Christ Our Rock, Christ Our Stone

Introduction

Paul concludes his magisterial argument for God’s supreme sovereignty in election by providing a fuller explanation of his original lament.

He has stated that the ironic truth of Israel’s history and present state is that they are not of the faith of Abraham, and therefore, while they may be his biological descendants, they are not his spiritual descendants. While they are indeed children of Abraham’s flesh, they are not children of Abraham’s faith. Nevertheless, the word of God has not failed because, as God promised, a multitude of nations, expressed by Paul in verse 30 as simply Gentiles, have inherited the blessing of Abraham as his true children of faith.

Paul’s explanation for his lament is couched within the language of pursuit, as we saw last week. There is much to be learned and observed from this analogy as it invokes a dogged, ruthless, aggressive pursuit of law-righteousness by Israel, in stark contrast to the seemingly lazy, uninformed and uninspired Gentiles, who didn’t pursue righteousness of any kind, and in fact are typically guilty of pursuing the opposite of righteousness, but nevertheless received it on the basis of Christ’s merits and not their own.

You could say, pun intended, that the Gentiles, who were not looking for righteousness, stumbled upon it in Christ, while the Israelites, who were aggressive pursuing righteousness, stumbled over it in Christ. The one, a blessed discovery, the other, a wretched disaster.

This failure is a further proof of Paul’s primary assertion that the Word of God has not failed, and he will demonstrate that by invoking one of the most familiar picture patterns from the Old Testament, and one that was utilized not only by Paul here, but by multiple OT authors and NT authors and even by Jesus Himself.

The picture pattern is the stone of stumbling and the rock of offense, and it is one of the most compelling motifs in all of Biblical theology, and so let us spend the next few moments unpacking all the Paul has for us here.

We need to begin our discussion today with Paul’s direct quotation and then move outward and downward from there.

Paul conflates a quotation from Isaiah 28 and Isaiah 8 into a single reference in verse 33.

The situation in both these references is that Isaiah is prophesying against the scoffing rulers of Jerusalem because of their covenant with death. They declare that they have built their culture and their lives on a foundation of falsehood in 28:15.

In response, Yahweh declares that He has laid His own foundation, His own tested and costly cornerstone, placed it firmly, and the foundation based on this cornerstone is one of righteousness and justice, and it is also one that will cause offense and stumbling to the Israelites.

We’ll return to this later, but I wanted to give us at least a baseline of familiarity with Paul’s source here.

Now we need to understand Paul’s methodology. We’ve encountered Paul using the Old Testament extensively in this chapter, and the reason for that is that he is saying a lot of difficult, controversial, and eyebrow-raising things, at least if you are approaching the text from the perspective of human wisdom. Therefore, he leaning heavily on the Old Testament to prove his points for him. He is appealing to the Scriptures to make his argument. And he continues that here.

Keep in mind that for Paul to say that the Israelites have not obtained righteousness and that they have stumbled over the stumbling stone is a fairly monumental statement in his cultural context. As we saw last week, Israel perceived themselves as remarkably righteous, more-so than those around them, for the reasons Paul laid out in verse 1-5. Yet they nevertheless fell short of that which they pursued. For Paul to state this so plainly is controversial to say the least, but ironically it is not a new idea. This proposition of Israel’s stumbling is observed throughout the Old Testament with abundant clarity.

Paul therefore stands on the shoulders of giants when he makes this statement.

So this morning we are going to embark on a Biblical-theological tour de force through the Old Testament in hopes of mining the depths of Paul’s statement here.

The Stumbling

Let’s begin by unpacking what Paul means here when he discusses stumbling. We will consider the witness of the Old Testament, as well as the witness of the New Testament.

The Witness of the Old Testament

This is an idea that can be traced throughout the Old Testament, but is a particular favorite of the Psalmists, of Jeremiah, and of Ezekiel. So let’s spend some time looking a the witness of the Psalms and of these two prophets to the Biblical pattern of stumbling.

But before we get to the poets and prophets, we need to being with Moses, who, as the first and primary author of the Old Testament, sets the vocabulary and interpretive rules for the rest of the Biblical authors.

