Living Stones
What is a "living stone"?
What is a "living stone"?
What in the world are living stones? I’m referring to an enigmatic statement by the Apostle Peter:
Peter should know! Jesus confided in Peter His plans to build a church quite separate from His program for Israel. During his three-year teaching program Jesus told His disciples four times that His last trip to Jerusalem was not to be crowned rightful king but to be killed. The disciples did not believe this until it happened! Panicking when Jesus was arrested they all fled!“Coming to Him as to a living stone, (lithos zao) rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, (oikos) a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
“Behold, I lay in Zion
A chief cornerstone, elect, precious,
And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”
Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient,
“The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone,”
and
“A stone of stumbling
And a rock of offense.”
They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. (1 Peter 2:4-10)
“...Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.If a generation is assumed to be 40 years then Jesus has been gone for 50 generations. In each generation many have come to know Jesus Christ personally and they each have been added to the roles. In each generation the performance level of each has varied greatly!
“I beg you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that (a) good and (b) acceptable and (c) perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:1,2)
Most all the influential Christians I once knew in person are dead now, forgotten, written off as irrelevant. I have dozens of books in my library which have had a big influence in growing me into the whole man I am becoming today. Each believer from the past was not perfect! Most all were highly flawed or Damaged Goods. Some were “scarcely saved.” Yet God personally raises every son or daughter in His forever family. He keeps careful books and remembers every detail. He WILL vindicate and honor the faith of each of His sons and daughters in his holy, universal church.
What this means is: if Jesus arrives today on the first step of His return three things will happen:
“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:14-18)
What this means is that each believer will shine like the sun! Each is a “living stone.” We each will be gathered and fit into the prioress place by the Master Builder. He won’t place you in an uncomfortable place in His Cathedral! You may not even find yourself close to old family members, certain friends, and the lackluster fellow travelers you knew growing up in some mediocre local assembly.
It’s tempting to think of the complete church Jesus is building as only four dimensional. It likely to be a cathedral transcending time and space. How much “weight” will we late-arriving saints carry when we realize the living Body of Christ, His glorious Church, has been under construction for 50 generations? Probably we won't add much to the 2000 year old church.
The current Lockdown has shuttered many traditional churches around the world. This is likely a sign that the end of the church age has occurred. It's futile to attempt to put things back the way they were! In each "church" there are true believers -- and usually a majority of non-believers. What everyone misses these days is fellowship and common ground. The true church soon to be gathered in New Jerusalem will be a family living in perfect fellowship in a perfect setting, a heavenly City, with Jesus present in person.
Two Churches are described in the New Testament. One is symbolized as a virgin Bride, the other as a Harlot. The subject is vast. Surely we are at the end of an age, the close of a Dispensation? For my thoughts on all this--just one man's thoughts--see Recent Articles.
“For we are God’s fellow workers (synergos); you are God’s field, you are God’s building (oikodomē) According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. | 1 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. 3 For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said:
“So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest,’ ” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; 5 and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.” 6 Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, 7 again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.” 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. 11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. 12 or the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:1-13) |
While sojourning 30 miles North of the Sea of Galilee--late in His three-year teaching work in Israel--Jesus told Peter and the other eleven disciples that he would be building "his church" (ekklesia). This was way more than the temporary work He was engaged in at that time! It was yet future. His dispatching of 70 special evangelists on His final trip North hints about this program for reaching the world, not just Israel. His future world-wide evangelism of 144,000 Jewish evangelists will probably begin soon in our day! God says what He means, and means what He says!
When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”
So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, (Petros) and on this rock (petra) I will build My church, (ekklesia) and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ. (Matthew 16:13-20)
One huge world wide, very rich, institution has long claimed that the Apostle Peter was commissioned to be the first head of that body. But Peter was killed in Rome about 30 years later along with the Apostle Paul, and no church entity or building would appear on earth until nearly 300 years after Peter and Paul were executed. Nevertheless, thousands of ordinary people in the Roman Empire became followers of Jesus in the first three centuries, and obviously many more down to today. No one man-made institution in the world can claim to be the church Jesus is building! But loyal followers of Jesus who know Him personally are everywhere, many but not all in organized churches now. They are to be found in every generation since Jesus began calling out His church at Pentecost, AD 33.
"Open to me the gates of righteousness; I will go through them, And I will praise the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord, Through which the righteous shall enter. 'I will praise You, For You have answered me, And have become my salvation.' The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing; It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it. (Psalms 118:19-24)
"Therefore thus says the Lord God: 'Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; Whoever believes will not be in haste. Also I will make justice the measuring line, And righteousness the plummet; The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, And the waters will overflow the hiding place. (Isaiah 28:16-17)
"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. Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture,
“Behold, I lay in Zion
A chief cornerstone, elect, precious,
And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient,
“The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone,” and
“A stone of stumbling
And a rock of offense.”
