Not Made With Tools

Exodus 20:22-26 "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. [23]  Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold. [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: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. [25]  And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. [26]  Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon."

Every person who has ever had any contact with Christianity or Judaism is familiar with the Ten Commandments of God, the Commandments that God first gave His people when they were freed from Egyptian bondage. The Commandments were and are God's foundational rules for an orderly society, Laws given to mankind that transcend racial and national barriers. Laws that are reflected in every stable government on the planet earth, whether that government recognizes Yahweh as the One True God of all Creation. The Muslim governments, even the Buddhistic governments, recognize the foundational truths of the Ten Commandments. No society can long exist that allows murder and adultery to go unpunished, that allows lying within its judicial system, that does not promote freedom to grow to its citizens while discouraging poor behavior that infringes on the rights of others.

I find it interesting that, in recent news reports, a federal judge was persecuted for posting the Ten Commandments in his courtroom. When the various liberal organizations began filing lawsuits and appeals against this judge, the whole matter finally grew to the point where a Superior Court ruled against posting these Commandments. The judge ignored this ruling, and to the best of my knowledge has the Commandments yet posted in his courtroom. I found the whole situation interesting because, though the Commandments were given by our Almighty God, the values that the Commandments supported were not, in reality, religious in nature. As I stated before, these Laws are foundational to any good government. The United States Constitution was developed, in large part, based on the Commandments. Up until a few years ago legal textbooks and legal briefs all contained references to the Commandments and God's basic Laws governing humanity. Charles Finney, the Great Evangelist, was, prior to his conversion in Christ, a lawyer. The references in the legal briefs that he read on a daily basis led him to commit his life to Christ, which in turn led to his call as an evangelist. For our country, years later, to seek to depose these Commandments from a courtroom somehow seems abominable, evil, fully contrary to all good sense. The Commandments, when followed, provide a civilized society. But when they are departed from, anarchy rules, governments fall. If you disagree, consider the fall of Germany and the Soviet Union in our lifetimes.

The Commandments are, indeed, good. Not just for Christians and Judaism, but for all governed peoples. When we consider the Ten Commandments, and recognize that the Laws that comprise these Commandments are good for all men and for all governments, we often focus on the Commandments without looking at the deeper truths found around them. After God gave Israel, nay, even all society the Ten Basic Laws of civilized society, He began to expand these Laws in Exodus Chapters 21-31. This was not the full expansion of the Laws, only a beginning, but as God expanded these Laws He began to make them specific to His Chosen Nation Israel. But before God expanded these Laws, these Base Ten, He instituted a special religious Law for those who were specifically Israel, to those who were Believers. God said to Moses:

Exodus 20.22 ".. Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven .."

The Israelites, those who believed God and, acting in belief, followed Moses from Egypt had all seen and experienced God. God spoke with the Israelites from heaven. The gods that the Israelites left behind were all deities made up from creation, the frog gods, the tree gods, the lice gods, the cat gods. They were all things taken out of creation and made gods, but were not themselves gods. When God, Yahweh, told Israel "Look, I spoke to you from Heaven", He was saying several things. First, He is not powerless as these false idols are. He is the Creator of the frogs, the lice, the cats and the trees, yet He is not to be lowered to the position of the created. Second, if God is the Creator of all things, then He wants for nothing. He does not need us, or our pitiful possessions. We need Him, but He does not need us. He made us, and could easily make us over again. When Adam fell in the Garden of Eden Yahweh could have erased all of mankind and started all over again.
 

Imagine God's Power! Moses and the people were in the desert, but what was he going to do with them? They had to be fed, and feeding 3 or 3 ½ million people requires a lot of food.  According to the Quartermaster General in the Army, it is reported that Moses would have to have 1,500 tons of food each day. Do you know that to bring that much food each day, two freight trains each a mile long would be required! Besides you must remember, they were out in the desert, and they would have to have firewood to use in cooking the food. This would take 4,000 tons of wood and a few more freight trains each a mile long, just for one day.  And just think, they were forty years in transit. Oh, yes, they would have to have water. If they only had enough to drink and wash a few dishes, it would take 11,000,000 gallons each day, and a freight train with tank cars 1,800 miles long, just to bring water!  And then another thing. They had to get across the Red Sea at night. Now, if they went on a narrow path, double file, the line would be 800 miles long and would require 35 days and nights to get through. So, there had to be a space in the Red Sea, 3 miles wide so that they could walk 5,000 abreast to get over in one night.  But then another problem. Each time they camped at the end of the day, a campground two thirds the size of the state of Rhode Island was required, or a total of 750 square miles long, think of it! This space just for nightly camping.  Do you think Moses figured all this out before he left Egypt? I think not! You see, Moses believed in God. God took care of these things for him. Let us take courage, we have the same God.

We need Him, He does not need us. But He wants us, because He loves us. He wants our obedience, He wants our sacrifice of service. But what would the Creator of all things need of our materialism? What could we give Him to earn or justify our own salvation?

Exodus 20.23  "Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold."