Moses speaks of stumbling only twice, and both are in the context of curses. Specifically for Moses in Leviticus 26, stumbling is the crown jewel on the curses that will be poured out on Israel if they fail to keep the covenant. They will be exiled, destroyed, taken from their land, etc, and at the end, right before they perish and die, they stumble and fall. So Moses, in setting the vocabulary for the Old Testament, establishes stumbling as a covenant curse. For Israel to stumble is for them to fall under the curse of God for covenant transgression.

Let’s continue then to the witness of the Psalmists.

The Witness of the Psalmists

David sets the tone for the concept of stumbling in Psalm 9. In three movements, David declares the work of the Lord in causing His enemies to stumble, the character of the Lord in His righteous judgment, and the praise of the Lord for His deliverance of those who seek him.

Without digging too deeply into the text here, we need to observe that David understands, with Moses, that those who oppose God, God will cause to stumble. But on a deeper level, David also understands that those who oppose him, God will cause to stumble. This is interesting, and serves as just one demonstration of the fact that David understood who he was and who was to come forth from his descendants. David realizes in Psalm 9 that to oppose God is to oppose the Davidic King that God has established.

David continues this pattern in Psalm 27, in which he echoes the words of Psalm 9, declaring his trust in the Lord that all who oppose both Yahweh and Yahweh’s King will stumble and fall. David also digs deeper into the flipside of this reality with a subtle hint in verse 5 that the reason that his enemies stumble over him is because he rests upon the rock of God’s protection. So David introduces for us the concept of stumbling, not just in general, but specifically stumbling against or over a rock or a stone.

David provides additional support in Psalm 64, in which again he prays for deliverance from his enemies, and implores the Lord to shoot them with the proverbial arrow and cause them to stumble.

Finally, David in Psalm 119 equates stumbling with a hatred of God’s Law, and conversely, a love for God’s Law as a stabilizing force that will prevent one from stumbling.

We can summarize David’s “theology of stumbling” with 4 points:

David believed God’s enemies would stumble

David believed his own enemies would stumble

David believed that God’s and his enemies were one and the same

David believed that the source of the stumbling and the source of His own protection and salvation were one and the same: God’s rock-like protection and salvation of his life.

But there is further witness from the other psalmists regarding the idea of stumbling.

The anonymous author of Psalm 105 indicates that protection from stumbling is a critical part of of God’s covenant faithfulness. For those upon whom He has poured out his covenant of grace, His pactum, He will keep them from stumbling, just as He kept Israel from stumbling through their 40 years in the wilderness, as the psalmist reflects on Israel’s history in Psalm 105.

Another anonymous psalmist in Psalm 107 uses similar language to reflect on a darker aspect of Israel’s history. The language of this psalm suggests it may be an exilic or post-exilic psalm. Here the author describes the vicious cycle of Israel’s history: God pours out His goodness and grace and deliverance upon them, they rebel and stumble, but God nevertheless is faithful and pours out His goodness once again on them. The cycle goes from exodus to exile to new exodus, deliverance to punishment to re-deliverance.

We can summarize the “stumbling theology” of these anonymous psalmists in this way:

God’s covenant faithfulness prevents His people from stumbling

Even if God causes His people to stumble for a time, He is faithful to bring them back in accordance with His grace and goodness.

We have begun to see a picture of a Biblical theology of stumbling as expressed by both David and other psalmists of Israel.

Let’s consider the motif as expressed by Jeremiah on the verge of exile.

The Witness of Jeremiah

Jeremiah demonstrates what Moses expressed in Leviticus 26 regarding stumbling as a curse for disobedience. After a lengthy discourse of Israel’s sinfulness and wicked behavior in chapter 6, Jeremiah culminates it by declaring that because of all these things, God will send judgment, and that judgment is described as stumbling blocks, placed there by God, as judgment for Israel’s sin.

Jeremiah returns to the theme in chapter 18, where he contrasts Israel with the standard put forth by David in Psalm 119. The Godly man of Psalm 119 loves the ways of God and does not stumble, Israel forgot the ways of God and stumbled mightily.

Finally, Jeremiah in Jeremiah 31, as he begins to prophesy of the eschatological new covenant, he declares that in that day, God will keep Israel on the straight path, and that He will prevent them from stumbling.

We can summarize the witness of Jeremiah in this way:

Those who transgress the covenant will stumble

In the last days, God in His mercy will redeem those who have stumbled.

The Witness of Ezekiel

Ezekiel loves the stumbling block picture pattern, and uses it in some form over 100 times in his prophecy.

