ANVILS AND ALTARS
A long time ago, God decided to be a blacksmith. I don’t think He originally intended to enter that trade. While He has always been a master craftsman with metal, I am quite sure that He didn’t deliberately learn the art of heating and beating things into shape because He enjoyed the task. God became a blacksmith because He knew that His creation needed some serious shaping on the way to the altar.
Personally, I don’t like God’s method of shaping me. It hurts. I know that it is for my own good. After all, what good is a square horseshoe? I know that God doesn’t make any mistakes in the way He heats and beats His creations. I just don’t like the feeling of being hammered into shape. I don’t think any of us really enjoy it. Even the great apostle Paul complained about some of the things He thought God should remove from his life. But in the end, God is the one who really sees the final vision of what He is doing. We are just too close the fire to make the best decisions.
Biblical history shows us that God uses the anvil method on more than just individuals. He applies the same technique to entire nations. That takes grand perspective. I am certainly in no position to be able to direct the perfect path of a nation. But God is. He knows just how long, just how much, just when to heat, cool, hammer and shape.
We often think that God’s purpose in anvil alterations is to get us to offer our best at His altar. We remember the story of Cain and Abel with the added perspective of Hebrews 11 and 12. So we assume that Abel brought the best to the altar and that made it acceptable. But this common interpretation ignores the facts. God does not need to be appeased by my best. He is not a vengeful God, waiting in a cloud of smoke and fire to strike down those who do not meet in requirements. Men appease idols, not God. No man earns God’s favor by presenting a better offering. God is not interested in appeasement. He is interested in expiation.
If we think that there is some intrinsic value in the offerings we bring to God, we are likely to become trapped in the appeasement myth. This myth carries some very damaging implications:
- God is angry with you because you have injured or insulted His character
- God will seek revenge for your sins
- You have to do something to turn away His anger
- If you successfully placate God’s wrath, you will be spared (and, of course, if you aren’t successful, you will not be spared)
- Life is the game of figuring out what God wants so that He will leave you alone
Gods who operate like this are essentially hostile toward men. They have tremendous egos that require submission and demand punishment for infractions. If you serve this kind of god, good luck! You will need it because these gods are fickle and are not likely to tell you exactly what you have to do to win back their favor.
Maybe you have to plow the fields nude after midnight (Nepalese Buddhism). Maybe you have to sacrifice your first child (Baal worship). Maybe you have to start a cult (Manson and Jones). Maybe you have to never eat meat. Maybe you have to believe harder or pray more. Maybe you have to give more money away and go on a starvation fast. As easy as it is to recognize some of the foolish practices of appeasement worship, we must be careful that we don’t turn a blind eye to the unrecognized things we do to win God’s favor. It’s not the action that matters. It’s the motive.
Do you worship at your church because you love to sing His praises or are you there because it something God demands?
Do you read His word because you just can’t know Him enough or are you following a disciplined requirement of a “good” believer?
Do you give generously because He has given everything to you or do you calculate the ten percent and consider your “obligation” fulfilled?
Expiation is something God does. Appeasement is something we do. Once you realize that nothing you can do will earn you God’s love, you can stop living in idolatry. If you aren’t serving God from thanksgiving, you might not be serving Him at all.
God wants to shape us into the design that He has in mind. So, He has to take all of our pretenses about appeasement and burn them away as just so much impurity in the smithy’s fire. It’s a painful process.
I discover that my real motivation for Bible study is to show God how dedicated I am so that He will help me achieve my goals. Oops! The second agenda reveals a theology of appeasement.
I pray hard about my hopes that God will begin a work among the business community of my city but I know that if He does it the way I want Him to, I will have an income that I need. Which agenda is really about His purposes?
I struggle with my obedience, believing that if I fail to live up to His commandments all of my aspirations about my future within His design will be dashed to pieces. What is my focus? To live a life of thanksgiving or to live a life expecting reward?
I complain to God that even though I know He is supporting me; I don’t feel as though my effort is being successful. Since it is “spiritually right,” I think that my work merits heavenly favor. Whose plans am I most concerned about?
Appeasement theology is subtle. It is quite capable of coating the smallest bit of ego with layers of spiritual value. But God will not have it. So, back to the anvil I go, heated and hammered until I realize the depth of the most powerful words in the world, “Nevertheless, thy will be done.”
Topical Index: anvil, altar, purpose
