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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Exodus 20:22 - 20:26
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The Precept Concerning the Altar
v. 22. And the Lord said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. This fact proved the superiority. the authority of the Lord, His right to express His demands as He was now preparing to do. No false God would have had this power, and the incident was bound to establish Jehovah as the true God in the sight of Israel.
v. 23. Ye shall not make with Me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold. The children of Israel were not to make and place on a level with Jehovah, for purposes of worship, idols of any kind, which they would then regard as their gods. The Making and worshiping of such images, every form of idolatry, was absolutely prohibited.
v. 24. An altar of earth thou shalt make unto Me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings and thy peace-offerings, thy sheep and thine oxen. Such offerings were a type and figure of the heart of man, as it arose in true worship to the throne of God, for which reason also plain ground, the soil as the Lord created it, was the material which He preferred, that being found practically everywhere where the children of Israel would assemble for worship. In all places where I record My name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. God is confined neither to Temple nor to Tabernacle, but is able to reveal His glorious majesty at any place which He may choose. And wherever this takes place, those who are fortunate enough to be witnesses of such a revelation will become partakers of God's blessings. It is this fact which is of such great value to us believers of the New Testament, since we have the assurance that the presence of the Lord in the Word and in the Sacraments guarantees to us His blessings.
v. 25. And if thou wilt make Me an altar of stone, if the children of Israel should prefer such an altar, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone; for it thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it, literally: for thy sharpness thou swingest above it, and thou desecratest It. Ornamentation of the altar of the Lord under the circumstances in which the Israelites found themselves would have redounded to their own glory, and not to that of the Lord.
v. 26. Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto Mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon, as would happen with the loose-fitting. clothes then worn. Since the consciousness of sin came to man with the feeling of shame, therefore the revealing of nakedness is equivalent to a shameless exhibition of sin, and thus not permissible in the worship of Jehovah.