A 500 year old altar

At least for me, 1 & 2 Chronicles are not always the most inspiration books in the Bible.  But earlier this week, I notice a little phrase in the first chapter of 2 Chronicles:

⁵ Moreover, the bronze altar that Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, had made, was there before the tabernacle of the LORD. And Solomon and the assembly sought it out.

2 Chronicles 1:5

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The phrase: “And Solomon and the assembly sought it out” stood out to me. 

It’s speaking of the altar that was made approximately five hundred years earlier, during the time of Moses.  Solomon, a young man who had recently lost his father and was now the newly crowded king–taking his father’s place, was trying to find his way through the transition.

And what did he do?   

He went back to the old altar.

It was the same altar that his father and his father’s father and generations of his ancestors had sought God at. 

It was there that he found the answers he needed.

In some ways, that is what going to church on Sunday is—seeking out the old altar.

All week, we’ve heard what everyone else had to say.  On Sunday we stop and seek out what God has to say. 

All week it’s been one crisis after another.  We’ve heard a dozen different opinions on what we should or should not do and what might or might not happen and none of them agree.  But on Sunday…

…at the old altar, from the old Bible, and maybe even on the old family pew…

…it’s there when the eternal meets with the ever-changing present and we sense his Presence and find peace.

The ONE THING for today: Whether you worship “virtually” from home or actually cross the threshold of your church, take time to seek out the old altar, it’s there you will find hope and direction for these troubled times.