In the first 6 instances, Ezekiel equates stumbling with the iniquity of men.

In chapter 3, Ezekiel states that a stumbling block will be placed by God before those who turn away from righteousness and toward the iniquity of wickedness.

Chapter 7 again echoes the sentiment: the iniquity of Israel results in their stumbling, and if you continue to read, you see that this stumbling is the work of God in executing judgment against them. In verse 27 He says explicitly that He will deal with them according to their conduct.

Chapter 14 picks up the theme in the context of idol worship, saying that those who have set up idols have set up a stumbling block for themselves.

So we can summarize Ezekiel’s stumbling block theology so far like this:

God in His sovereign judgment ordains the stumbling block to be placed before Israel

Israel themselves place the stumbling block before themselves.

Therefore, the stumbling block is ordained by God remotely and executed by Israel proximately.

Things take a turn for Ezekiel in chapter 18, however.

Up to this point, the stumbling of Israel has been portrayed by Ezekiel as simply a concrete reality. Now at the end of chapter 18, the Lord presents, through Ezekiel, the antidote to stumbling: repentance. Verse 30 says that if Israel repents and turns from their transgressions, their iniquity will no longer be a stumbling block.

Ezekiel picks up the theme again in chapter 33, in one of the most clarifying statements in the Old Testament on righteousness, wickedness, and repentance. There he says that the wicked person, despite their wickedness, will no longer stumble and fall if they repent of their wickedness and turn toward the Lord and practice righteousness and justice.

This is echoed in chapter 36, but is escalated. Here the end of stumbling is not merely attributed to the repentance of the people but is actually attributed to the sovereign working of God.

Again we can summarize.

To cease stumbling is to repent and turn to God in His righteousness and justice

To cease stumbling is to trust the work of God to save you from stumbling.

A Summary of Old Testament Teaching

We san see that, while speaking from different perspectives, the witness of the Old Testament is clear:

Stumbling is part of the eschatological curse against covenant breakers, as demonstrated by Moses.

Stumbling is the fate of those who oppose God and the King He has installed in Zion, as demonstrated by David.

Stumbling will one day cease as part of the eschatological New Exodus, as demonstrated by the anonymous Exile psalmists.

Stumbling is covenant transgression, but God will nevertheless redeem eschatological Israel from stumbling in the New Covenant, as demonstrated by Jeremiah.

Stumbling is iniquity, and it’s antidote is repentance, ordained in eternity by God and executed in time by true Israel, as demonstrated by Ezekiel.

The Christological Clamp

The stumbling picture pattern finds it’s fulfillment in Christ, and Christ effectively clamps the picture of stumbling to the picture of the stone.

Each synoptic gospel account provides a record of Jesus’ direct use of the stumbling stone type in reference to Himself in the context of the parable of the vineyard. The synoptics speak in unison here, but we will look directly at Matthew’s account to see what exactly Jesus says to demonstrate His fulfillment of this Old Testament picture pattern.

Matthew positions his use of this pattern in chapter 21, at the beginning of Passion Week, just a few days before Jesus’ crucifixion. This is where Jesus’ ministry reaches a fever pitched with the Israelite people, as He roundly condemns them both with his words and actions, whether he is furiously cleansing the temple, or haranguing them with indicting parables.

This reaches a fever pitch in Matthew 21:33-46 in which Jesus tells perhaps his most damning parable against Israel: the parable of the vineyard. He invokes one of the dearest and most treasured Old Testament types of Israel, the vineyard, to indict them with perhaps the greatest level of theological severity we see from Jesus in His entire ministry. Listen to what He says:

Matthew 21:33–46 NASB95

“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. “When the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his produce. “The vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third. “Again he sent another group of slaves larger than the first; and they did the same thing to them. “But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ “But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ “They took him, and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. “Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?” They said to Him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.” Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures, ‘The stone which the builders rejected, This became the chief corner stone; This came about from the Lord, And it is marvelous in our eyes’? “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it. “And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.” When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them. When they sought to seize Him, they feared the people, because they considered Him to be a prophet.

Jesus is doing a couple of things here. First we need to understand who the major players are in the parable. The landowner is God the Father, the vineyard is Israel, the vine-growers are the Israelites, the slaves who are sent to receive the produce are the prophets of the Old Testament, the second group, larger than the first, I would argue is John the Baptist, and of course the son is Jesus Himself.

