From this verse I see two things. Just as Elijah told the people come near unto me, the Lord is saying the same thing to His people. Come near unto me. We are living in such times that we need revival in our land. And it starts out with getting close to God. Could it be that God is saying come near unto me?
And then Elijah did something that we need to do. He repaired the altar of the Lord. Have the altars been broken down, those things we looked at as sacred but are no longer. Maybe those things that we have neglected and we thought were no longer useful.
An altar is a place used for sacred purposes in a place of worship. Our heart has to be a place of worship. There is an altar in our heart. Where we make a choice to serve God.
Has the altar of the Lord been broke down? We need revival now in the time we are living. Many Christians are dry, they are confused, in bondage, under nourished. The world is looking for something; they are not finding it in the church. The church is as worldly as the world.
We need to begin to seek God for our land and revival in our lives and churches. God is saying come near unto me. And then we need to repair the altar of the Lord in our hearts.
In the OT, The Hebrew word for altar that is used most frequently is formed from the verb meaning “slaughter” and means literally, "a place of slaughter." Altars were used primarily as places of sacrifice just like Noah did, offering burnt offerings of animals to the Lord.
ReplyDeleteIn the NT, the Greek word used for altar literally translates "place of sacrifice." The altar is the place where we offer ourselves in submission and service to God.
From my post on the Altar: http://junctionforjesus.blogspot.com/2010/04/altar.html
--Richard