Exodus 20:22-26

"And Jehovah said unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of lsrael, Ye yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. Ye shall not make other gods with me, gods of silver, or gods of gold, ye shall not make unto you. 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 every place where I record my name I will come unto thee and I will bless thee. And if thou make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stones; for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not uncovered thereon."

"In every place where I record my name ..." Scholars have trouble finding the exact significance of this, but it doubtless has two applications: (1) later in the wanderings, the tabernacle would be moved from place to place, and God's name recorded at every place where the tabernacle came was an assurance of his blessing; (2) in the New Covenant, which is always pre-shadowed by everything that happened in Exodus, there would, of course, never be a physical altar, but the promise here still has significant meaning. Just where has God recorded His name in the New Dispensation? There is utterly no denial that the triple, holy name of "Father, Son and Holy Spirit" is subjoined to only one ordinance in the entire Bible, that being the ordinance of Christian baptism, by which penitent believers are baptized "into THE NAME of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:18-20). The fulfillment of the promise here is that in every man's baptism "into Christ" God indeed will meet him there and bless him there in the total forgiveness and remission of all of his past sins.

Fields mentioned the critical efforts to make much of the passages written here a reference to an alleged Deuteronomistic reformation that occurred during the times of the monarchy. We shall pass those speculations with the same comment of Fields: "We reject this theory totally."[32] Such theories are due to a fundamental lack of information concerning the New Testament and the plan of salvation. Once such things are understood, many of the arcane references in Exodus become luminous. So it is here.

"Build it of unhewn stones ... neither go up ... by steps ..." These admonitions have nothing whatever to do with any superstitious notion that certain pagan gods or spirits dwelt in stones, as sometimes alleged. The full and complete meaning of these prohibitions is simply, concerning the worship of God, "Keep it simple!" This admonition too is carried over into the New Testament. "I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and purity that is toward Christ" (2 Corinthians 11:3). Paul's fears, of course, were more than justified, for the one business of Christianity since the very beginning has been to make it more complicated, more liturgical, less simple, more elaborate, etc., etc. In other words, they lift up their "tools" (their devices) and bring them over into the worship of Jesus Christ!