The flames of the altar tell a mysterious story beyond mere atonement. The altar was a place of union, glory, worship, love and forgiveness, laughter and tears, renewal and hope. The altar is where Israel would feast with God, sacrifice to God, worship God, confess, and receive forgiveness from God.
The altar was where the people of God would, through the sacrifice, ascend and participate in the very life of God. This is true of the altar in the old covenant. This is also true of the altar of the cross in the new covenant. For it is upon this altar the bride of Christ is united to her groom (Heb 13:10). Altars also establish sacred space in a wedding ceremony, for it is at the altar where the bride and groom exchange their vows and are ushered into the covenant of marriage.
Exodus 20 informs us that Israel’s altar was to be made of ʾadamah, the Hebrew word meaning dirt or earth. The altar of earth was lit on fire and sacrifices offered to God were then placed upon the altar of earth and fire. This perichoretic union of fire and dirt on the altar is a picture of heaven and earth, God and His people, and husband and wife.
This connection of dirt and fire, altar and marriage, is captivating and echoes back to the Garden of Eden. When God made man, He reached down and got His hands dirty by forming him from the dirt of the ground. He named His image bearer Adam – which comes from the Hebrew word ʾadamah (earth). Adam is made of the earth, from the ground’s dirt and dust. God then laid Adam down into a deep death sort of sleep, opened up his side, and removed a rib from which He formed for the man-of-dirt a wife. He sewed up Adam’s side, resurrected him, and presented Adam with his new bride.
When Adam saw his love for the first time, his world was set ablaze. Adam says, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called (ʾiššâ) Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”
Adam names his bride ʾiššâ (Woman), a pun from the Hebrew word for fire. God gave this man-of-dirt fire for a bride. As the altar was made of earth and fire, so marriage is the coming together of earth and fire, husband and wife. Paul plays with this in his first letter to the Corinthians when he says that the wife is the glory of her husband (1 Cor 11:7), so ʾiššâ was the glory of Adam. Before receiving the glory-fire of his bride, Adam was the man-of-dirt (ʾadam). However, after ʾiššâ (fire-girl) was given to Adam, his name changes to ʾîš (fire-man); he is set on fire by the glory of his bride. Adam and Eve together form the first altar, the first picture of our union with God himself. Husband and wife, earth and fire, coming together as the profound mystery of Christ and his Church.
Kyle Lammott is a Theopolis Fellow and is pastor of Exodus Church in Wichita, KS.