Lay Me Down

Lay Me Down

“This is what you are to offer on the altar regularly each day:  two lambs a year old.”  Exodus 29:38

At church on Sundays we sometimes sing a song whose chorus goes like this:  “I lay me down; I’m not my own; I belong to You alone, lay me down, lay me down.”  I often wonder what not-so-used-to-church attenders think when they hear those words—perhaps that the congregation is about to take a rest or that we’re asking someone to help us recline, but the middle phrases hint that something more serious is being stated. The words create the image of an altar topped with an offering willingly surrendered to one worthy of costly worship.

It’s a good song to sing because altars are a big deal to God.  Detailed blueprints on how to build the altar for the tabernacle were given to Moses on the mountain, and he made sure they were followed exactly.  Altars were not a new idea to the Israelites, but they needed a refresher.  The patriarchs of their people, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had made a habit of building altars as they traveled here and there throughout their lives, but several hundred years had passed between their time and this with only one mention of an altar in between.

The altar in the Tent of Meeting would be unique and well-used.  It was not built for a one-time blessing but would be the site of twice-daily sacrifices made by the priests of God for the people of God. “Build an altar of acacia wood…Make a horn at each of the four corners, and overlay the altar with bronze…This is what you are to offer on the altar regularly each day:  two lambs a year old.  Offer one in the morning and the other at twilight”(Ex 27:1-2, 29:38-39).   Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, life after life would be given, and grace upon grace would be granted.  The altar was the place where the holy demands of heaven crashed into the harsh depravity of earth, and nothing would change until the top of the mountain called Calvary.

Because of Christ’s blood on the cross, sacrifices for guilt are no longer called for, but our offerings of gratitude should be constant.  “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise”(Heb 13:15).  And my worship should move beyond my mouth to all of me—“In view of God’s mercy, offer yourselves as living sacrifices” (Rom 12:1). 

Don’t try to tidy the picture—altars aren’t pretty, but when you give yourself to the One who gave all for you, they are precious.

I lay me down.