The golden altar has become visible once again—the altar of incense, with the saints’ prayers on it, 1the prayers calling to God for revenge. These prayers cry out for ultimate victory and redemption, for the restoration of divine justice, and for righteous vengeance. These prayers beseech God to do His holy will ‘on earth as it is done in Heaven’.2 When this voice cries out, calling for righteous judgments, the place where this voice is coming from could very well be from those places where these crimes are committed, the sins that now have to be judged.
The voice comes from the altar. Great crimes have been committed against the ‘altar’. Violations against what is connected with the ‘altar’, against what the ‘altar’ stands for and what it represents. Sacrificial blood from the animals slaughtered for Israel’s sins was put on the horns of the altar3 on the Great Day of Atonement. “Once a year Aaron shall make atonement on its horns. This annual atonement must be made with the blood of the atoning sin offering for the generations to come. It is most holy to the Lord.”4 The prayers that come from the ‘altar’ cry out to God that His honour will be restored and plead for the salvation of the chosen people. Not for ‘us’, but for His holy Name’s sake.
When the prophet Ezekiel is permitted to see and to prophecy the restoration of the people of Israel, he is also is aware of why the Lord is restoring Israel. “It is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of My Holy Name.”5 Sins have been committed against the Lord. Other gods have been served. The ‘altar’ has been defiled and desecrated. Strange fire has been offered upon it, Leviticus 10:1. The true sacrifices were despised, even as the sacrifice of the Lamb of God is being mocked today.
A professor in Christian (sic) theology once said: ‘Just give my portion of the saving, cleansing blood of Jesus to Fikkie/Fido, my little dog.’ Modern theologians mock the idea of ‘redemption by satisfaction’, meaning atonement through the blood of the Lamb. They have a deep aversion to this ‘blood-theology’. The followers of this Lamb ‘that was slain’ have themselves been slain over the centuries in many ways. Even today, Christians all over the world pay the ultimate price for believing in the power of the cross and the blood of the Lamb. And the people from which our Saviour came, the Jewish people, have suffered more than any other people. The ‘powers of darkness’ hate the Light.
Now the blood on the horns of the altar cry out. The voice calls from the four horns of the altar to the four corners of the earth, worldwide. In the same way as the voice of the eagle ushered in the first worldwide ‘woe’, the voice from the altar ushers in the second ‘woe’. The altar is no longer separated from God by a curtain, as in the Tabernacle and the Temple; it is right in front of God at this moment in time in Heaven. All this is about His honour.
The saints’ prayers are once again what cause the sixth angel to blow his trumpet now. There is no period of ‘only’ five months’ torment this time. Blood is going to be shed now: a third of the people on earth will be killed.6 Whereas the earth and sea was struck terribly by the first four trumpets, and the sun, moon and stars were darkened, victims among human beings only fell because of the poisoning of the water.7 Earth, air and water are poisoned. Now human beings are going to die as a result of gigantic violent battles and warfare.
• The Bible talks about the horns several times. They were at the corners of the ‘altar of burnt sacrifice’ in the forecourt and at the ‘altar of incense’ in the Tabernacle and Temple. The ‘altar of incense’ is seen standing in the Most Holy Place (Hebrews 9:3–4) because the veil was torn as the result of Jesus’ finished work.8 The horns point towards salvation.
• The blood of the sacrifices was put on them.9 Jesus Christ is also called a ‘horn of salvation’.10 An unintentional man-slayer could grasp the horns of the altar and find refuge there.11
• The ‘horn’ is also symbolic of power that sets itself up against God.12 But the Lamb has seven horns and He has the greatest and most perfect power.13
• The Brazen Altar: These horns at the four corners of the altar of burnt offering were of one piece with the altar, and were made of acacia wood overlaid with brass (Exodus 27:2, “bronze”). In Ezekiel’s altar-specifications their position is described as being on a level with the altar hearth (Ezekiel 43:15). Fugitives seeking asylum might cling to the horns of the altar, as did Adonijah (1 Kings 1:50), which is one proof among many that worshippers had at all times access to the vicinity of the altar. On certain occasions, as at the consecration of Aaron and his sons (Exodus 29:12), and a sin offering for one of the people of the land (Leviticus 4:30), the horns were touched with sacrificial blood.
• The Golden Altar: The ‘altar of incense’, standing in the outer chamber of the sanctuary, also had four horns, which were covered with gold (Exodus 37:25). These were touched with blood in the case of a sin offering for a High Priest, or for the whole congregation, if they had sinned unwittingly (Leviticus 4:7,18).
Bible References:
1.NIV 2.Revelation 8:3 3.Matthew 6:10 4.Exodus 30:1–3 5.Exodus 30:10 6.Ezekiel 36:22-28 7.Revelation 9:15 and 18 8.Revelation 8:11 9.Matthew 27:51 10.Exodus 29:12; Leviticus 4:7, 25, 30 and 34, 8:15, 9:9, 16:18 11.Luke 1:69 12.1 Kings 1:50, 2:28 13.Zechariah 1:18–19; Daniel 7 and 8; Revelation 13:1 14.Revelation 5:6
