Exodus 20:24

_AN ALTAR OF EARTH THOU SHALT MAKE UNTO ME, AND SHALT SACRIFICE THEREON THY BURNT OFFERINGS, AND THY PEACE OFFERINGS, THY SHEEP, AND THINE OXEN: IN ALL PLACES WHERE I RECORD MY NAME I WILL COME UNTO THEE, AND I WILL BLESS THEE._ An altar of earth. This regulation was applicable to special or temporary occasions; but even when a permanent altar was constructed under the immediate direction of God (see the note at Exodus 27:1), the basis was earthen. That natural element, as it came from the hands of the Creator, was most suited to the simplicity of divine worship, and easily procurable in the frequent migrations of the Israelites. Besides, at the introduction of a ritual so eminently symbolical, the use of the crude material in the erection of sacrificial altars had a deep significance, inasmuch as the soil or the native rook typified the scene of the great propitiatory sacrifi

24._An altar of earth thou shalt make. _This precept differs from the other, which I have just explained; because although it refers to the choice of a place, (111) yet the mention of a place is omitted, and it only touches upon the material and form of the altar. God, therefore, commands that an altar should be built to Him, either of earth or of a heap of stones, which had not been artificially polished. But I understand this of the altars, which either in the desert or elsewhere should be built, before the choice of the perpetual place had been manifested to them. God would have them built of earth, that they might fall down of themselves, and that no trace of them might remain after the departure of the people; but if stones were used, He forbade their being fitted together in a permanent structure, but would have them thrown rough and unpolished into a heap, lest their appearance sh...

22-26 Moses having entered into the thick darkness, God there spake in his hearing all that follows from hence to the end of chap. 23, which is mostly an exposition of the ten commandments. The laws in these verses relate to God's worship. The Israelites are assured of God's gracious acceptance of their devotions. Under the gospel, men are encouraged to pray every where, and wherever God's people meet in his name to worship him, he will be in the midst of them; there he will come unto them, and will bless them....

Verse Exodus 20:24. _THY BURNT-OFFERINGS, AND THY PEACE-OFFERINGS_] The _law_ concerning which was shortly to be given, though sacrifices of this kind were in use from the days of Abel. _IN ALL PLACES WHERE I RECORD MY NAME_] Wherever I am worshipped, whether in the open wilderness, at the tabernacle, in the temple, the synagogues, or elsewhere, _I will come unto thee and bless_ _thee_. These words are precisely the same in signification with those of our Lord, Matthew 18:20: _For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there_ _am I in the midst of them_. And as it was JESUS who was the angel that spoke to them in the wilderness, Acts 7:38, from the same m

Nothing could be more appropriate as the commencement of the book of the covenant than these regulations for public worship. The rules for the building of altars must have been old and accepted, and are not inconsistent with the directions for the construction of the altar of the court of the tabernacle, Exodus 27:1 (compare Joshua 22:26)....

EXPOSITION THE BOOK OF THE COVENANT, (Exodus 20:1. Exodus 20:22, to Exodus 22:1.Exodus 22:23). The Decalogue is followed by a series of laws, civil, social, and religious, which occupy the remainder of Exodus 20:1. and the whole of the three following chapters (Exodus 21:1; Exodus 22:1. and 23.). I

AN ALTAR OF EARTH THOU SHALL MAKE UNTO ME,.... This was a temporary precept, and only in force until the tabernacle was built, and respects occasional altars, erected while on their travels, and were to be made of turfs of earth, and so easily and quickly thrown up, as their case and circumstances required, and as easily thrown down, as it was proper they should, after they had no more use for them, lest they should be abused to superstitious uses; for afterwards the altar for burnt offerings was made of Shittim wood covered with brass, and that in the temple was wholly a brazen one, Exodus 27:1 this precept seems to suggest the plainness and simplicity in which God would be worshipped, in opposition to the pomp and gaudy show of idolaters intimated in the preceding verse; though Tertullian t relates of the Romans in the times of Numa Pomptitus, that they had neither images, nor temples,...

CHAPTER 20 THE COVENANT REVEALED _ 1. The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1)_ 2. Jehovah's gracious provision (Exodus 20:18) This law covenant is now stated. It was given three times. First orally here, when God spake all these words. Then in Exodus 31 Moses received the tables of stone, “written with the finger of God,” the same finger which later wrote on earth in the sand (John 8). The first tables were broken and Moses was commanded to hew two tables of stone upon which Jehovah again wrote the Ten Commandments (Exodus 34:1). This law was given to Israel exclu

EXODUS 20:22 E. LAWS OF WORSHIP. This begins the Book of the Covenant, a small collection of religious and moral laws. The reference to God as talking with the people from heaven (Exodus 20:22_ b)_ was probably added after the insertion of the Decalogue. In Exodus 20:23 the pl. ye shows that this was not part of the Horeb book, in which thou is used. The RV seems to be right (against LXX) in making Exodus 20:23 a a doublet of Exodus 20:3. Perhaps it ran, Ye shall not serve (make) along with me other (silver) gods. In any case, it is over-costly images on

OF EARTH... IN ALL PLACES. Shiloh was the first place, Jeremiah 7:12. Bethel, 1 Samuel 10:3. then Zion, Psalms 78:68. "Where'er we seek Thee Thou art found". sacrifice. Hebrew. _zabach._ App-43....