & solution, in the name of Christianity, is a very, very subtle distraction from the person of Christ. The fact of people having results and testimonies in such places does not change the fact that what they're practicing is only a carryover of Judaism, which is contrary to the true faith of Christ.

In conclusion, let's ponder on the closing words of the apostle John in his first epistle....

"And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding that we should know him that is true; and we are in him that is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Children, keep yourselves from idols."(1st John 5:20-21).

Christ is not only the fullness of God's revelation to us, He is the very God, the true God, from whom, if we stray but a step on either side, we come to an idol. "Children," is the last word of the apostle, -the word that he would have remain with us, the witness against everything that would draw away our souls from Christ, -"Children, guard yourselves from idols."

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