Jump Start # 1100

Exodus 20:25 “If you make an altar of stone for Me, you shall not build it of cut stones, for if you wield your too on it you will profane it.”

Our verse today is very interesting. It follows the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments wasn’t all that God commanded. There were more. Our verse is one example of that. Altars were very important part of the worship to God. Cain and Abel had sacrifices upon altars. Noah built an altar after leaving the ark. God’s test of Abraham involved offering Isaac upon an altar. The tabernacle and later the temple used altars to burn the various sacrifices to God.

One would think that the attitude of the worshipper is all that is important. The Bible says otherwise. In Cain’s sacrifice, the wrong item was sacrificed. In Malachi’s day, inferior sacrifices were offered. And, here in our verse, even the construction of the altar mattered.

Stone altars were the most common. The fields provided plenty of stones. These stones were not to be cut. Natural stones, taken straight from the ground, was what God wanted. Now, this is where we find ourselves at the crossroads with God. Natural stones can be different colors. Natural stones are definitely different shapes. Cutting them, shaping them would make them look better. I live in a brick house. The bricks are basically all the same color and same size. I have a stone fireplace. The stones are shaped to be smooth and fit together. It looks wonderful. It is safe, there are no jagged edges sticking out. It looks like an expert put it together. If the stones were all different sizes and uncut and every shape, it would look like a weekend warrior who had no clue what he was doing built it. We like cut stones. They are appealing to the eye. In this area there are many homes built from what is called Bedford stone. Limestone blocks cut from Bedford, Indiana have been used to build many government buildings in Washington, D.C. There are many homes in this area that are build from the cut stones. Cut stones look nice.

For God’s altar, no cut stones. Why? Why does it matter? Cut stones look nicer. Cut stones fit together better. Cut stones gives someone a job. The sacrifices are the same. It’s what’s on the altar that matters? Right? God said no cut stones. He didn’t give reasons in this passage. He didn’t have to. The altar is for Him. It is His sacrifices that Israel was offering. God has a right to want things done the way He likes them.

A few years ago a book was published entitled, “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” It’s an ok book. It’s about not letting little things get to you. That book title is the philosophy many have when it comes to worship. The small stuff doesn’t matter. As long as God is praised, how you do it, and how you arrive at it, doesn’t matter. Really? Who thought that one up? Probably someone who wanted to use cut stones. They liked cut stones. They wanted cut stones. They studied the advantages of cut stones. They realized more people would be pleased with cut stones. They preached sermons on the value of cut stones. They introduced a cut stone altar as a trial run. It went well, and soon the cut stone progressive thinkers were off and running. I don’t know if that ever happened, especially that way, but it sure has with other things in worship. Folks just can’t be satisfied with the way God says things. They always have to tinker with change. They want to be different. Change the music in worship. Change the purpose of worship. Change the day of worship. Change the participants in worship. Change. Change. Change. Cut. Cut. Cut. God said, don’t cut the stones.

There are two things that drive so much of the spirit of change. First, is the thinking that if we like something then God does. We like rock ’n roll, so surly God does. We like casual, so God must. We like less doctrine in our preaching, so God does. We like cut stones, so God does. Really? He doesn’t. He said He didn’t like cut stones. He has revealed what he wants in music. He has shown that He wants reverence and a seriousness to our worship of Him. Jesus’ parables over and over illustrated that God wasn’t like people. In the Prodigal Son, the crowd, mostly Pharisees, would have stood with the elder brother. Angry, rejecting the prodigal and disappointed with the Father. Jesus used that to show them that God is so different than they are. They shun and God accepts. They stay out and God goes in. They run from and God runs toward. The prophet Isaiah said that God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts. What we like in worship is no indication that God will. We can’t use our feelings as a measure of God’s approval. I had this discussion with a progressive thinker a while back. He was convinced that God would like contemporary songs with contemporary instruments because he liked it. He was a part-time musician and in a band so he just knew that God would love for him to display his talents by bringing his band to worship. His bottom line, I know God likes it because I like it. He was bold and aggressive. I asked him which God liked better Coke or Pepsi. He was drinking a Coke. I like Pepsi. Now, which one is God going to like the best. His answer was brilliant. He said, “How in the world am I supposed to know?” Exactly! Exactly, how in the world do you know that God wants your band in worship? Because you like it does not mean that God does. Remember cut stones?

Second, change is pushed and driven because people are convinced that it doesn’t matter. Some live by the notion that something is only wrong if someone is hurt. In pickup basketball there is an expression, “No blood, no foul,” meaning every little bump is not going to stop the game. Only something so obvious will be called a foul. If there is blood, then there is a foul. If no one is hurt, what’s the big deal. Why is cut stones wrong and uncut stones right? God said. It’s that simple. It’s a matter of trust and faith in God. We are not on the planning committee with God, ironing out the details of worship. God doesn’t need us nor want us on that committee. It has been decided long ago by God. We follow His blueprint the way He said it. Some changes actually do good. Some changes help people. Churches feeding homeless people put food in empty bellies. Churches that send teams overseas to improve water conditions and give medical supplies actually make lives better. Is that the measure of right and wrong? If good is done then it has to be right? What if more people worshipped cut stones than uncut stones? Wouldn’t that be a good thing? The outcome is not the measure of all things. I golfed with a guy once who had a wonderful saying about golf. He told me this after my shot hit a tree and bounced upon the green and went into the hole. He said, “It’s not how your drive, but how you arrive that matters.” I like that in golf. That thinking doesn’t work in worship. How you arrive does matter. God said.

So here we are…cut stones or uncut stones. That which looks good to us and that which God wants. What are we to do? Which will we follow, our hearts or His word? These simple things mark the huge divide in the religious community today. Few are interested in uncut stones. Uncut is traditional, old fashioned and simply not working in our times. The people want cut stones. Churches provide. They are more interested in pleasing the crowd than God. It seems odd to stay with uncut stones, but there are some of us who are doing just that. We like God’s ways. We are content with God’s ways. We are set on doing God’s things God’s way. The folks all around us are busy cutting stones. They paint the stones. They put bling-bling on the stones. The uncut stones don’t look like much next to these others. Yet we know what God said. We know what God wants. We stay with God.

Cut or uncut…which are you? Which one does God want you to be? Is it time to rethink things? Is it time to get back to God’s way of things? Can we help? It’s a matter of following what God said.

Roger