By Chalcedony Williams
Then God spoke all these words, saying,
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
22 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘You yourselves have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven. 23 You shall not make other gods besides Me; gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not make for yourselves. 24 You shall make an altar of earth for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you. 25 If you make an altar of stone for Me, you shall not build it of cut stones, for if you wield your tool on it, you will profane it.
Exodus 20:1-2, 22-25 (NASB 1995)
Consider the miracles, signs and wonders that Israel had witnessed alongside the experience of God’s holy and terrifying presence on Mount Sinai. One would imagine that, after witnessing all these things, they would not need a command about which god to worship. Yet the first of God’s commands to Israel is “have no other gods” (Exodus 20:3), which He repeats in verse 23.
What does this command tell us about God? He alone is God. He describes Himself as a “jealous God” (20:5), protective over His position and the authority He is entitled to in His universe and in the lives of His children. He will share His glory with no other, nor will He give up His right to be worshipped as God. But even if His unique identity is not enough to inspire worship from mankind, God reminds Israel that He demonstrated His worthiness and power when He rescued them from slavery in Egypt (20:2). Thus, He commands, “have no other gods besides me”.
What does this command tell us about mankind? That, in our sinful state, we try to replace God or ignore Him altogether. Even when we mean well, we can forget God’s unique identity and reduce Him to a mere force or concept. Our worship then becomes whatever we feel we need to do to achieve the results that we desire.
The attitude behind pagan worship is that if having a particular emblem or carrying out a particular ritual achieves the desired result, we must keep doing that same thing over and over again. When that stops working, or we desire more, our rituals become more and more elaborate. And if we no longer get the results that we are looking for, we create new rituals for new gods until we are satisfied. For example, the service is not the service unless it follows a specific order. Or maybe a perspective that the King James Version is the only one that should be read and studied. Perhaps there’s a view that unless we sing from the hymn-book then we have not really sung to the Lord.
But if we decide who deserves worship and what that worship should look like, then we elevate ourselves to the position of the highest authority, becoming gods unto ourselves. The God of this universe is not a force to be manipulated, and He will not bend or reduce Himself to our fickle interpretations of who He is or to our self-centred worship.
So how do we worship God? Firstly, God tells Israel not to make any images of any gods. Worship is exclusive to God, we give to Him what we give to none other: our whole selves surrendered and submitted to Him (Romans 12:1). Secondly, we do not try to create physical representations of God, lest they become gods themselves. Instead, we recognise God through His Word, which reveals all that He is and all He has done. Thirdly, God instructs Israel that wherever they encounter Him, they should build an altar to offer sacrifices. The altar should be nothing more than a mound of earth or stones that are used as they are found and not chiselled into shape. God does not want us to be distracted by the mode of our worship – the things that we use in our worship. He does not want us to glorify ourselves in what we have made or in what we are able to do. Instead, our attention is on Him and He alone is glorified. This is the manner of our worship: simplicity, humility, a focus on who God is and all that He has done.
May He alone be glorified, now and forever.
Ask – What was the significance of God’s instructions regarding building altars?
Seek – What happens to our worship when we lose sight of who God is?
Knock – Praise God for all that He is and all He has done. Pray that He alone will be glorified in our lives.
(Upper Photo by Marek Piwnicki on Unsplash)
(Inner Photo by Rich Martello on Unsplash)