God demands of His people that we avoid the materialism of Egypt, that we avoid the false shiny gods of the heathen. The Egyptians often carved their gods out of silver, of gold, of brass. These shiny gods were beautiful to behold, yet only detracted from the True Yahweh. These shiny gods were the creation of man's hand, not the True Creator Yahweh. Our God cannot be contained in a temple, in a fancy building, in a cathedral, nor can His face be printed on coin as many presidents and emperors have been. Since He is greater than all the parts, greater than even the whole, to try and contain His image on a created thing is blasphemy.

Our God Yahweh wanted one thing of Israel, and one thing of us today. He wants, and demands, submission to Him as our Creator. When Israel sat in bondage, she called out to God night and day and begged for relief. When God called Moses to lead the people out of bondage, called him out of the midst of the burning bush, Yahweh said:

Exodus 3:7  "And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows."

God watches over His creation, watches over the people who He made in the Garden, and waits for our cry of submission. Too often we as humans ignore the Creator until the time we need Him, then we cry out in the night demanding His service. Yet the Creator of all does not exist to serve us, but we to serve Him. Often Yahweh allows us to be taken down into the depths of despair, into a place of utter helplessness, so that we can no longer use our own resources to try and "save ourselves". So it was with Israel. God allowed them to go to despair and, finally, in despair, Israel stopped her self seeking works of righteousness. She stopped trying to do what she could of her own power, for she saw that she was powerless. In the midst of powerlessness, when we submit, the Father makes us strong.

After God saved Israel with a mighty hand, after He proved Himself to be God over all creation through the destructive waters of the Sea, He gave His people another commandment: they were to erect an altar before Him, an altar of earth or an altar of stone.

Exodus 20.24-25 "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: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. [25]  And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it."

In the altar God sought to teach the people several things.

• He sought to teach the people obedience and service. He had, after all, saved them from Egypt, maintained a relationship with man though He had every right to destroy creation and start over again.
• Second, God showed Israel that the altar could not be "made better" by our own works. The altar that God demanded was not to be tooled, not to be decorated. We were not to use our cunning to make it pretty, but it was to be made of simple earth or simple stone. In obedience we made it plain, out of materials that God created, not from our own hands.
• The altar was a tool God used to proclaim His final solution to sin, but was not sin's solution. It was a teaching altar which held no power to save of itself.
• Third, the altar was to be a place of death, suffering. On the altar an innocent, one who had never sinned, would be bound by those who deserved eternal damnation.
• The animals did not contribute to the fall of Adam, but were hapless victims during that fall.
• Year after year, in obedience to God, Yahweh, Elohim, Jehovah, Israel would sacrifice creatures who were innocent of sin. The innocent would suffer the fate of the guilty.
• One day the lessons of the altar would be fulfilled in another Innocent, and this altar would bring forgiveness of sin and with it eternal life.

Habakkuk 2:4  "Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith."

The just "shall live by his faith". The sacrifices of the Law were unable to save, but they taught of the One who was coming. The faithful, the saved, had to live by faith. The Law was merely a shadow of the good things that were coming:

Hebrews 10:1-4 "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. [2]  For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. [3]  But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. [4]  For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins."

The blood of bulls and sheep poured on the earthen altar had no power to pay the penalty of sin. That blood was a lesson, yes, a teaching tool. But by man came the fall, and by Man sin had to be paid. We could not make the altar better by our tools, how could we hope to earn our salvation by our works? We deserved the penalty that was inflicted, by our hands, on the innocent animals. Yet we had no way to pay, no way to make restitution for our sinful ways.

Then He came.

Hebrews 10:6-10 "In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. [7] Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. [8]  Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; [9]  Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. [10]  By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."

Israel cried in the middle of the night, not for what she deserved, but for mercy. God heard her cry and personally intervened, saved her, brought her out of Egypt. Yet before He could save her, God had to show Israel that she had no way to save herself. For years she worked, and killed the innocents, and poured the blood of the lambs on the earthen altar. Every year she repeated her works, proof that salvation had not yet come.

Then came Jesus, innocent Jesus, God eternal in human frame. Jesus came at the appointed time to do the will of the Godhead. He freely walked to Calvary for us, freely died for our sins, became the Atonement for sin that satisfied the righteousness of God. He "taketh away the first, that he may establish the second".

How does this apply to you, today, dear listener? God today, just as He did yesterday and yesteryear, wants your obedience to His directives. He wants your submission, your willingness to obey.

• You cannot save yourself, nor can you create anything with your hands that will please God enough to save you. You cannot make deals with God. The man earning minimum wage cannot entice the billionaire with his meager earnings. You cannot work you way into God's good Grace.
• You cannot modify the Cross to suit your whims. You blaspheme God when you try to add to the finished work of the Cross. The only way you will ever see Salvation is through the eyes of surrender.

Repent of your own works, repent of your own abilities, and accept what the Son of God did for you on the Cross. Only then, when you allow the Son to lay on the altar of dirt, the altar of stone, for you, will you know for certain that you are among the eternally secure. As it is written:

Hebrews 10.10 "By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."
 

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