Scripture Daily

Context No. 530 of 4322 · Exodus

Context · Reflection

Exodus 20:22-26: in context

22The LORD said to Moses, “This is what you shall tell the children of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. 23You shall most certainly not make gods of silver or gods of gold for yourselves to be alongside me. 24You shall make an altar of earth for me, and shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your cattle. In every place where I record my name I will come to you and I will bless you. 25If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of cut stones; for if you lift up your tool on it, you have polluted it. 26You shall not go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed to it.’

Right after the thunder of the Ten Commandments, God gives instructions for how he is to be worshiped, and what is striking is how plain they are. Make me an altar of earth, he says, or if of stone, then of uncut stones, for if you use a tool on it, you have profaned it. And do not go up to my altar by steps, so that your nakedness is not exposed on it. No silver or gold gods alongside him, no carved and polished masonry, no grand staircase lifting the worshiper up for display. Just earth, or rough unshaped stone. The God who had just spoken from fire and cloud asks to be met at the humblest possible altar.

There is a deliberate lesson in that plainness. The moment human tools start shaping the stones, God says, the altar is profaned, as if our craft and improvement and embellishment get in the way rather than honor him. And the steps are forbidden precisely so the worshiper is not elevated and exposed, not lifted up on a stage. Approaching God, in other words, is not an occasion for human display or self-elevation; it is a humble meeting on level ground. And tucked into the middle is the promise that makes the plainness bearable: in every place where I record my name, God says, I will come to you and bless you. He will meet his people at the simplest altar, in the humblest place, wherever his name is honored.

That corrects an instinct I carry into worship and into my whole approach to God. I am tempted to make it about impressiveness, about performance and polish and being seen, to build steps that lift me up where others can admire me. God asks for the opposite: plain, unadorned, humble, no tool marks of my own cleverness, no stage for my display, just an honest meeting where his name is honored, and there he promises to come and bless. Am I approaching God as an occasion to elevate and display myself, or coming humbly to the plain altar where he has promised to meet me?

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