Joshua 8:30-35
This is a beautiful event in Israel's history. Nestled between two mountainsides, they whole gang comes together to worship God after conquering Ai. They do so according to specific instructions left by Moses (Deuteronomy 27:2-8).
They build an altar with rough, unshaped stones taken from the ground. They were not to shape them or smooth out the rough edges. They weren't to touch them with tools at all. Why?
"[I]f you wield your tool on it, you will profane it." (Exodus 20:25)
Dirty, jagged stones were an acceptable vehicle for worshipping God. Clean cut, shaped stones were defiled and polluted...
This bit of instruction comes just after Charlton Heston delivers the 10 Commandments in his bathrobe. One of these commandments says we aren't to make graven images. It seems that man is perpetually tempted to worship the works of his hands.
Maybe God didn't want His people making an altar of shaped stones because He knew they would end up worshipping the altar rather than Him. It would introduce a bit of pride into their worship and a little bit of self-worship destroys the possibility of God-worship.
Maybe He knew that if they started shaping stones they would get so absorbed into building fantastic altars that they would forget God altogether. He wanted them to look beyond the altar to the sacrifice and beyond the sacrifice to the God.
God asks that His people come to Him in unadorned simplicity. Don't get distracted crafting fancy words, just pray. Don't get distracted with dress codes, just gather with other Christians to worship God. Don't get distracted by the particulars of a worship service, just sing joyfully to God, encourage one another, apply your mind to His word, and submit your heart to His hands.
