This article first appeared as a post I wrote for The 555 Club. Before your read this article please read Exodus Chapter 20.
In Exodus Chapter 20, Moses is on the mountain with God while the people are at the base, watching God descend on Mt Sinai in a thick cloud, accompanied by thunder, lightning, and fire.
God is going to give Moses the Law, and what we know as the Ten Commandments, written on tablets of stone.
Before He gives him the commandments, God states who He is. He wants to make sure there is no confusion about the fact that He is the same God who brought them out of Egypt.
Ex 20:1 And God spoke all these words: 2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
After God thunders the commandments, the people are terrified and tell Moses they don’t want to talk to God. They want Moses to go talk to Him and then tell them what He says.
God was intentionally melding together His glory/power/holiness with His commandments. He wanted the fear of God to be connected with the commandments of God.
The Ten Commandments serve a number of purposes:
1.As I have said before, the commandments were never meant to be a means of obtaining salvation; they were meant to make it harder for mankind to ignore their own sin. The Law is God’s standard of holy perfection, which no fallen human being can obtain. The Law serves to show us where we have fallen beneath God’s standard. The Law forces us to face our sin, recognize it, know that we are condemned by our own sinful choices, and then look for help, which leads us to run to Jesus to find that help.
2.The Law also serves as a standard of morality for society. In the past, in most small towns, the city square would have a plaque displaying the 10 Commandments. Again, not as a mode of salvation but as a standard for moral interaction between people, and a recognition that God was the ultimate authority over all people. Sadly, many Ten Commandments monuments have been taken down when some members of the local society have said they are offended by God’s Law and reject God’s authority and moral standards. They seek to create a new moral standard based on their own opinions of right and wrong. But God is the creator, and only He has the authority to determine what is right or wrong.
3.The commandments also serve to illustrate the holy perfection of God. The commandments teach us about who God is. They teach that His character and nature are holy.
4.The commandments contain guidelines for two relationships. Man’s relationship with God, and the relationship people have with each other.
Our relationship with God:
•Have no other gods before Me.
•Do not make or worship idols.
•Do not misuse God’s name.
•Remember the Sabbath.
Our relationship with each other:
•Honor your father and mother.
•Do not murder.
•Do not commit adultery.
•Do not steal.
•Do not lie or give false witness against another.
•Do not covet any of your neighbor’s property.
When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment in the Law was, He said this:
Mt 22:35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37 Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Jesus took the entire Law and condensed it down to two commands. Love God and love people.
Jesus teaches something else concerning the Law. The Law is not just external but is also internal. Most people can say that they have not murdered another human being, but Jesus taught that murder starts in the heart. Murder starts inside with hate.
Mt 5:21 "You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca, 'is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.
Jesus also teaches that adultery starts in the heart with lust.
Even the last commandment about coveting. To steal is evil, but to want to steal or take the property of another is also evil.
The Law of God and the teaching of Jesus show us that sin is not only an action but also includes the thoughts of the inner heart that want to sin and continually plays out the action in the mind until they finally do it.
So, we see that the Law was meant to lay bare the heart, shed light on all the darkness within it, and then point mankind to Jesus and His cross for help.
I’ve written about this before, but I will mention it here again. The fourth commandment of a Sabbath rest is not what it seems. There are many today who believe that God still requires us to keep the Sabbath rest and worship on Saturday.
While resting from our work is good, that isn’t what the fourth commandment is about. The Sabbath rest is God inserting the Gospel into the center of the Ten Commandments. What God does here is genius. He places a prophecy in the middle of the Ten Commandments.
The ultimate Sabbath rest is the rest we find in Jesus. In Him, we cease from our work of striving to be accepted by God. Jesus is our rest, who rescued us from the condemnation of the Law. Jesus, our Sabbath rest, rescues us from a constant cycle of trying and failing to follow God, knowing that we have fallen short, and then living in constant guilt and condemnation. In Jesus, we rest from all that work, because we know that He has redeemed us from the penalty of sin and death.
And we know that obedience to God does not come by trying harder but by surrendering to Jesus and allowing the life of Christ and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit to empower us to live for God.
So, we pull it all together by seeing that the Law was meant to point people to the One who had been promised to Abraham. The One who would bless the entire earth and crush the head of the serpent.
God teaches us through Abraham that a relationship with God is based on faith and trust. God teaches us through Moses and the Law that our sin is an obstacle to our relationship with God. Then God teaches us that through Jesus shed blood, our sin can be removed, clearing the way for an unhindered relationship with God based on faith in Jesus.
In the last 5 verses of Exodus Chapter 20, God gives the Israelites a few principles on how to worship Him.
Ex 20:22 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites this: 'You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven: 23 Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold. 24 "'Make an altar of earth for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats and your cattle. Wherever I cause my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you. 25 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. 26 And do not go up to my altar on steps, lest your nakedness be exposed on it.'
God restates the first commandment with a slight difference. He says that they should make no idols to worship alongside God.
Here, He doesn’t emphasize not worshiping an idol instead of God, but not worshiping an idol alongside God. In other words, God will share worship with no one and nothing else. The pagan Gentiles in the land of Canaan worshiped many gods and idols alongside one another. They may have a god of health, a god of agriculture, and a god of war.
