And if thou make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone; for if thou lift up thy sharp tool upon it, thou hast profaned it.
After the thunder and darkness of Sinai, God turns from commandments to an altar — and at once limits what human hands may do to it. The stone must stay just as He made it. The reason startles: a chisel does not improve the altar. It profanes it.
These instructions come at the end of the same chapter that gave the Ten Commandments.
The dreadful terrors that came with the giving of the law are followed at once by two commands. Those commands set before us, in a beautiful and telling way, the Person and work of the Lord Jesus, and God's grace by Him. It is like an evening rainbow after the thunder, lightning, and storm of a summer's day.
Hewn stone is stone that a workman has cut and squared. An altar of raw earth or rough rock looks primitive beside it. That was the point. Where the ESV says "profane," older translations say "pollute" — the word the writers below use.
As to the altar, it was to be of earth or of uncut stone. If men were to lift up their tools upon the stones to shape them according to their thoughts, they would pollute it. An altar of earth or of uncut stone might seem very crude and offensive to artistic taste. But it pictured death — the death of Christ. So God meant it to stand in its natural roughness, with no art or human invention added to it.
One commentator ties the altar to Christ Himself. If the altar stands for Him, reshaping it means reshaping Him.
An altar of whole stones was set up, and no man lifted up any iron on it. That sacred altar was not to have on it the touch of man's tool. To shape its stones by human hand was to pollute it. For Christ is the altar, and He is perfect. The work of man's hands — man's own thoughts about Him — only produces unbelief and dishonour to His Name.
Notice the word "If." God permits a stone altar here; He does not command one. One commentator reads that free choice as a mark of the builder's faith.
On the other hand, Israel could voluntarily build an altar of stone. This speaks of Christ as the eternal Son of God. Stone is solid and unyielding, unlike earth, which crumbles and gives way. This stone showed a stronger, more mature faith in the one who offered. But it had to be built with whole stones, not shaped ones, for that would be man's work, which would pollute the altar. Whole stones indicate God's work, and so a true perception of the eternal Godhead of the Lord Jesus.
The next verse forbids steps up to the altar. The two prohibitions carry one message.
So the stone of the altar must not be shaped stone, nor must there be steps up to it. The altar is God stepping in, not the work or invention of man. If man tries to step in, he only exposes his shame. No effort or scheme of his can lift him above his own level. God could come down, and He alone can lift up.
The temptation this verse blocks is not ancient history. It is the reflex to add something of our own to what God has provided.
Oh, that men would only consider these things! How little they are understood! Man will be doing. He will lift up his tool in the building of his altar; the result is pollution. He will climb up by steps; the result is exposed nakedness. So it must be, because man is a sinner and his very best works can only end in pollution and nakedness.
A later command in Leviticus limited where Israel could sacrifice. The permission in this verse still stood.
The reader must remember that this later command did not cancel the law of Exodus 20:25. That law permitted the building of altars for offering certain sacrifices on special occasions. Exodus 20 clearly provided for the building of such altars. Leviticus 17:8-9 only forbade them while Israel was in the wilderness. after they had entered the land, saints such as Samuel, David, and Elijah acted, when needed, on the permission granted to Israel in Exodus.
- Cause — Sinai's law terrifies. The altar at the chapter's close opens a way to God, "like an evening rainbow" after the storm.
- Gift — The altar pictures Christ. He is perfect already, so the stone comes ready-made from God's hand, not from ours.
- Prohibition — The tool does not beautify, it defiles. Shaping the stone means shaping Christ by man's thoughts, and that dishonours Him.
- Reach — The paired ban on steps says the same thing from below: man cannot climb above his own level. God comes down; He alone lifts up.
- Result — Every human touch added to God's altar brings pollution and exposure. What man leaves untouched is God's work, and God meets His people there.
Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon.
Exodus 20 opens with thunder, darkness and a mountain no one could touch. It ends with an altar where God promises to come and bless. The last command is short. But commentators find a whole way of approach in it: nothing man builds, and nothing man climbs.
One writer sets the mountain and the altar side by side:
What a contrast! It is as if He had said to them, "You cannot come to Me if I stay on the top of this mountain, but I will come to you. If I stay here I must curse you, but I will meet you at an altar of earth and bless you." Blessed be His Name, He takes no delight in cursing. That is why He would not put His Name on Mount Sinai. That was the place of distance and darkness. There He could not come to His people and bless them.
One commentator notes the custom of other nations, and draws a lesson from God's refusal of it:
The altar was not to stand in a raised position and be reached by steps, as seems to have been the custom with the altars of the surrounding nations. We can apply this today. In the sacrifice of Christ, God has come down to us, so we are not to try to climb up to Him. When men try to do this, they only expose their own nakedness in a spiritual sense.
The verse before this one forbids a shaped stone. One writer reads the two commands together:
No human hand was allowed to shape the stone of the altar. The man who came was warned by this: no work of his own could gain him acceptance with God, or even help towards it. And he was not to go up by steps to God's altar, for steps are human machinery for reaching a higher level than really belongs to us. God, blessed be His name, has come down to our need, and He wants our worship and our walk on the same level. Otherwise the effort to take a higher place will only expose our shame.
The verse names the result: exposure. One writer traces where human effort at the altar always ends:
God will meet the sinner at an altar with no shaped stone and no step — a place of worship that needs no human workmanship to build and no human effort to reach. In every age and in every country, man has been inclined, one way or another, to lift up his tool to build his altar, or to reach it by steps of his own making. But the result of all such attempts has been "pollution" and "nakedness"… Who will dare to approach God dressed in a garment of "filthy rags"? Who will stand to worship with his "nakedness" on show?
That rules out the improvements people try before coming to God:
God teaches us here that no preparation on our side will help us come into His presence. Turning over a new leaf, dropping sinful habits, becoming religious, doing the best we can — none of this is the way of approach. The sacrificial death of Christ alone is fully enough. "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast" (Eph. 2:8-9). No steps to the Altar.
The same rule reaches into how believers worship:
We cannot rise to a higher level of worship than the level we live on daily. That would be hypocrisy, and God would expose the nakedness of our deceit.
Others apply it to using spiritual gifts as a platform:
Nothing is more offensive than a man trying to lift himself up in the things of God, above all in the worship of God. Those who try this only expose their shame before the eye of God… At Corinth some spoke with tongues to seek their own glory (1 Cor. 13:1). They used their gifts as steps on the altar, to raise themselves in the eyes of others.
Ezekiel's temple altar has steps — the very thing forbidden here. One writer explains the difference:
For that altar, steps will be made — the very thing forbidden in Ex. 20:26. By then the priests will be enjoying the rich results of the sacrifice of Christ, and so their nakedness will not appear… There is no perfection apart from that sacrifice. And there is no lack of it for those who enjoy the fruits of the death of God's own Son.
- Direction. God does not invite a climb; He comes down. Sinai kept people off, the altar brought them near.
- Steps. A step lifts a man higher than he really stands. God keeps worship and daily walk on one level.
- Nakedness. Self-effort at the altar earns no merit. Every climb of our own making ends in pollution and shame.
- Covering. Only the sacrifice of Christ is enough. No new leaf, no dropped habit, no religious effort adds to it.
- Future. Steps appear at Ezekiel's altar at last, because that sacrifice has covered the nakedness this verse guarded.