A Communion Meditation
You will readily recognize the reference to the altar of burnt offering which of old stood just inside the gate of the tabernacle. It was made of acacia wood overlaid with brass or copper, and had a grate in the center of it where the victim was burned typifying the atoning work of our Lord Jesus Christ. As these various sacrificial beasts were brought to be offered to Jehovah, they were bound to the horns of the altar, which were upon its four corners.
In this Scripture, which is a Messianic Psalm, picturing our Lord Jesus Christ as the rejected One giving Himself for us, we see the meaning of the horns. He was bound to them. It is in this same Psalm that we read, “The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.” It speaks of our Lord Jesus, the One who “came to His own but His own received Him not.” He was rejected by those He loved so tenderly and was taken out to die. He was the victim bound as it were to the horns of the altar. That altar for Him was the cross on which He yielded up His life for our redemption. The horn signifies power —the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe. Four speaks of universality—He gave Himself a ransom for all.
What were the cords that bound Him there? It is a rather significant thing that the only other instance in all the Bible, as far as I can recall, where we actually read of a sacrifice being bound to the altar is in the case of Isaac. God said to Abraham, “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest and get thee into the land of Moriah and offer him for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” And we are told how the father and son went together to Mt. Moriah and how Isaac looked up to his father and said, “Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for the burnt-offering?” Abraham replied, “My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt-offering.” What prophetic words were those! Jesus said, “Abraham rejoiced to see my day.” He looked on in faith to the coming into this scene of “the lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.” But again typically, we read, “Abraham built the altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.” Then God intervened. Someone has well said, “He spared that father’s heart the pang which He would not spare His own.” This is the fullest picture of the sacrifice of Christ which we have in the Old Testament. Elsewhere we read of bulls and goats and rams offered to God, but here we have a man; here we have a beloved son bound with cords to the altar.
What were the cords? It seems to me we might think of one of them as “The Golden Cord of Love to God the Father.” You remember how our Lord Jesus Christ declared in John’s Gospel, “No man taketh my life from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father” (John 10:1818No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father. (John 10:18)). And again you recall His words, as He left the upper room to go out to the Garden, “That the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence” (John 14:3131But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence. (John 14:31)). He was not a helpless victim in the hands of wicked men. He had demonstrated over and over again that they had no real power over Him. Three years before when He preached that wonderful sermon in the synagogue of Nazareth they led Him out of the city and were determined to hurl Him over the cliff and dash Him to pieces on the rocks bow; but, “He passing through the midst of them went his way” (Luke 4:3030But he passing through the midst of them went his way, (Luke 4:30)). Not one hand was raised to detain Him. They came to Him in the Garden on the night of His sorrows, as He prayed, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matt. 26:3939And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. (Matthew 26:39)); and when at last He saw the multitude coming He went forth to meet them and asked, “Whom seek ye?” And they said, “We seek Jesus of Nazareth.” And He answered, “I am He.” In so speaking He used the incommunicable name of God. Moses said to Jehovah, “Whom shall I say sent me to Pharaoh?” Gods’ answer was, “I am; say unto him I am hath sent thee.” When they came with swords and staves to arrest Jesus, He said, “I am,” and they went backward and fell to the ground.
They could not stand before His face when He asserted His deity. They had no power against Him. He had insisted upon that when He stood in Pilate’s Hall. Pilate asked Him, “Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee and have power to release thee?” Jesus replied, “Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above. This is your hour, and the power of darkness.” So He put Himself in their hands and went out to die voluntarily, and the Sacrifice was bound to the horns of the altar. What was the cord that hound Him there? “But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.” It was love to the Father; it was the desire to vindicate the righteousness of God; it was that He might glorify the Father, that led Him thus to go to that cross.
