Recall the days when you first experienced the touch of God in your life which led you to repentance and acceptance of God’s salvation provided on the cross of Calvary? In those days we would be extremely focused on obeying God’s commands and being fully devoted to God. But as years go by, we get carried away by the walks of this world and our love towards the Creator becomes cold. Although we had once witnessed several miracles of God in our life, the world captivated our mind and heart to follow its patterns, rejecting the statutes and commands given by God.
This is what happened to Israel especially from the reign of King Solomon. Unlike his father King David who kept God’s statutes and laws, King Solomon rejected the command of God by intermarrying women from various nations who led him astray. He also started worshipping other foreign gods and building high places for them.
1 Kings 11: 4 As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. 5 He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. 6 So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.
9 The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice.10 Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the Lord’s command.
Solomon having a personal encounter with God twice, strayed away from God and disobeyed God’s commands. Because of Israel forsaking the true God and instead worshipping foreign gods, neither walking in His ways nor doing what is right in God’s eyes, Israel was divided into two kingdoms - Kingdom of Israel given to Jeroboam and Kingdom of Judah given to Rehoboam. The LORD gave a great promise to Jeroboam if he continued to follow the true God of Israel which is mentioned in 1 Kings 11:38,
38 Then it shall be, if you heed all that I command you, walk in My ways, and do what is right in My sight, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as My servant David did, then I will be with you and build for you an enduring house, as I built for David, and will give Israel to you.
But insecurities struck Jeroboam’s mind and he made two golden calves for the people to worship, making them believe it was these gods who delivered Israelites from the hands of Egyptians. He also built shrines on high places, appointed priests from all sorts of people opposing God’s commands and offered sacrifices to the calves. He never paid attention to the prophecies from men of God to change his evil ways but instead tried to seize them.
Even in Judah, sin multiplied under the reign of King Rehoboam as written in 1 Kings 14: 22-24
22 Now Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, more than all that their fathers had done. 23 For they also built for themselves high places, sacredpillars, and wooden images on every high hill and under every green tree. 24 And there were also perverted persons in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.
These sins continued in the lives of the succeeding kings of Israel and Judah and provoked the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger by their worthless idols. See how easily the Israelites whom God delivered miraculously from their oppressors turned their backs to God? Still God, out of his never ending mercy didn’t destroy the nation.
Finally in the reign of King Ahab, while Israel was led by a king who not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam, but also began to serve Baal and worship him, God raised up prophet Elijah who stood for God.
1 Kings 16:32-33
32 Then he set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. 33 And Ahab made a wooden image. Ahab did more to provoke the LordGod of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.
We live in a time similar to these, where immorality prevails morality, indulging in sin prevails over following God, darkness prevails over holiness, people not possessing any distinction between good and evil, and cherish doing evil in God’s eyes. We, as a generation have provoked God to anger by committing innumerous sins, forgetting His commands, ignoring the presence of God and not revering God Almighty who created us all! Some claim to be greater than God and some have even rejected the very presence of God. Let Psalms 14:1-3 serve as a good reminder about the pitiful state of mankind.
Psalms 14:1-3
1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. 2 The LORD looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. 3 All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.
To put an end to the wavering mindset of people, God raised Elijah who is characterized in James 5:17 as “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.” God used a simple man like Elijah to raise his voice against the evil practices of King Ahab and challenged the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah. Take courage when you are to stand alone for God and for His kingdom. Even though you might have a battalion against you, the Lord of Heaven’s armies is by your side. The world today needs prayer warriors like Elijah who could pray earnestly for a revival in these end times.
We need to be obedient to the voice of God in these times just like Elijah. In 1 Kings 18:1-2 “After a long time, in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.” 2 So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab.” Being a man just like us, Elijah would have been gripped with fear when God asked him to present himself before Ahab. But Elijah overcame the fear and trusted that the same God who is able to stop the rains, is capable of sending the rains too. God needs someone to stand boldly for Him. If we stay strong for God, He will use you as a mighty instrument to display His glorious power among others. Let’s brace ourselves with faith and courage and not be under the clutches of fear.
On Mount Carmel, Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal so that the eyes of people would be opened to grasp that the LORD is God and to turn away from all their wickedness and idolatry. Prophets of Baal tried all schemes to arouse their god and to bring fire. Their shouts, slashes made on their body with swords and spears and prophecies didn’t make any difference and they felt defeated. But Elijah instead repaired the altar of the LORD, which was in ruins. With twelve stones indicating the twelves tribes descended from Jacob, Elijah built an altar in the name of the LORD. This portrays that Elijah was standing in the gap between God and the people who sinned against God. Elijah understood where the people had fallen short and started rebuilding the ruins. Just like the people of Israel then, we have fallen short of the glory of God and we have sinned terribly. But, if we have a heart to accept that we have sinned before God and not be forgetful of the miraculous ways God has led us in the past, we can repair the altars of our hearts through earnest repentance. God needs us to be like Elijah to repair the altars of our hearts - purge away the wickedness that has allured us away from God’s presence.
Elijah stepped forward and prayed a simple, yet powerful prayer, requesting God to display His power so that the people would acknowledge that He is God and would turn their hearts back again. If you stand in the gap and cry out for God’s mercy in this generation, God will answer you in a manner that will astonish the world and will turn the people’s hearts to the Redeemer. 1 Kings 18: 38-39, 38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.
39 When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!”
If you have the burden and urgency within yourself to be like Elijah who was a man with a nature like ours, to seek the face of the LORD when the whole world is perishing, to stand in the gap in prayer and plead for mercy for our nation, to pray earnestly for a repentance in this world, to repair the altars and the broken walls of human hearts, you will witness a mighty revival in your land. Let us return to the love of God by seeking His face and crying out for a revival in these end times.
Ezekiel 22:30 “I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one.”
Do you recognize the grief in God’s voice in the above verse when He couldn’t find any? Let us stand in the gap on behalf of the land so that God will not destroy it. We need a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit and let’s fervently pray that every nation and every tribe will turn their hearts towards God and prepare themselves for the second coming of Jesus Christ, our Saviour!
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