They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. (1 Peter 2:19-22)Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. (Ephesians 3:19-22)
“And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. “And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:18)"Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house. For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end." (Hebrews 3:1-6)
The references to Jesus as a living stone, and to us his followers as living stones, actually look forward to the quotation from Isaiah that Peter offers! That's what “living” means. Justice is now embodied in a person, in Jesus the Messiah.
We are living stones" being built into a house which is a habitation for God---Christ Jesus is the cornerstone"Open to me the gates of righteousness; I will go through them, And I will praise the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord, Through which the righteous shall enter. 'I will praise You, For You have answered me, And have become my salvation.' The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing; It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made;
We will rejoice and be glad in it. (Psalms 118:19-24)
"Therefore thus says the Lord God: 'Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; Whoever believes will not be in haste. Also I will make justice the measuring line, And righteousness the plummet; The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, And the waters will overflow the hiding place. (Isaiah 28:16-17)
“Come 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. Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, 'Behold, I lay in Zion A chief cornerstone, elect, precious, And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.' Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, 'The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone,' and 'A stone of stumbling And a rock of offense. They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.“ (1 Peter 2:4-10)
"For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.
According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.
For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,
each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.
If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.
If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
(1 Corinthians 3:9-17)
Lithops is a genus of succulent plants in the ice plant family, Aizoaceae.
Members of the genus are native to southern Africa.
The name is derived from the Ancient Greek words λίθος, meaning "stone," and ὄψ, meaning "face," referring to the stone-like appearance of the plants.
Scientific name: Lithops. Higher classification: Ruschioideae. Order: Caryophyllales. Family: Aizoaceae. Kingdom: Plantae
In the Tanach, the Hebrew Bible, a different gemstone is listed for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. They are, in the 1st row, carnelian, chrysolite, and emerald; in the 2nd row, turquoise, sapphire, and amethyst; in the 3rd row, jacinth, agate, and crystal; in the 4th row, beryl, lapis lazuli, and jasper. What Were the Gemstones of the Breastplate of Aaron? - Gem Society. Twelve Stones (twelve מצבות (matzevot) or standing stones) was a common form of marking a spectacular religious event in the days of Kingdom of Judah before the time of King Josiah (Deuteronomy 27:1–8). The stones were specifically placed in a circle in the place where the heads of each tribe stood at the meeting that the twelve tribes had with Joshua as their leader immediately following the crossing of the Jordan River into the land of Israel (Joshua 4:1–11). This was practiced for a limited period of time in the northern Kingdom of Israel. Similarly, the prophet Elijah used twelve stones to build an altar (1Kings 18:30–31). The stones were from a broken altar that had been built on Mount Carmel before the First Temple was erected. Upon the completion of the Temple, offerings on other altars became forbidden. What was unique with Elijah's altar was that God would ignite the offering with fire (or lightning) from heaven. The timing of this display made it the most spectacular religious event since the Exodus from Egypt. Hence, use of a Twelve-Stone monument became a form of marking a spectacular event. King Josiah abolished the practice because some people attached religious significance to the stones themselves, resembling idolatry.
Peter writes in his first letter, “As you come to him [Jesus], the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—-you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house.”
What is a “living stone”? What does that mean?
The references to Jesus as a living stone, and to us his followers as living stones, actually look forward to the quotation from Isaiah that Peter offers shortly afterwards. In the original context in Isaiah, the “cornerstone” is a figure for justice. The correct lines for a stone building (i.e. the placement of all the other blocks) were all derived from a perfectly squared-off cornerstone that was laid down first. In the same way, God says, He will establish justice so that all of the Judeans can know whether their actions are “within the lines” or not. (“I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line.”)
As often happens when New Testament authors see a Messianic meaning in an Old Testament prophecy, Peter is “escalating” the language so that the cornerstone (justice) becomes personified in Jesus.
That’s what “living” means: An abstraction, justice, is now embodied in a person, Jesus the Messiah. He is, in effect, the “first block laid down,” and we who are “being built into a spiritual house” (that is, into a new kind of temple, as other New Testament writers also say) need to take our bearings and find our placement from Jesus. Not in a physical sense, but in the sense of moral purpose: “How can my life and actions fit in with what God has already started doing in the world through Jesus?”
