Tuesday: Turning Hearts at the Altar
Read 1 Kings 18:20-45. Write out on the lines below what essentially this whole episode is about. Though the context is totally different, how can the principles seen in this story apply to family life?
At Mount Carmel
On Mount Carmel, Elijah longed for covenant renewal on the part of his nation, a turning back to the faith of their fathers that would bring healing to their lives, their homes, and their land.
The hour of the evening sacrifice. After the heathen priests’ failure with their sacrifice, Elijah took his turn. He was deliberate. The time of day drew attention to God’s redemptive plan revealed in the sanctuary service (compare Exod. 29:41). The invitation “Come near to me” (1 Kings 18:30, NKJV) reminds us of the Savior welcoming sinners (compare Matt. 11:28). Parents who are pained at the waywardness of a child can be assured that God loves him or her as truly as He loved the Israelites. God works unceasingly to draw wayward ones to Him.
Elijah’s focus on Jehovah’s altar finds its equivalent in our time when Jesus and His saving grace are uplifted in families. Family worship is an opportunity to talk to Him in prayer, to speak of Him to one another, to receive anew His free gift of salvation, and to give our hearts time to reflect on His teachings.
The response Elijah requested would signal that God had taken them back to Himself. First Kings 18:37 says, that “this people may know … You have turned their hearts back to You again” (NKJV). We cannot turn our hearts to God; we can only respond to His grace, and that He freely gives.
The all-consuming fire fell, not upon the guilty but upon the sacrifice, pointing forward to Jesus, who was made “sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21, NKJV). Confession and praise burst from the people’s lips. Because they did not respond to God’s call, the false priests were executed. Then refreshing rains ended the curse upon the land.
| In what condition is your home “altar”? What specific ways can you “rebuild the altar” in your home, if indeed it needs some rebuilding? |
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The story of Elijah on Mount Carmel is considered by some as a climax in the life of Elijah. After all, God had demonstrated his power publically to the consternation of the Baal worshipers. The drought was broken and the rains had come. Yet we know that in the aftermath Elijah, threatened by Jezebel, ran off into the desert alone in what could be described as a state of depression. As I mentioned yesterday, it took at least six weeks and a bit of quiet time with God for him to recover.
Have you ever been to a big stirring Church event where the singing was beautifully touching, the preaching powerful, and the experience uplifting, only to feel totally flat a few days later, when we find that we still live in a world full of the evidences of sin? That is human nature. The kids still fight and tease one another, the fellow-worker that you don't get on with is on your case, once again, and its raining when you want to mow the lawn! That is when you need the still small voice of the Holy Spirit, reminding you to reconnect with family, friends, and community of believers.
Even with an unimaginably extraordinarily presentation and the power of God at work, Elijah still fled from Jezebel! Yes sometimes we are that low and yes humanly acting we loose faith! My prayer is that we never run away from God instead! That would be instead disaster just like Adam and Eve hid from God!