Exodus 20:22-26 -- Untitled

Exodus 20:22 Then the Lord told Moses, “This is what you are to say to the Israelites: You have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven. 23 You must not make gods of silver to rival Me; you must not make gods of gold for yourselves.

These verses seem to echo the first two commandments, to not have any other gods or to make idols to those other gods.  This chapter both begins and ends with this, so we ourselves must know it is important.  In Hebrew, important ideas are repeated though out the text to signify their importants.

Exodus 20:24 “You must make an earthen altar for Me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats, as well as your cattle. I will come to you and bless you in every place where I cause My name to be remembered. 

These verses are instructing the Israelites to sacrifice and make alters to the Lord.  We know that sacrifice has been instituted since the beginning, starting after the first sin in the garden.  The Lord killed an animal to cloth Adam and Eve with.  The animal was a sacrifice for their sin in the garden.  They would continue to sacrifice and build alters, so this command should not be new to the Israelites.  Just look through Genesis to see that the forefathers did these things regularly.

Exodus 20:25 If you make a stone altar for Me, you must not build it out of cut stones. If you use your chisel on it, you will defile it.

Why this command?  Well God formed the stones.  He does not want them altered by sinful hands but placed in on the alter how He formed them.

Exodus 20: 26 You must not go up to My altar on steps, so that your nakedness is not exposed on it.

After reading this you may think about how God initially created humans naked, and wonder why He would not want their nakedness to show on his alter from beneath their garments.  Go back to Genesis, when the first sin occurred:

Genesis 3:6 Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

The first thing that Adam and Eve realized when they ate the fruit was that they were naked.  They sensed it was wrong and shameful to be so and they created cloths for themselves.  Our nakedness is the revelation of our sin.  He does not want our exposed sins to defile his alter, like they defiled his garden.  Before sin, Adam and Eve did not need anything to hid behind.  They did not need clothing to cover themselves with because they were sinless.