We today probably aren’t very familiar with the approach to construction that involves first laying down a cornerstone. So let me offer a modern analogy. When a baseball field is laid out, the first thing put down is home plate. The foul lines are drawn out from the back of it. And those foul lines tell you whether a batted ball is “in” or “out.” The life, teachings, and example of Jesus establish the lines in our lives of what’s “in” and “out,” not just morally, but also in keeping with God’s expanding purposes in the world. He is, in effect, a “living home plate,” and we are a “living infield” and a “living outfield.” (Christopher R. Smith)
A crisis had arisen at the highest level of the government of the then-most powerful nation on earth, Babylon. The Chief of State, Nebuchadnezzar, was troubled by a dream, but he does not fully trust his battery of scientists, psychologists, and scholars in his cabinet. He can't fully confide in them, though some are very senior in experience, some even seminary-trained scholars. Daniel and his three colleagues will be killed if no outside intervention by a higher power acts. Daniel does not have the answer ahead of time, so he holds a prayer meeting and seeks help from the God for Israel. God then shows Daniel both the original dream of the king and then its meaning. With skill be tells Nebuchadnezzar the content of the dream saying to the King that the dream is from the one true God who he does not yet know. Daniel explains how great epochs of history will unfold after Nebuchadnezzar completes his term in office. We have the benefit of hindsight now. Three great world powers did indeed succeed Babylon on the stage of world history: The Persian Empire, The Greek Empire, and the Roman Empire. (The last would be complex, surviving to our day.) Finally, Daniel saw the end of history as we have known it for the past 2600 years. God will Himself step in and set up His eternal kingdom on earth. All indications today indicate we are at that cusp! Current events ought not to surprise us if we know our Bibles! God says what He means, and means what He says! The United States has no covenant with God, but Israel does.
The collapse of Western Civilization is overdue! It will happen as the imagery of the Smiting Stone in Daniel 2 indicates. The collapse will mean two things: Collapse of infrastructure after failed last minute attempts to save the day by the Antichrist. The great judgments on the Book of Revelation show us step by step how God will dismantle governments, schools, institutions, corporations and towers. This final weeding out of sin and evil from earth will commence, I believe, after the Rapture of the Church. See Two Aspects of the Return of Christ.
Two aspects of Judgment will occur. The first is the invasion of the Smiting Stone--the personal return of Jesus Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords. The second is the removal of all false religion. "She" will be exported supernaturally to Babylon as predicted by Zechariah. See False Religion for details.
Ray Stedman, said in 1968:"Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “Thus with violence the great city Babylon shall be thrown down, and shall not be found anymore. The sound of harpists, musicians, flutists, and trumpeters shall not be heard in you anymore. No craftsman of any craft shall be found in you anymore, and the sound of a millstone shall not be heard in you anymore. The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore, and the voice of bridegroom and bride shall not be heard in you anymore. For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all who were slain on the earth.” (Revelation 18:21-24)
"What is the symbolism of this? The clay is obviously the opposite of iron. Iron symbolized an imperialistic attitude or form of government, the power and might of imperialism seeking to dominate and to rule by brute force and strength. Clay, on the other hand, is weak, pliable, easily molded. Most Bible scholars are right in identifying this as the principle of democracy. Perhaps that may cause us to bristle a bit. We do not like to see democracy attacked. We like to think that the reason the United States and Great Britain have become strong nations is because they are democracies; that it is the voice of the people that gives strength. But if you look at history, especially the history of the West, in the light of the revelation of Scripture and in an honest evaluation of democracy, you will discover that democracy is not really a very good form of government.
The voice of the people is always a fickle voice. It is easily molded, like clay. That is what politicians capitalize on. Every election year you can hear them shaping the clay, molding the clay into the opinions they want them to have. Today we are subject to the tremendous pressures of mass media which play upon our minds to mold the will of the people. That is the weakness of democracy.
Let me share with you an interesting quotation which I think you will find most significant, especially in view of when it was uttered. It is called, Why Democracies Fail.
Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasure. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefit from the public treasury, with the result that democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy, always to be followed by a dictatorship, and then a monarchy.That sounds as if it was written today, does it not? But it was written by professor Alexander Fraser Tytler, nearly two centuries ago, while our thirteen original states were still colonies of Great Britain. At the time he was writing of the decline and fall of the Athenian Republic, over two thousand years before. It is a clear and honest evaluation of democracy. No, it is not democracy that has made the United States great; it is another element -- the same element which produced greatness for a considerable period in Great Britain and other nations. Scripture reveals that the element which makes a nation great is righteousness. When righteousness pervades a nation that people is strong; without righteousness it begins to falter. That is why we are seeing our American democracy beginning to totter, stagger, and crumble. The element of righteousness is fast disappearing within it. Democracy has no power to stand or be strong unless righteousness is there. This one thing God's word clearly reveals: "righteousness exalts a nation, but shame is a reproach to any people." In the words of the motto of the state of Hawaii, Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono, which means, "The life of the land is preserved in righteousness." That has been the fundamental secret of the strength of the United States.
