Seven Days Consecrate the Altar before Accepted Offerings

Seven days to purge the altar

He says, These are the ordinances of the altar in the day when they shall make it, to offer burnt offerings thereon, and to sprinkle blood thereon. Thou shalt give to the priests the Levites that be of the seed of Zadok, which approach unto me, to minister unto me, saith the Lord GOD, a young bullock for a sin offering.

Thou shalt take of the blood thereof, and put it on the four horns of it, and on the four corners of the settle, and upon the border round about: thus shalt thou cleanse and purge it. Thou shalt take the bullock also of the sin offering, and he shall burn it in the appointed place of the house, without the sanctuary.

On the eighth day, acceptance

Upon the second day an he goat without blemish for a sin offering; they shall cleanse the altar as they did with the bullock. When the cleansing is finished, a young bullock and a ram without blemish are offered. The priests shall cast salt upon them, and they shall offer them for a burnt offering unto the LORD.

Seven days they shall purge the altar and purify it; and they shall consecrate themselves. When these days are expired, it shall be that upon the eighth day, and so forward, the priests shall make your burnt offerings upon the altar, and your peace offerings; and I will accept you, saith the Lord GOD.

Consecration of furniture and priests precedes accepted worship. The ritual does not authorize animal cruelty, illegal sacrifice, or the claim that Christian forgiveness requires a future rebuilt altar. Salt, blood on horns, and burning outside belong to this visionary start-up, not to a demand that the eighth day wait on a construction site.