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. Exodus 20:25
Stone was a popular material for making altars back in ancient times. Because they had many different false gods, the heathen nations had many different altars, and they loved to carve up the stone and make the altars look beautiful. Stonemasons had entire sets of chisels and other tools for shaping the stones and making them fit together. How those masons must have laughed at the crude and humble altars of the Israelites! The stones were as plain as they came from the field or the brook, with no attempt made to smooth or adorn them. The false gods of the heathen could never know the beauty of their altars. But the true God of Israel saw great beauty in the humble and plain altars of the Israelites.
Altars were built on which to burn an innocent sacrifice, and it was that sacrifice that met with God’s approval and His delight. Sacrifices were those tokens that spoke in prophecy of the one great Sacrifice for sins forever. Although unknown to the Israelite, each innocent victim slain, each drop of sacrificial blood spoke of Calvary, of the Lamb of God. The altar was just man’s presentation of that sacrifice. And God was not the least bit interested in any effort of man to dress up the altar.
Any chisel applied to an altar polluted it with the efforts of man. Religion today loves to fancy up their altar with lavish buildings and ornate furnishings and posh rituals. It’s just pollution as far as God is concerned. He appreciates the simplicity of obedience to His Word and the humility of saints who seek only to honour and exalt our Saviour and Lord. What is important to Him should be precious to us. -Jim MacIntosh
Here is the link to the video of this message: https://youtu.be/rRGCD9WptsU