Exodus 20:26

Neither shalt thou go up, &c.— God forbids the altar to be erected high, with many steps, as were the altars of the heathen celestial deities.

REFLECTIONS.—Idolatry being the sin to which God saw the people most inveterately addicted, he gives Moses some particular directions to guard them from it.

1. All images are forbidden. The most costly are an abomination in the sight of God. The most expensive worship, if not according to God's commandment, is but a more splendid iniquity.

2. Their altars must be plain, unadorned, of earth or unhewn stone, and low, for the reason given Exodus 20:26. God must be worshipped in spirit; and gorgeous ornaments are there superfluous, where the heart only is to be regarded. The showy pageantry of the Romish church is but as the finery of a wanton. Though it may draw in the unwary, it is a signal to the wise to turn away.

3. God will meet those who wait upon him in his ways, and will bless them, in every place where his Name should be worshipped according to his own institution. Now, they were allowed as many altars as they chose; afterwards, their sacrifices were to be offered at Jerusalem: but since the true Lamb of God was slain there, this peculiarity has been destroyed; and now in every place God is near to answer those who call upon him out of a pure heart fervently.