In this passage the prophet Daniel says the kingdom is to be so divided. In the final stage of this collection of Western nations, dominated by Roman principles, there would come a struggle for dominance between two principles: the iron of imperialism, and the clay of democracy. These two things would struggle and attempt to mingle together.
As we look back in history we can see that World War I marked the beginning of the end of an era. The end of that war was characterized by the fall of crowned heads all over the world. Many monarchies ended then, either abruptly and completely, or they were transformed into representative monarchies in which the king became merely a figurehead, exercising no power or authority at all.
World War II completed the picture; the age of kings ended in that interim period. From that time on there has been clearly emerging a new age, a new condition among nations. It is described for us in Verses 42-43, when we come to the very toes of the feet of the image.
"And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. As you saw the iron mixed with miry clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay." (Daniel 2:42-43 RSV)The phrase translated in the RSV, "in marriage," is not too accurate. Literally, it is (in the King James), "they shall mingle together with the seed of men," which seems to imply a universal application, i.e., this is a grass roots matter, it permeates the masses. In the stream of humanity these two conflicting currents struggle together, and as we near the end of this fourth kingdom it becomes a struggle at the grass roots level. It strikes me as highly significant that this is what we see arising in our own day. I am not going to be dogmatic on this as being positively the fulfillment of this prophecy, but the trend seems to be unmistakable.
What is happening in the nations of the West in our day? Well, clearly they are torn by domestic strife. They are being weakened by internal conflict. There is enough iron yet to threaten with the power and strength of ancient Rome, but there is enough clay to weaken and paralyze so that nations are unable to accomplish their objectives. Thus we have the sight of great and powerful nations which are almost helpless to carry out what they set themselves to do. They are being throttled and thwarted by internal weakness, by struggles breaking out from within, by the unmixable principle of the voice of the people and the iron will of authority in conflict.
This is what sets the stage for the final act of history. By this the world becomes ripe for the invasion of God. That last act is given to us now in Verses 44-45:
"And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall its sovereignty be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand for ever; just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be hereafter. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure." (Daniel 2:44-45 RSV)Our attention is immediately drawn to this opening phrase, "And in the days of those kings." What kings? There have not been any kings mentioned in this passage at all. Kingdoms, yes; kings, no. "In the days of those kings" -- what a cryptic reference this is. But as you compare this passage with other passages in the seventh chapter of Daniel. and also with the book of Revelation, it becomes clear that the final form of the Western confederacy of nations will be the emergence of a confederation of ten nations, here symbolized by the ten toes of this image. The only possible antecedent for the reference to "those kings" is the ten toes of the image. In the days when the ten-kingdomed empire emerges as the final form of the fourth kingdom (essentially Roman in its emphasis and characteristic), then God, in those days, shall set up a kingdom which shall not be destroyed.
Daniel saw in the dream that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and struck the entire image crumbled, suddenly, dramatically. Then the stone grew until it became a mountain that filled the entire earth. It is not difficult to interpret this imagery. The stone is identified for us clearly in Scripture. The Apostle Peter gathers up several passages out of the Old Testament and identifies the stone for us. In First Peter, Chapter 2, Verse 6, he says:
For it stands in scripture:
"Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and he who believes in him will not be put to shame." (1 Peter 2:6 RSV)
To you therefore who believe, he is precious, but for those who do not believe, "The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner," and "A stone that will make men stumble, a rock that will make them fall; for they stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do."What is our part in all this? If we stand, as I believe this passage clearly suggests, at the termination of civilization as we know it; if we are approaching the end of man's day and God's program which the prophets have long predicted is at last to be established, then Peter suggests that it is our privilege now to rejoice in that "chosen and precious stone." The question that impinges upon us in this hour is, What is our relationship to that stone? Is he the foundation for our life, or is he coming to destroy all that we have built? Is the coming of the Lord to us a thrill, or is it a threat? Is he coming as a friend, or as a foe?"
The word workmanship is really the word poem. We are his poem.
Perhaps it would be better rendered, We are his masterpiece.
God is working out in our lives a tremendous exhibition of His wisdom, His power, His love, His life, His character, His peace, and His joy.
He is teaching us, training us, bringing us along, applying the paint in exactly the right places, producing a marvelous masterpiece to be put on display.
This is to result in good works: kindness, love, mercy, compassion, help to one another, meeting one another's needs. (Ray Stedman)
Lambert Dolphin
