Broken Down Altars # 1

Broken Down Altars # 1

"He repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down" (1 Kings 18:30).

There is something more than history in the chapter from which my text is taken, just as there is always more in a picture than is seen at first glance. The state of affairs at this time the chapter opens was as bad as is possible for the human mind to conceive. The country was in an awful condition because of idolatry, adultery and all other sins associated with a nation that had forgotten God and was given, unbridled, to all lust and evil desires.

That talk had in it no "as it were," "in a degree," "perhaps," or "in a measure" or "so to speak." He didn't qualify it by any adjectives; every word had a ring like chilled steel as it cut like a Damascus blade into the putrefying abscesses of his day. Ahab and Jezebel were on the throne. A more vicious, iniquitous, rotten man or vile woman never disgraced the earth than these two. Wickedness had the right of way throughout the kingdom. Ahab and Jezebel set the pace and others followed. There were no depths of iniquity, adultery, licentiousness and vileness to which Ahab and Jezebel did not sink. Baal was worshiped; true religion was on the sidetrack, and hell had the main line.

It is true that there were a few faithful, like Obadiah and Naboth, who had not bowed to Baal, but they were in a sad minority. Many had been compelled to hide in caves and dens. If it was a woman who dared say she believed in and worshiped Jehovah, she was an outcast and her children were murdered; if it was a man, he was subjected to infamies that no tongue would attempt to describe. So rampant had idolatry, adultery, and kindred evils had become that in order to try to stem the deadly tide, God sent the prophet Elijah to shut off the water supply and bring on the famine.

As we read the Bible we will notice that always in a dark time God sends a prophet to arouse, stir and call the people back to the true God. So in this instance, when the situation looked dark, God sent His messenger to warn the people of the judgment which they were bringing on themselves because of sin and iniquity. The old Tishbite bobbed up before weak-kneed Ahab with all the abruptness of a thunderclap out of a clear sky, and without banners or bands or furbelows or salaam, spoke out in the first breath in a way that brought a deadly pallor upon the cheeks of the miserable wretch Ahab: "As the Lord of hoses liveth..." (1 Kings 18:15). "As the Lord of hosts liveth, before whom I stand..." cried the prophet, that ought to be the preacher's cry every time he walks into the pulpit! That kind of faith makes the devil get up and dust every time! Such confidence in God as the prophet had as he stood before Him would make granite out of soapstone. And to know God as Elijah knew Him, and to have the same unbroken sense of His presence, is better preparation for a great career in the ministry than a degree from any college you can name. I am not discounting the value of education. I consider a mind without education as something like marble in a quarry, which shows none of the inherent beauty until the skill of the polisher fetches out the color and discovers every ornamental vein that runs through the marble. Education draws out many virtues and perfections which otherwise would never come to the surface and never be seen. I believe in education, but education alone cannot make character - never! It takes acquaintance with God to do that.

It takes purity of heart as well as brilliancy of intellect to make one great for God. But I have no sympathy with anybody who would exclude anyone, educated or uneducated. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God" is as much in force tonight as it was two thousand years ago. Any man who does that will have a stirring time and will give the devil the best run for his money he ever had. Nothing was as much needed in Israel as a sweeping revival; and God sent the right man to bring it about. Let us see how Elijah did it!

He repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. Elijah did his work in a way that was natural but unconventional. He had backbone. He wasn't pinned down or dominated by the personality of other men. He didn't try to add anybody's peculiarities or eccentricities; he had plenty of his own and the nerve to use them, too, and to be himself!

The preacher who is afraid to be like Elijah in this respect will be as weak in his ministry as Samson with his hair cut: he will have  no power. I tell you, whenever God calls a man to preach, He expects him to do it as naturally as he sneezes or snores. His individuality is to him what the steel frame is to a skyscraper. And when he surrenders it, he becomes like other people. Down go his ministerial methods; his candlestick is taken away, and God casts him into the dust of His displeasure.

~Billy Sunday~

(continued with # 2)