God is saying to them that He is their everything. He alone is to be worshiped.
Then God goes on to describe the altars that they could build and use to worship Him.
God said they could use an altar of dirt to worship and offer sacrifices. This was acceptable to God because dirt is part of God's creation and is not manipulated by human hands. A simple dirt altar is not man’s attempt to impress God with a structure, but a humble place to meet with God.
But in this passage, God also allowed an altar to be constructed of stones, but the stones could not be “dressed” stones.
A “dressed” stone is one that has been shaped by human hands using human tools. God says if they used a tool on a stone, it would “defile” it. Meaning it would become repulsive to God.
Man’s work and effort in shaping a stone at the altar would be seen by God as man trying to impress Him by self-effort, and the sound of the tools against the stone would be seen by God as man working to be accepted by God. The focus could be turned to the altar builder's skill or the structure itself, rather than on God, who was to be the center of worship.
Years later, the temple will be built in Jerusalem. Solomon will command that no stone will be cut at the temple site, so that no sound of tools will be heard at the temple. The stones were cut at a quarry far away.
1Ki 6:7 In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built.
In the last verse of the chapter, God warns that they should not use steps leading up to the altar so that no private parts are exposed to anyone watching.
Ex 20:26 And do not go up to my altar on steps, lest your nakedness be exposed on it.'
God is setting a precedent right from the beginning that He requires a certain kind of worship, and that it is to be different from the world.
1.God’s worship is to be centered on Him, not human creativity, pride, or skill.
2.God’s worship must be dignified, modest, and without human display. The exposure of genitalia is related to human sexuality and shame. In pagan worship, sexuality and nakedness were a part of worship, but not for those who worship God. They were to be different than the world.
God is here establishing that He requires man to approach Him in worship through obedience to what He has prescribed, so that there is no mixing with the world’s pagan worship.
If we take these principles and apply them to our worship today, it causes us to ask if our worship is acceptable to God. How much is about us and how much is about God? How much of the world is in our worship?
These questions can be asked at the individual and corporate levels.
When I worship, what are my motives?
In the church service, are we structured to please and honor God, or have we let man-made tools take the focus off of Him?
These are very hard questions and need real focused prayer, asking God if He is pleased with us and our worship of Him.
Here in chapter 20, God has set the stage for what comes next. He is setting a standard for how to live and how to worship. All of this is testing and preparation for the Hebrews to become the nation that blesses the entire world, as God first promised Abraham.
In Exodus Chapter 20, Moses is on the mountain with God while the people are at the base, watching God descend on Mt Sinai in a thick cloud, accompanied by thunder, lightning, and fire.
God is going to give Moses the Law, and what we know as the Ten Commandments, written on tablets of stone.
Before He gives him the commandments, God states who He is. He wants to make sure there is no confusion about the fact that He is the same God who brought them out of Egypt.
Ex 20:1 And God spoke all these words: 2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
After God thunders the commandments, the people are terrified and tell Moses they don’t want to talk to God. They want Moses to go talk to Him and then tell them what He says.
God was intentionally melding together His glory/power/holiness with His commandments. He wanted the fear of God to be connected with the commandments of God.
The Ten Commandments serve a number of purposes:
1.As I have said before, the commandments were never meant to be a means of obtaining salvation; they were meant to make it harder for mankind to ignore their own sin. The Law is God’s standard of holy perfection, which no fallen human being can obtain. The Law serves to show us where we have fallen beneath God’s standard. The Law forces us to face our sin, recognize it, know that we are condemned by our own sinful choices, and then look for help, which leads us to run to Jesus to find that help.
2.The Law also serves as a standard of morality for society. In the past, in most small towns, the city square would have a plaque displaying the 10 Commandments. Again, not as a mode of salvation but as a standard for moral interaction between people, and a recognition that God was the ultimate authority over all people. Sadly, many Ten Commandments monuments have been taken down when some members of the local society have said they are offended by God’s Law and reject God’s authority and moral standards. They seek to create a new moral standard based on their own opinions of right and wrong. But God is the creator, and only He has the authority to determine what is right or wrong.
3.The commandments also serve to illustrate the holy perfection of God. The commandments teach us about who God is. They teach that His character and nature are holy.
4.The commandments contain guidelines for two relationships. Man’s relationship with God, and the relationship people have with each other.
Our relationship with God:
•Have no other gods before Me.
•Do not make or worship idols.
•Do not misuse God’s name.
•Remember the Sabbath.
Our relationship with each other:
•Honor your father and mother.
•Do not murder.
•Do not commit adultery.
•Do not steal.
•Do not lie or give false witness against another.
•Do not covet any of your neighbor’s property.
When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment in the Law was, He said this:
Mt 22:35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37 Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Jesus took the entire Law and condensed it down to two commands. Love God and love people.
Jesus teaches something else concerning the Law. The Law is not just external but is also internal. Most people can say that they have not murdered another human being, but Jesus taught that murder starts in the heart. Murder starts inside with hate.
