Repair the Broken Altar

 And Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. ~ 1 Kings 18:30

One of the greatest tragedies in the life of a Christian is this: there are a lot of broken altars, and instead of repairing the broken altars, we are building new ones and expecting the fire of the Lord to fall upon the new altar. The truth is that the fire of God will not fall upon the new altar when there are broken altars, and we might as well end up with another broken altar.

The case study for today is one of the most amazing stories in the Bible: The story of how the prophet Elijah turned the whole of Isreal to God in one day, or we could call it how he had a reformation (1 Kings 18:20-40). Notice that before the prophet called upon the name of the Lord God, he repaired the broken altar. The Lord answered him by fire. When the people saw these two things happened: 1) they fell on their faces; and said, “The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God! 2) The prophets of Baal were all executed that day.

First, let us examine what an altar means in the Bible and for us today. The word altar was first mentioned, in Genesis 8:20, with other references to it in the Bible. An altar was erected after one of these: whenever God revealed himself to a man, and the man desired to consecrate himself to the Lord; whenever God wrought a mighty miracle in a man’s life. Earlier in the Old Testament, the altar signified a place of consecration to the Lord, and later it meant where sacrifices were to be offered to God (Exodus 20:24-25). The same also applies to us today. The altar is the place, not necessarily physical, where we consecrate our lives to the Lord and offer ourselves as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1; 1 Corinthians 6:19).  

Many times more than we care to admit, we erect altars that eventually get broken, and instead of repairing them, we go on to build another one. You might ask how is this possible? I will answer you with two questions. How have you, after experiencing the presence of God in service, said you were going to give yourself over to the Lord, and you did not? Or how many times have you, when asking the Lord for a blessing, made a vow that you did not fulfill (common excuse is that I am too busy to fulfill the vow)? I hear your answer, this has happened in some different instances now, but you console yourself that God understands you are just a human, and there is no way you could have given yourself over to the Lord as promised or fulfilled the vow. Do not be deceived. You can not mock God. Are you now blaming Him for placing too much expectation on you when it was you all along?

You are crying to God for a blessing, anointing, or a reviving of your soul, and you are wondering why He has not answered you yet? Could it be that there are altars you have erected and now broken down? Do not waste your time anymore. Go back to repair those broken altars and offer the sacrifice of consecration that is due. After this, you can expect to call on the name of the Lord. He will hear from Heaven and hearken unto your voice.

Until the church repairs her broken altars, she can not expect to have a reformation that will bring about revival. It is not in building new altars. God is interested in a church that will humble herself and repair the broken altar (people might think that the church is out of her mind, but people reasoned the same when Elijah started mending the broken altar instead of building a new one). Then the church will call on the name of the Lord, and He will answer from Heaven with fire that the whole earth may know that: our LORD, He is GOD!