Exodus 23 concludes with some instruction for the Israelites about their future mission. When they reach the Promised Land, they are to remove all traces of Canaanite paganism from their midst: "you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces" (verse 24).
Exodus 24 covers the special ceremonies held in the ratification of the covenant at Sinai. For these ceremonies Moses "built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel" (verse 4).
So at Sinai Moses set up twelve pillars, while in the Promised Land the Israelites would be tearing down pillars. Whether a pillar was appropriate or not, then, depended on its intended meaning. At Sinai the twelve pillars represented the fact that all twelve tribes would participate in the covenant with God. In Canaan the pillars they would be tearing down were used in the worship of Canaanite gods. Pillars were not inherently "pagan." Everything depended on what they symbolized.
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