What is Jesus’ point? At every turn, Israel abused their covenant privileges and blessings. Every single person, from Elijah to Jesus and even on through Stephen and the rest of the apostles, the Israelites persecuted, abused, and killed. Ironically, these particular Israelites whom Jesus is speaking with here deduce rightly and ironically that God is completely just in removing the blessing of the vineyard from them and giving it to someone else.

Now here’s where things get interesting. In verse 42, Jesus equates the rejection of all the prophets, up to and including John the Baptist and Himself, as rejection of the stone, and He further equates the rejection of the stone with falling over the stone and being shattered - with stumbling.

Effectively then, Jesus positions Himself as the cause of the stumbling of the Israelite people that was spoken of in the Old Testament.

In keeping with our previous summary of the Old Testament’s teaching on this topic, if Jesus is the stone over which Israel stumbled, we must affirm the following:

Stumbling is part of the eschatological curse against covenant breakers, as demonstrated by Moses. Therefore, Christ is the true Covenant Judge who arbitrates God’s judgement against Israel in their breach of the covenant. Israel rejected Christ as Covenant Judge. Thus, they stumble over Christ.

Stumbling is the fate of those who oppose God and the King He has installed in Zion, as demonstrated by David. Therefore, Christ is the True King of Zion who stands alongside God the Father reigning over all creation and opposing the Father’s enemies. Israel rejected Christ as King of Zion. Thus, they stumble over Christ.

Stumbling will one day cease as part of the eschatological New Exodus, as demonstrated by the anonymous Exile psalmists. Therefore, Christ is the true Deliverer who brings His people like a shepherd out of bondage. Israel rejected Christ as the true Deliverer. Thus, they stumble over Christ.

Stumbling is covenant transgression, but God will nevertheless redeem eschatological Israel from stumbling in the New Covenant, as demonstrated by Jeremiah. Therefore, Christ is the true Redeemer who pays the Passover price to free His people from bondage to sin. Israel rejected Christ as the true Redeemer. Thus, they stumble over Christ.

Stumbling is iniquity, and it’s antidote is repentance, ordained in eternity by God and executed in time by true Israel, as demonstrated by Ezekiel. Therefore, Christ is the true Repentance who empowers and facilitates the turning from iniquity and toward righteousness.

Therefore we see that Christ understood Himself to be the stone of stumbling and the rock of offense, who would simultaneously be the undoing of the Israelites and the salvation of the Gentiles.

Now having looked carefully at the stumbling motif, we now want to look at the stone motif.

The Stone

Paul in verse 33 uses Isaiah’s parallelism to equate the stone of stumbling with the rock of offense. In order to get our minds wrapped around Jesus’ identity as the stone and also as the rock, and to further understand why this is such a comfort for Gentiles and such a vexation for Israel, we need to understand what Paul is talking about when he uses stone language and rock language.

First, a stone. Stones would have been understood in Paul’s day (and really throughout Biblical times) as a small piece of rock. Sometimes these are crafted for a specific use, such as the stones used to build the temple. Other times they are discovered and then used for a specific purpose, such as the five stones David pulled from the brook for his battle with Goliath. Most often, however, stones are understood in a construction context. Stones would have been the preferred material for building in those days due to their strength, stability, and relative accessibility. Compared to other available material such as wood, stones are more suited to the middle eastern climate for your average building project. Now to understand the corner stone reference, we need to understand something about ancient near eastern structural engineering theory. Without modern machines to assist the building process, there were certain rules that needed to be followed in order to ensure both practicality and safety of the structure. It had to be able to stand for a long time in order for it be worth the time spent building it. In order for all this to happen, there had to be a corner stone, and this cornerstone had to be perfect flat and square on all sides. This stone then becomes the standard by which the rest of the stones are measured and subsequently installed. If that cornerstone is off by even one degree, the building will eventually fall and will generally be unstable. However, if you have a perfect cornerstone, you will have a perfect building. That cornerstone is absolutely critical to the stability and longevity of the building.

Now to address the cultural understanding of a rock. If a stone is something that is small and utilitarian, a rock is a geographical feature, generally immovable. If you drive up Topanga toward the 118, on the right you will see Stoney Point Park, which features what geologists have called the Chatsworth Formation. That is a rock, and is perhaps the best way ti visualize what Paul would have visualized when using the word rock.

