Tearing Down the Altars

That night the Lord said to him [Gideon], ‘Take your father’s bull, the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that belongs to your father, and cut down the sacred pole that is beside it; and build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of the stronghold here, in proper order; then take the second bull, and offer it as a burnt-offering with the wood of the sacred pole that you shall cut down.’

Judges 6:25-26


I've read and heard and been taught this story numerous times, but this little incident has always escaped me. God told Gideon to go tear down the altar to Baal, the altar his father had built. In order to have our own authentic relationship with God, it may be necessary to tear down some of the altars we have been left.

Very often, those who have gone before us have left us altars to small, tribal gods like Baal. And even those of us who have received the awesome gift of an altar to a mighty, awesome God need to rebuild that altar for ourselves, based on our own experience with God.

And when we tear down old altars, others take notice. When it got back to Gideon's dad that Gideon had torn down the altar, his response was "If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been pulled down." I love it!

It's time to pull down altars. It is time to engage God for ourselves.