Mt 5:21 "You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca, 'is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.
Jesus also teaches that adultery starts in the heart with lust.
Even the last commandment about coveting. To steal is evil, but to want to steal or take the property of another is also evil.
The Law of God and the teaching of Jesus show us that sin is not only an action but also includes the thoughts of the inner heart that want to sin and continually plays out the action in the mind until they finally do it.
So, we see that the Law was meant to lay bare the heart, shed light on all the darkness within it, and then point mankind to Jesus and His cross for help.
I’ve written about this before, but I will mention it here again. The fourth commandment of a Sabbath rest is not what it seems. There are many today who believe that God still requires us to keep the Sabbath rest and worship on Saturday.
While resting from our work is good, that isn’t what the fourth commandment is about. The Sabbath rest is God inserting the Gospel into the center of the Ten Commandments. What God does here is genius. He places a prophecy in the middle of the Ten Commandments.
The ultimate Sabbath rest is the rest we find in Jesus. In Him, we cease from our work of striving to be accepted by God. Jesus is our rest, who rescued us from the condemnation of the Law. Jesus, our Sabbath rest, rescues us from a constant cycle of trying and failing to follow God, knowing that we have fallen short, and then living in constant guilt and condemnation. In Jesus, we rest from all that work, because we know that He has redeemed us from the penalty of sin and death.
And we know that obedience to God does not come by trying harder but by surrendering to Jesus and allowing the life of Christ and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit to empower us to live for God.
So, we pull it all together by seeing that the Law was meant to point people to the One who had been promised to Abraham. The One who would bless the entire earth and crush the head of the serpent.
God teaches us through Abraham that a relationship with God is based on faith and trust. God teaches us through Moses and the Law that our sin is an obstacle to our relationship with God. Then God teaches us that through Jesus shed blood, our sin can be removed, clearing the way for an unhindered relationship with God based on faith in Jesus.
In the last 5 verses of Exodus Chapter 20, God gives the Israelites a few principles on how to worship Him.
Ex 20:22 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites this: 'You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven: 23 Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold. 24 "'Make an altar of earth for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats and your cattle. Wherever I cause my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you. 25 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. 26 And do not go up to my altar on steps, lest your nakedness be exposed on it.'
God restates the first commandment with a slight difference. He says that they should make no idols to worship alongside God.
Here, He doesn’t emphasize not worshiping an idol instead of God, but not worshiping an idol alongside God. In other words, God will share worship with no one and nothing else. The pagan Gentiles in the land of Canaan worshiped many gods and idols alongside one another. They may have a god of health, a god of agriculture, and a god of war.
God is saying to them that He is their everything. He alone is to be worshiped.
Then God goes on to describe the altars that they could build and use to worship Him.
God said they could use an altar of dirt to worship and offer sacrifices. This was acceptable to God because dirt is part of God's creation and is not manipulated by human hands. A simple dirt altar is not man’s attempt to impress God with a structure, but a humble place to meet with God.
But in this passage, God also allowed an altar to be constructed of stones, but the stones could not be “dressed” stones.
A “dressed” stone is one that has been shaped by human hands using human tools. God says if they used a tool on a stone, it would “defile” it. Meaning it would become repulsive to God.
Man’s work and effort in shaping a stone at the altar would be seen by God as man trying to impress Him by self-effort, and the sound of the tools against the stone would be seen by God as man working to be accepted by God. The focus could be turned to the altar builder's skill or the structure itself, rather than on God, who was to be the center of worship.
Years later, the temple will be built in Jerusalem. Solomon will command that no stone will be cut at the temple site, so that no sound of tools will be heard at the temple. The stones were cut at a quarry far away.
1Ki 6:7 In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built.
In the last verse of the chapter, God warns that they should not use steps leading up to the altar so that no private parts are exposed to anyone watching.
Ex 20:26 And do not go up to my altar on steps, lest your nakedness be exposed on it.'
God is setting a precedent right from the beginning that He requires a certain kind of worship, and that it is to be different from the world.
1.God’s worship is to be centered on Him, not human creativity, pride, or skill.
2.God’s worship must be dignified, modest, and without human display. The exposure of genitalia is related to human sexuality and shame. In pagan worship, sexuality and nakedness were a part of worship, but not for those who worship God. They were to be different than the world.
God is here establishing that He requires man to approach Him in worship through obedience to what He has prescribed, so that there is no mixing with the world’s pagan worship.
If we take these principles and apply them to our worship today, it causes us to ask if our worship is acceptable to God. How much is about us and how much is about God? How much of the world is in our worship?
These questions can be asked at the individual and corporate levels.
When I worship, what are my motives?
In the church service, are we structured to please and honor God, or have we let man-made tools take the focus off of Him?
These are very hard questions and need real focused prayer, asking God if He is pleased with us and our worship of Him.
Here in chapter 20, God has set the stage for what comes next. He is setting a standard for how to live and how to worship. All of this is testing and preparation for the Hebrews to become the nation that blesses the entire world, as God first promised Abraham.
Rich Laskowski
Recent
Archive
2026
2025
December
Categories
no categories