With those definitions in mind, we now need to orient ourselves to the Biblical witness regarding stones and rocks that Paul builds upon in using this language.

The Witness of Moses

The first major usage of the word rock in the Old Testament in a theological context comes in Deuteronomy 32, in which 7 times Moses refers to Yahweh specifically as “The Rock” and even more narrowly as “The Rock of Israel.”

By using this word picture to describe God, Moses is picturing three realities about God as demonstrated in Deuteronomy 32.

God as the Rock is immovable.

God as the Rock is sure and stable foundation.

God as the Rock is a refuge.

Thus, as with the concept of stumbling, Moses sets the theological agenda and vocabulary for the use of this metaphor moving forward.

Moses also sets the stage for the stone idea as well, recording multiple instances of stones being used primarily in the context of the creation of altars and memorials centered around the worship of and reflection upon God Himself. This is seen in full form at the end of Deuteronomy when Moses instructs the nation to set up stones to memorialize the covenant between God and them.

Thus, by the time of Joshua, stones would be been imprinted in the collective consciousness of Israel as a sign or marker of worship of the one true and living God, and in many ways, as with the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, they served as a visible reminder of God’s presence among them.

A second use of the word stone is established by Moses, and this one will also be familiar to us. The stone was the primary human tool of God’s judgment against covenant transgressions within the community. If someone broke one of the Ten Commandments, they are to be stoned with stones. This is the primary way that Moses uses the word, especially in Leviticus.

A third use is less common, but nevertheless established by Moses. This is the use of stones as weights or measures by which goods were weighed out, measured, and sold. Thus in this way the stones served as an objective standard of ethical justice and righteousness in business dealings.

So we see that Moses sets the figural language for this threefold understanding of stones in the Old Testament.

It is in these two veins of Mosaic vocabulary, both rocks and stones, that the Psalmist of Psalm 118 and Isaiah in Isaiah 8 and 28, which we have already examined, speak of the rocks and stones that they speak of.

The Witness of the Psalmist

The Psalmist invokes the cornerstone language in the vein of Moses’ altar use of the word. The author there perceives that by virtue of the Lord’s salvation of him from the hands of his enemies, he has been established as the chief cornerstone, or the perfect measure by which this building has been made.

It would seem that the author of Psalm 118 is drawing an intentional connection between Moses’ altar-stones and Solomon’s temple-stones (same word in Hebrew). The temple and the altars are both ceremonial sites erected to reflect upon the work of Yahweh and to thank Him for what He has done through the offering of sacrifices. Therefore, to describe himself as a stone in this manner is for the author of Psalm 118 to be alluding to a living, flesh and blood building erected for the purpose of offering a sacrifice of praise, of which he is the first, best, and primary part.

Moreover, for him to make this assertion in the context of the rejection of men indicates that Yahweh’s establishment of him as the cornerstone in this new worship location is in blatant opposition to their rejection. What the builders rejected, Yahweh has exalted.

The Witness of Isaiah

Isaiah’s use of these pictures are even more stark and explicit.

In Isaiah 8, we see Isaiah tightening and clarifying the words of the Psalmist.

Isaiah makes explicit what the Psalmist only implied, namely, that the cornerstone would indeed be the first piece in a new house, described here first as Yahweh himself, and secondly as a sanctuary, confirming the allusion of the Psalmist to this new building, but perhaps more importantly, confirming the divine identity of the author of Psalm 118. Simply put, Isaiah is confirming that the rejected and exalted cornerstone of Psalm 118 is God very God.

But Isaiah speaks of the stone in Moses’ second context, the context of being stoned as a punishment. Verse 14 says Yahweh will become a stone to strike. But this striking is elevated, compared to the striking of merely being stoned. To be stoned by men is one thing, but to be struck by Yahweh the Stone is to be completely decimated, completely destroyed.

And not only that, Yahweh is also a rock, but in this context He is not a rock of refuge and protection, but a rock that causes stumbling, and the result according to 8:15 is that many will stumble, fall, and be broken.

Finally, in the culmination of this pattern in the Old Testament, we hear the declaration of God that He is establishing the cornerstone of Psalm 118 in Zion, and whoever believes in that stone will not be disturbed or to use Paul’s language, disappointed. We might also say ashamed. In other words, those who believe in the stone can boast in the stone.

