Exodus 20:25
‘If you make an altar of stone for Me, you shall not build it of cut stones, for if you wield your tool on it, you will profane it.’
This is an interesting passage. Why are decorations not allowed? I can think of two reasons. One is God deserves the attention. An ornate alter would cause some to marvel at the sculping skills used to build it. The other reason is that forgiveness is an act of God. We can add nothing to it. I’ll focus in on both.
The sculpted alter would divert attention from God. He is worthy to be praised. This is deserving based on who He is and the quality of His work. God’s character is good. His character can be seen reflected in us, as we are created in His image. I think of a newborn and how it craves attatchment and attention from the mother. As the baby is developing in the womb, the two bond. When born the bonding continues. Our nature craves to be bonded to others. This is a picture of God. He loves us and wants to be bonded with us. It takes a while to figure out how to connect with one who is invisible, but once we get that, we learn of His wonderful nature. His love for us is so amazing. It’s simply overwhelming. Even in difficulty, we are assured of His care and guidance.
The Lord is worthy of our praise because of the quality of creation. I just saw a video that was comparing the size of our planets to our sun to larger stars. The star that was the last one had a diameter of about a thousand of our suns. It is difficult to comprehend. Isaih 40:12 says that the heavens measure the span of His hand. Creation is a small erector set project for Him. I feel dread when I think of anything with that much power. However, He has already established Himself as loving.
To further marvel at His creation, we can see the beauty in nature. It may be a sunset, a landscape, the majesty of the lions, the miniture wonder of the hummingbird, the terror of the crocodile, the grand quality of an eagle and on and on. He has done well. We can also appreciate the symbiosis and intricacy of creation. I marvel that the organs in our bodies function and work together. Most of them on an involuntary basis. The nature of disease and how our bodies fight them. It is simply amazing.
The other aspect of why the alter is not to be carved by human hands is that redemption and forgiveness is soley the work of God. We have no part in it. We got into this mess and it’s only Him who can get us out. This isn’t addressing consequences of our sin. We need to be responsible for that. The alter represents the cleansing of sin and reconciliation to God. That’s His work.
We have a difficult time with this concept. We want to help Him out. We want to take some responsibility. The concept of penance is born of that wrong thinking. Jesus paid for our sins. Nothing can be added to that. To do so would be an insult to Him. Much like picking up a paint brush and trying to improve a Picasso is ludicrous, so is trying to add to God’s finished work of redemption. Jesus said, “It is finished”. We need to believe that and rest in it.
So, God began to get these points acrossed to His people by leaving the altar untouch by people. Partly because God is the object of our worship and also because the work or redemption cannot be accomplished by people.
Lord, thank You for Your marvelous deeds and Your loving nature. Thank You, also for the difficult work of redemption. We were hopeless to fix our mess. Thank You for doing what we were not able to do.