If you make an altar of stones for me, do not build it with dressed stones, for you will defile it if you use a tool on it.
Exodus 20:25
In today’s Scripture, God tells His people: “If you make an altar of stones for me, do not build it with dressed stones, for you will defile it if you use a tool on it.” In other words, the altar was to be God’s work, not man’s. Only natural stones were to be used, just as they came from the fields or streambeds, not custom stones shaped by a craftsman’s chisel.
Isn’t it funny how we always seem to want to improve on what God does? Our proud hearts are anxious to have a hand in God’s gift of salvation. Human wisdom is always trying to improve on the gospel. We want to dress up the Good News of Jesus to make it sound appealing or contemporary. But let’s learn what the Israelites of old learned: The altar is God’s alone. Anything we try to add to the cross only obscures the work of Christ—and Christ alone.
There is such deep, deep power, Jesus, in the story of Your life, Your death, and Your resurrection. It’s an old story, yes, and retold billions of times. But there is nothing in this sophisticated twenty-first century that can add to its authority, its might, or its limitless potential to change a man’s or woman’s heart forever.