By way of note here Isaiah seems to understand the stone in this context not only in the altar sense of Moses but also in the just weights and measures sense, as this stone is the just and righteous measure.

So we can summarize Moses, the Psalmist, and Isaiah’s words in this way:

The Rock is Yahweh.

Stones picture three things: perfect buildings, just measurements, and covenant punishment.

In the last days, Yahweh will establish Himself as the cornerstone, serving as the true perfect building, the true just measurement, and the true covenant punishment.

Returning to the Christological Clamp

Just as Christ in Matthew 21 fulfilled the Biblical motif of stumbling, so He also fulfills the Biblical motif of the Rock and Stone, and He does so in one fell swoop.

By asserting in the context of the parable of the vineyard that He is the stone, rejected by Israel but established by Yahweh, He is asserting the following:

He is the Rock of Moses’ song.

He is the Stone of Psalm 118 and Isaiah 8 and 28. As such:

He is the first and primary piece of the perfect building. To be more specific, He is the first and primary piece of the new altar and the new temple. His rejected-and-exalted life, brought back from death, will now be the new site of true Israel’s worship.

He is the just measurement and weight. All human works of righteousness are measured by His standard of perfection.

He is the true covenantal punishment. Those who refuse to believe in Him will be punished by Him in the last day. Those who transgress the covenant will face the striking of the true stone, resulting in true death.

Conclusion

Paul’s conclusion to chapter 9 is full of the weight of the entire Old Testament as fulfilled in Christ. His lament is confirmed by this reality, a reality that was predicted throughout the Old Testament.

Rather than coming to the stone in humility, seeking refuge in Him, they pridefully trusted their own pursuit of righteousness. As a result, they stumble and fall, and more than that, they crucified the stone. Like the vine-growers they killed the one who had entrusted the covenant blessings to them. And so the vineyard will be entrusted to others, namely, the Gentiles.

Paul’s lament is valid. Israel failed. And so what the Old Testament anticipated and Christ fulfilled, Paul lived in. We live there too. A world in which Israel has largely rejected the cornerstone.

Nevertheless, Paul was thankful. We should be too. This was ordained to take place so that the Gentiles might receive the fullness of grace. As Gentiles, we ought to be thankful for the providence of God in allowing Israel to fall away for a time so that we might be brought in.

But also ought to thankful in an even greater way, as Paul will express in the weeks to come. God is not done with Israel. Just as Moses and David and Isaiah and the rest of the Old Testament saw clearly, though Israel would be exiled again for a time, God will not reject His people forever. Though they have become as though they were not His people, God will call those who were not His people, His people. Even after the stumbling, there is redemption for those who seek the Lord in Jesus Christ, and who come to Him in faith and repentance. Yahweh’s arm is not so short that He cannot save them as He promised at the first.

That’s the beauty of grace. That even the very people who crucified Christ would receive salvation in Him. That those who for 2000 years have been blinded to the truth of their own Scriptures and have rejected the Messiah so clearly displayed therein, would be once again brought back in a new Exodus, to the true promised land of the new heavens and new earth.

There is hope for us here as well. God’s arm is not so short that He cannot save our loved ones who seem so opposed right now to the truth of the gospel. God’s arm is not so short that He will not give us the victory over the sins that beset us.

The question for us comes right out of the final line: do we believe in Christ? Do we believe in the rock? Do we believe in the cornerstone? If so, we have every reason to boast in that rock, to boast in that stone. We need to be ashamed, we need to be disappointed. The rock that is laid, the foundation of Christ, will not shake and will not disappoint.

Jesus Himself said it better than I ever could:

Matthew 7:24–27 NASB95

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”

Will we be wise and believe in the rock? Will we be wise and believe in the stone? Will we be wise and build our lives on Him?

Or will we be fools and deny the rock for the sand of our own wisdom and our own desires?

When the winds and rains and floods of God’s wrath and judgment come down upon our world like they came down upon Sodom and Gomorrah, will we be protected on this rock? Or will we be swept away because we trusted ourselves rather than Him?

The time is now to look to Christ our Stone and Christ our Rock as the only foundation upon which we can build, the only refuge in which we can be protected, and the only building in which we can withstand the storms of this life.