Exodus 27:2
You shall make its horns on its four corners; its horns shall be of one piece with it. And you shall overlay it with bronze.
God instructed Moses to make a square altar (7.5' square and 4.5' tall) of bronze-covered acacia wood for animal sacrifices. This altar had four corners, or horns, and sat in the courtyard.
In Hebrew, this type of altar is called a mizbeach, related to the Hebrew noun Zavach, for sacrifice and the verb meaning "to slaughter." Zavach also means an offering or to prepare one for a higher purpose.
God also had Moses make the altar of incense in Exodus 30 similar to the mizbeach, only it had a gold overlay and sat in front of the veil to the Holy of Holies. According to a Rabbi from the mid 1700's this incense had the power to "slaughter" evil powers. The high priest made atonement on its horns once a year on Yom Kippur.
After the priest slaughtered the sacrificial animal on the altar, he smeared its blood on all four horns.
Psalm 118:27
God is the Lord,
And He has given us light;
Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.
Now to us when we here about how they slaughtered the animals for a sacrifice to God it seems very barbaric, but in that day this was what God told them to do and everything had a significance.
The blood of the animal didn't redeem them. The blood changed God's relationship with them. The blood of a perfect animal allowed God to come near them.
Most of us have seen a buck with antlers. The antlers are equivalent to its horns. When an eight or more-point antler rack circles the head of a deer, it appears as its crown. The more points a buck has not only represents its age but adds to its majesty and strength.
Our English word for crown comes from the word qeren. The horns on the altar represented the design of a crown. Jeff A. Benner says, “In ancient times, a crown was made of “horns” and the pointed tips of the crowns we are familiar with today represent those horns.”
The Roman guards pressed the thorny crown onto Jesus’ head to both torture Him and mimic His rightful kingly title. But we see in the book of Revelation that Jesus wears many crowns because He is the king.
Revelation 19:11-12
11 Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.
12 His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He [a]had a name written that no one knew except Himself.
Now let's place all of this into perspective. When Jesus died upon the cross He represented both the altar and the sacrifice.
When we look at all that we have talked about we can fully understand that Jesus was stretched across that cross as the lamb was stretched out on the altar. Then after all the pain of the whipping He received and the crown of thorns upon His head and the blood that was shed, He then gave up His life for you and I.
We of course look at this and say, "how cruel can someone be?." However, Jesus looked at this and said forgive them.
John 14:6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
There is no other way to sacrifice to God. You cannot do it though Buddha, you cannot do it through Allah, You cannot do it though any other god, but only through the lamb that was sacrificed upon the cross and that is Jesus.
In order to have everything that Jesus promised us, Healing, Peace, Love, Joy, and Happiness will only come through giving our heart to Him.
When the Hebrew children received their punishment from the king and got threw in the fire they did not waiver, but they gave it all to God and came out victorious.
When you come to the altar and pray you need to give it to God. Let Him handle your life, your money, your household, your car, your job, your marriage and give it to Him. Stop trying to take care of things yourself because, all you do is mess things up.
The horns were to hold that sacrifice until that death had come. In order for you to get death to your sins or whatever is bothering you then you must get a hold of the horns of the altar and wait upon the Lord Christ Jesus to take control of your problems.
As we talked about in our Bible Study on Wednesday night if Jesus can feed 5000 or even 4000 then He can surely take care of the situation that you are in today.
If have prayed many time over small things that most people would say don't worry about that, it will be ok. But, if you know me well enough then you would know that I can get very worried about the smallest of things. I have to constantly pray for God to help me.
I have prayed over my pumpkin bread being good when someone was tasting it. I have prayed over my cars when something was wrong that it would not be an expensive problem. My wife and I have prayed over situation in the church or in our lives that was bother us. And I have prayed for forgiveness where I was upset with someone that had done me wrong.
God is there to help us with our problems if we will lay them on the altar for Him.