…[Elijah] repaired the altar of the LORD, which had been torn down. [He] took 12 stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come, saying, “Your name shall be Israel.” With the stones he built an altar in the Name of the LORD.” – 1 Kings 18:30-32, NIV

The term ‘altar’ is familiar to every Christian because every church has one.

However, our liturgical understanding of the concept is quite different from what the people in Bible times understood.

The Hebrew word depicts a ‘place of slaughtering.’ In the Old Testament, it was a structure for offering sacrifices or burning incense.

Noah is credited with building the first such structure to the LORD, after emerging from the ark following the flood that destroyed the whole world.

The Bible says Noah built an altar to the Lord (Gen. 8:20-21) and offered some of the remnant of animals that he had kept in the ark.

On smelling the sweet aroma, God promised never again to destroy the earth because of man’s sin.

After Noah, the patriarchs were next to build altars.

Abraham built altars at Sichem (Gen. 12:7), at Beth-el (Gen. 12:8), and at Moriah on which he was ready to sacrifice his son Isaac until God provided a ram instead (Genesis 22:9).

Later, Isaac also built altars at Beersheba in response to God’s promise to increase his descendants (Gen. 26:25).

Then Jacob built an altar at Shechem (Gen. 33:20), which he called El Elohe Israel (God, the God of Israel).

This gesture was significant. Jacob was acknowledging that God was no longer merely the God of Abraham and Isaac.

Now, the God of his grandfather and father had become his own personal God, for He had fulfilled His promises to him.

Other people of God such as Moses, Samuel, etc, also built altars and gave them names.

Naming an altar added to the solemnity of the worship conducted there.

In Exodus 17:15, Moses named an altar, which gave it special significance by marking out a characteristic of God that was associated with worship there. In other words, the name memorialized the idea.

God also commanded Moses to set up altars in the tabernacle to be part of temple worship for the next generations.

Whatever the situation we are facing, the secret to defeating the enemies of our God, as Elijah showed us, is in repairing broken down altars and building new ones.

One of those altars was the brass altar for sacrifices (Ex. 27:1-8).

This altar had horns, and was a shadow of the Cross upon which Christ would die and shed His blood for our sins.

Our meditation today comes from an epic showdown in which Elijah was to annihilate the worship of Baal in Israel.

In preparation for calling down fire from heaven, Elijah took the repairing of the altar that had broken down and the building a new altar as a priority.

It was after working on the altars that he undertook to challenge the prophets of Baal, culminating in a great triumph for God.

What are you doing currently in regard to the two altars?

In Romans 12:2, the Bible admonishes us “to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.”

That basically means putting ourselves on the altar.  

There are a few things that we can learn about altars from a biblical perspective.

First, the place of the altar is “a place of slaughtering” – a place of death to sin and the flesh, a place of costly offerings.

Secondly, the place of the altar is the place of incense, for a sweet-smelling aroma of frankincense. It is the place of sweet worship and adoration.

Thirdly, the place of the altar is the place of testimony, the place for setting up a memorial to testify of God’s faithfulness to the nations and the next generation (see Joshua 22:26-27).

Fourthly, the place of the altar is the place of prayer, a place of consecration.

The Bible repeatedly says the patriarchs “built an altar and called upon the Name of the LORD” (see Genesis 26:25).

According to the law of the altar of the LORD, the fire on it was never supposed to go out; it had to be kept burning day and night.

Whatever the situation we are facing, the secret to defeating the enemies of God, as Elijah showed us, is in repairing broken down altars and building new ones.

Prayer:

Almighty God, help me to repair and build your altars that I may be victorious in every area of my life. For the glory of Your Name, Amen!