But that is only one of the cords that bound Him. The text intimates that there were more than one. “Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.” We may speak of the other as, “The Silver Cord of Love to Man,” for in Ephesians 5:2525Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; (Ephesians 5:25) and 26, it is written, “Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.” He could have gone free. The law had no claim upon Him. Jehovah had dreed, “The soul that sinneth it shall die,” but He had never been guilty of sin. He was free from all inward tendency to sin and yet He stooped in grace to take our place and went out to die in our room and stead. Never was love like His. You remember He said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” It was in grace He called them friends for by nature all men are enemies and alienated from God by wicked works. If He had been looking for friends for whom to die, He could not have found one in all this wide world, for of every man’s heart it is written, “The carnal mind is enmity against God” (Rom. 8:77Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. (Romans 8:7)). It is His love that Makes us His friends. He looked on to what His grace would accomplish and He saw us as we would be when responsive to His mercy and loving kindness, and so treated us as friends and went to the cross to die for His friends. “Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar”— the Golden Cord of Love for God, because He was there to fulfill God’s righteousness, and gold is the symbol of divine righteousness in Scripture; the Silver Cord of Love to Man, for He was there to procure our redemption and salvation, and silver is the symbol of redemption in the Book of God.
“‘Twas love that sought Gethsemane,
Or Judas ne’er had found Him;
‘Twas love that held Him to the tree,
Or iron ne’er had bound Him.”
What is our responsibility to love like this? Is it enough that putting our trust in Him as Saviour we shall know that He has put our sins away and fitted us for the presence of God? Shall we stop there? Is it enough that we come together from time to time and look back by faith to that cross and contemplate that love, meditate upon that mighty sacrifice with our hearts going out in worship and praise and adoration? Shall we stop there? Or shall we remember that love like this has claims on us and that as He was bound to the horns of the altar, so now the Word comes home to every redeemed soul, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service” (Rom. 12:11I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. (Romans 12:1)). Shall we not turn to Him and say, “Blessed Lord, Thou wert bound with cords to the horns of the altar in order to redeem our souls from everlasting judgment. O, bind us to the place of sacrifice that we may be yielded wholly to Thyself, that we may live unto Thee. Now bind us there that we may not shrink back but ever offer to Thee the sacrifice of praise and thanks giving, and the sacrifice of well-doing to glorify Thy name,”
The early Christians used to speak of the Lord’s Supper as “The Sacrament.” Sometimes we lose track of the origin of these ecclesiastical terms and we wonder at them. How would anybody ever think of calling the eucharistic feast a “Sacrament?” This was the name given to the oath taken by a Roman legionary when he enlisted in the Imperial army. He took the oath of fealty to the Emperor, of loyalty to Rome, of devotion to those in authority above him; and from time to time as the troops were reviewed and they saluted the Emperor, this oath was renewed. So the early Christians came to think of each observance of the Lord’s Supper as a renewal of their allegiance to the Saviour who had bought them with His blood and was now their risen Lord. Thus, little by little, they came to regard it as a sacramental service.
Perhaps the term has been misused. I am afraid it has. The simplicity of the feast of remembrance has been lost sight of. Traditional teaching has superseded the clear instruction of the Holy Scriptures. Ritualistic and liturgical practices have obscured the true character of the Supper of the Lord. But nevertheless we can well understand the thought that was in the minds of those early believers when they spoke of it as they did, and surely all who draw near to the Lord’s Table should know what it is to realize afresh their eternal obligation to Him who has bought us with His own most precious blood. As we meet in hallowed communion to remember Him who remembered us in our great need, we may well look back and think of Him as the One all-sufficient sacrifice for sin bound by the cards of love to the horns of the altar. And as we partake of the bread and the cup should we not lift our hearts afresh and say, “Blessed Lord, Thou has died so great a death for me; Thou hast manifested such a marvelous love in the accomplishment of my redemption, now, anew, I yield myself unreservedly to Thee to be for Thy glory and praise while I am left in this scene.”
To any who are still strangers to the matchless grace of God revealed in Christ, O, I beseech you, in lowliness of mind and with reverent mien draw near and see this great sight. The sinless Saviour bound to the altar for sinful men! Bow in penitence at His pierced feet and trust Him now as your very own Redeemer and confess Him as your Lord.
“My Redeemer! O what beauties,
In that lovely name appear;
None but Jesus in His glories
Shall the honored title wear.
My Redeemer! O, how sweet
To call Thee mine!”