4 - Bible Commentary | Karuna Sadan

And there you shall build an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones; you shall not use an iron tool on them. You shall build with whole stones the altar of the Lord your God, and offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God. (Deuteronomy 27:5-6)

The use of an iron tool signifies work and sweat which are part of the curse. The altar of the Lord signifies the presence of God. In His presence there is rest.

Building something with living, unhewn stones is far more difficult. Instead of taking perfectly square stones and stacking them to form a wall, imagine taking round stones of every shape and size and trying to form a wall with them. This is how the altar was to be built.

In order to do this, you needed stones of every shape and size to fit into the odd spaces that would be created by the building process. The most common stones were the little pieces that were sometimes no bigger than a rock that you would skip across a lake. These small rocks would be the ones that were wedged in the cracks between the larger stones to keep them in place. One could say that they were holding up the arms of the larger stones.

1 Peter 2:4-5: "Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."

As you can see from the above verse, stones represent people. Those who are not of Christ are hewn stones; man has formed them, and they all look alike.

On the other hand, a house built by living stones requires each one to be used. It's a community of believers that is diverse and welcomes each and every member. It understands that even the smallest "rock" is of utmost importance as they help keep the larger rocks in place.

You have become the people of the Lord (Deuteronomy 27:9)

John G.Lake a servant of God said, “becoming is more important than doing”

Chapter 27