An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you.
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, “D’autant qu’il ne traitte pas expressement du lieu mais de la matiere, et forme de l’autel;” because it does not treat expressly of the place, but of the matter and form of the altar. — Fr.
God spoke to you from heaven itself, not as some prince condescending to beggars, yet you turn to silver and gold images as if He were absent or unknown. This is the sin He means to crush: you have seen no form, heard only His voice, and that very silence about His shape forbids you to make one. Keep communion with God by His word, not by idols.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 20:22-26
Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar,.... That is, you priests, the sons of Aaron, as the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem paraphrase the words; the altar of burnt offering built when the tabernacle was seemed not to require any, being but three cubits high, Exo 27:1 but that in Solomon's temple did, being ten cubits high, Ch2 4:1 and therefore some...