Sailhamer on Exodus 20 v22-26 In vv.22-23, virtually the entire nature of the religion of the covenant is summarized, beginning with the warning against idolatry. Moses was to remind the Israelites that God had spoken to them directly and thus to warn them not to stray from God through worship of idols. The simple description of true worship in vv.24-26 is intended to portray the essence of the Sinai covenant in terms that are virtually identical to that of the religion of the patriarchs earthen altars, burnt offerings, and simple devotion .   If more than a simple earthen altar is desired (e.g., a stone altar), then it should not be defiled with carved stones and elaborate steps.  The ultimate purpose of any such ritual is the covering of human nakedness that stems from the Fall (cf. Ge 3:7). The implication is that all ritual is only a reflection of that first gracious act of God in covering human nakedness with garments of skin (Ge 3:21). Later, in Ex 28:42, pr...

         “If thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.”          —Exodus 20:25 God’s altar was to be built of unhewn stones, that no trace of human skill or labour might be seen upon it. Human wisdom delights to trim and arrange the doctrines of the cross into a system more artificial and more congenial with the depraved tastes of fallen nature; instead, however, of improving the gospel carnal wisdom pollutes it, until it becomes another gospel, and not the truth of God at all.   All alterations and amendments of the Lord’s own Word are defilements and pollutions.  The proud heart of man is very anxious to have a hand in the justification of the soul before God; preparations for Christ are dreamed of, humblings and repentings are trusted in, good works are cried up, natural ability is much vaunted, and by all means the attempt is made to lift up human tools upon the divine altar. It were well if sinners would...

Any use of images leads to idolatry* Adoration promptly follows upon this sort of fancy: afor when men thought they gazed upon God in images, they also worshiped him in them. Finally, all men, having fixed their minds and eyes upon them, began to grow more brutish and to be overwhelmed with admiration for them, as if something of divinity inhered there. Now it appears that men do not rush forth into the cult of images before they have been imbued with some opinion too crass—not indeed that they regard them as gods, but because they imagine that some power of divinity dwells there. Therefore, when you prostrate yourself in veneration, representing to yourself in an image either a god or a creature, you are already ensnared in some superstition. For this reason, the Lord forbade not only the erection of statues constructed to represent himself but also the consecration of any inscriptions and stones that would invite adoration [Ex. 20:25]. For the same reason, also, in the precept o...