Altar of Stone

“And if you make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone; for if you use your tool on it, you have profaned it.” (Exodus 20:25 NKJV)

Why did God forbid using tool on stones in making an altar of stone? This altar was the place to worship before the wilderness tabernacle was built. It was built as high as a single step and dressed stones were prohibited to use in building the altar. There is a record in the scripture which there was no sound made in building the temple. “And the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.” (1 Kings 6:7 NKJV)

There is a clue what it means from Apostle Paul who says that the church of Christ works just like the human body. “…from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.” (Ephesians 4:16 NKJV) The members of the body of Christ works harmoniously and peaceably each other and grows in silence and quietness.

That’s how the church spreads and grows influence in the world. There is no need to make spectacular meetings making a lot of noise in an effort to attract the world. That’s not how the church functions at all. Rather, the church of Christ shines the light out of the world in lowliness and meekness. No one feels anything when he comes to Christ and receives the Spirit. There is no sound or vision at all. The Spirit comes into the heart of people in complete silence and quietness. It’s just like when a new life is conceived in the womb, the women don’t feel anything at all. That’s how the new children of God are born.

So, hewn stone or dressed stone made by tool means man made religious performances. What God really wants is lowliness, plainness, honesty, and transparency without any pretense. Religious piety is God hates the most. Jesus calls the religious leaders as the hypocrites, sons of the devil. The church of Christ is supposed to functioning and operating in all humility and lowliness. “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4:1-3)

God knows our hearts even before we come to the altar. What to do is not important but how to do, the motive and attitude. That is what our God is after. God is interested in what is inside rather than outside, internal than external. We can make things ignorantly or unwittingly as if God would be pleased through absolute commitment and devotion. Any perfunctory and mechanical religious performances no matter how attractive and wonderful in the human eyes that may be will be counted nothing but rubbish in the eyes of God.

Our God is a realist. No pretense or hypocrisy works out solving human problems, but makes it worse and worse. The only measurement in seeing and understanding truth realistically is the word of God. God is light. The light straightens out everything because it does not bend or twist at all. “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12 NKJV)

If you want to truth and live not in black darkness and utter confusion, come to God who is going to tell you step by step. Keep silent a while and stand before the ultimate realist, then He will guide you into all truths. There is no other way for you to find true life except through the God and Father of Jesus Christ.