The alter

This Sunday evening our pastor went through Psalm 26. The discussion over that passage was great and it was mentioned by our pastor how foul and amazing the alter must have been. Knowing how livestock smells and how an alter with multiple sacrifices would look like and smell like is quite discusting. And yet atonement is such a beautiful display of grace it makes you celebrate Christs sacrifice all the more. It brought this Spurgeon quote to mind.

Did it never strike you how the whole tabernacle must have been smeared with blood everywhere? Blood was on every side. The priest himself, when at his work, with garments on which showed every stain, must have looked as though all besmeared with gore. You could not look at his hands or at his vestments without seeing everywhere blood; indeed, when consecrated, he had blood on his ear, blood on his foot, blood on his hands; he could not be made a priest without it. The apostle says, “Almost everything under the law was sprinkled with blood.” It was blood, blood everywhere. Now, this could have been very far from a pleasant sight, except to the spiritual man who, as he looked at it, said, “What a holy God is the God of Israel!
How he hates sin! See, he will only permit sinners to approach him by the way of blood!” - Charles Spurgeon