Humanity has a tendency to ordain things that are important to them. If we have a house, we decorate it. If there’s a holiday, we buy decor. If there’s an important game on TV, we’ll wear our favorite shirt in support of them (even though they’ll never know).
When designing the Temple, David amassed billions of dollars worth of material from Israel, in addition to laying out plans for it’s construction (1 Chronicles 28:11-21). When Solomon began the building process, he employed top-flight artisans and craftsmen, along with thousands of skilled laborers to complete it. In their minds, no expense was too great (2 Chronicles 2).
It’s that attitude that makes the first ever official altar of God in the time of Moses such an anomaly. When God was at the top of Mount Sinai, displaying His glory to the people below, He told Moses to build an altar made out of earth and uncut stones. No gold, no silver, just dirt and rocks.
The simplicity of this altar is for a purpose. Instead of picking out the best artist in the bunch who can make something the masses will adore, with a simple altar, all the glory will go to God. The people won’t marvel at the beauty of the altar, they’ll marvel at the One for whom the altar is dedicated. In this way, idolatry is prevented as much as possible.
A few years ago, my wife and I went to St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. If you’ve been there, you know very well what we saw: Paintings on every square inch of available plaster, with gold edges along every border. The most beautiful works of art that have ever existed on this earth.
While I was in awe of the abilities of some of humanity’s most talented artists, I couldn’t help but be struck by the humanity of it all. In a place such as this, it was easy to magnify man’s accomplishments, but shouldn’t my mind have been on God?
This is why an altar of earth and uncut stones is so important. When we glorify God, we glorify Him, not the person who wrote the songs, the person leading our prayers, or the person giving the lesson. The more we take humanity out of God’s worship, the more we’ll be able to focus our minds on the Creator and give Him what is due.
