Day Twenty-Eight - Porches

Aaah, porches. I believe I could just about live on my porch, well most of the time. Recently I thought I might lose my home to foreclosure. I told the folks at Bank of America they could take my home, but please leave me the porch! (If you haven't been reading my blog for a while, it turns out, the people who bought my home are willing to rent it back to my son and I! Tonight I truly celebrate the fact I am still sitting on my porch!! We closed on Friday October 14th.)

My porch is my sanctuary. It is where I find solace in the midst of this noisy world. (With the exception of when Baily howls and barks. Baily is the neighbor's dog and he howls because he is hungry or lonely and longing for the human touch. A warm hand to rub his ears or brush his shiny coat and speak lovey dovey words to him. He howls because he doesn't receive a loving touch very often, at all. Well, right now, as a single-again woman with a hopeful romantic heart, I can relate!)

So, back to my porch. Tonight there is such peace on my porch, watching last light, pink slowly fading, listening to the sweetness of night sounds, like music, filling the air...like praises to God... my heart, filled with praise, because Jesus has been with me through the struggles and is with me here, on the porch. I imagine, He likes porches too. More than that though, He just likes my company... and yours.

In God's Word, it talks a bit about porches. It seems that most homes had porches and even temples had porches. For some reason, there is a lot of talk about the measurements of the porches. What could that mean? God is a numbers kind of God. He even has a book called Numbers in the Old Testament. Details matter to Him? Perhaps that is it. He knows the number of hairs on my head. On yours.

For the record, my front porch is 26 feet by 9 and a half feet and it is covered. Drenching rain or sunny skies, I am on my porch. I am drawn to my porch. Like moth to flame. Jesus meets me here.

The Bible speaks of weeping between porch and altar in Joel 2:17. A few thoughts come to mind as I ruminate on this. The altar, in biblical times, was the place where sacrifices were made. There were altars of burnt offerings and altars of incense. Psalm 141: 2 says, "Let my prayer be accepted as sweet-smelling incense in your presence. Let the lifting up of my hands in prayer be accepted as an evening sacrifice." Perhaps the porch was a place of preparation? 

In the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary, it shares, "The suppliants thus were to stand with their backs to the altar on which they had nothing to offer, their faces towards the place of the Shekinah presence." 

Truly, none of us have anything to offer of ourselves... yet the truth is, we are to offer our very self. We are to turn our faces toward the place where the Shekinah glory dwells.

(In Revelation 21:22, the phrase "glory of God" in The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures is rendered "God's SH'KHINAH" in the Jewish New Testament.

"I saw no temple in the city, for ADONAI [YEHOVAH], God of heaven's armies, is its Temple, as is the Lamb [Christ]. The city has no need for the sun or the moon to shine on it, because GOD'S SH'KHINAH gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb."

The word most certainly is derived from "shakan," and whoever first used the word "Shekinah" coined it as a substantive (noun form) from the verbal forms used to describe the "abiding, dwelling, or habitation" of the physical manifestations of YEHOVAH God described in Exodus 24:16, 40:35 and Numbers 9:17-18 -- and various other places where "shakan" is used. http://hope-of-israel.org.nz/glory.htm)

It is said that the area between the porch and the altar was enclosed on two sides. It seemed to be a place of prayer. It is here that the priests with their faces toward the Holy of Holies and the temple which He had filled with His glory, were to weep. Tears are a gift from God and aren't you glad?

There, between the porch and the altar, they wept their prayers, "Spare your people, O LORD. Don't let the people who belong to you become a disgrace. Don't let the nations ridicule them. Why should people ask, 'Where is their God?'" 

Yes, and I pray spare us God!

κλαίω to weep, lament, wail (2799 is the Strong's Concordance number)

κλαίω to sob, i.e. wail aloud (whereas 1145 is rather to cry silently)
Derivation: of uncertain affinity;
KJV Usage: bewail, weep. 

Thayer: 1) to mourn, weep, lament

1a) weeping as the sign of pain and grief for the thing signified (i.e. for the pain and grief)
1b) of those who mourn for the dead
2) to weep for, mourn for, bewail, one

To wail aloud. Wow... how many of us weep and wail, ALOUD? We might be heard and what would 'they' think? I know I have, at times, wept aloud in my car or in the privacy of my home. Desperate prayers, between porch and altar. 

I also have held back, concerned what others might think if they heard me. May I, may you, be free to wail aloud that God may spare us. (unless it is to draw attention to ourselves) To be able to cry that God will spare us and not have people ask, "Where is our God?" 

 So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep. 1 Samuel 30:4

The Bible also speaks of the horns of the altar. There are many thoughts about the meaning of that and worth studying and praying and understanding. What I found here is worth sharing. http://www.independencebaptist.org/Articles/Articles/the_horns_of_the_altar.htm

"I believe the horns of the altar are projections on the corners of the altar that the sacrifices are tied to, Ps. 118:27. The corner of any structure is the strongest part. This represents the strength of the physical structure of the altar and the strength of the blood sacrifice which is on the altar.

When Adonijah (I Kings 1:50,51) caught hold of the horns of the altar, he was catching the strength, power of the altar. The same thing applied to Joab (I Kings 2:28). Both Adonijah and Joab caught hold of the horns of the altar begging for mercy for their physical lives on the strength of the spiritual (blood) sacrifice offered to God Almighty on the altar. King Solomon refused their appeal for mercy because they had both refused God's mercy for their spiritual lives through the spiritual (blood) sacrifice offered on the altar."

Apparently grasping the horns of the altar was a way of seeking sanctuary or protection when one was charged with a serious offense (1 Kings 1:50-51; 1 Kings 2:28-34  http://www.studylight.org/dic/hbd/view.cgi?number=T261 

http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/1826.htm - another place to learn about the horns of the altar. 

May our prayers be as sweet incense to our Father's ears. 

May we grasp the horns of His altar and weep.

May we pray, God spare us, and know that He hears.

May we wail in His place of prayer, though the way is steep.

May we stay between porch and altar.

May we remember Jesus' sacrifice on our behalf.

May we weep until we can weep no longer.

May we celebrate, that in due season, we will laugh!

God blesses you who are hungry now, for you will be satisfied. God blesses you who weep now, for in due time you will laugh. Luke6:21  New Living Translation (©2007)

 Join me, between porch and altar?