Lessons from the Stones (part 2)
010315sp by Rabbi Paul Falk
REVIEW
Matthew 3:9 & Luke 3:8 John the Immerser(baptist) talking to many Pharisees and Sadducees: “And don’t think you can comfort yourselves by saying, ‘Abraham is our father’! For I tell you that God can raise up for Abraham sons from these stones!”
‘THESE‘ STONES
– John was at the Jordan river. Recall that YHVH commanded the Israelites to take stones from that very place and write the commandments on them. (Deut 27: 1-8 and notably verse 26 says a curse on anyone who does not put the commandments into action!)
– God can raise up Abraham sons….From obedience to the Word, we become children of Abraham
– Can someone be a “child of Abraham” without obedience to the Word? No.
John 8: 39-40 They answered him, “Our father is Abraham.” Y’shua replied, “If you are children of Abraham, then do the things Abraham did! As it is, you are out to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did nothing like that!”
STONES first mentioned…
– Gen 28:11-22
- Jacob finds one stone and puts it at his head
- Jacob dreams of angels ascending and descending from the heavens
- God promises him an inheritance
- YHVH is no longer only the God of Jacob’s father and grandfather; He is now Jacob’s God!
- The stone is anointed and sets the stone as a pillar (cornerstone!) to be God’s house
- YHVH says “in you all the families of the earth will be blessed”
Becoming Children of YHVH: Receiving the inheritance
– Gen 48: 1-20
- Joseph brings his sons to Jacob for a final blessing before Jacob dies (similar to Jacob himself going to Isaac before he died)
- Jacob is dying. He recounts to Joseph his dream at Luz (Bethel) and the promise YHVH gave to him
- Jacob adopts Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. The two boys were raised in Egypt (part of ‘the nations’) and then adopted as sons of Jacob
- Jacobs says “let my name be upon them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac”
Inheritance is given through the blessing.
“I am making this covenant and this oath not with you alone but I am making it both with him who is standing here with us today before YHVH our God and also with him who is not here with us today.” Deut 29: 14-15
What happens when we reject the Word and promises of God and follow our own heart? The temple (ourselves) is destroyed!
Matthew 23:37 – Matthew 24:2
Matthew 21: 42-44
Y’shua said to them, “Haven’t you ever read in the Scriptures, ‘The very rock which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone! This has come from YHVH, and in our eyes it is amazing’?[i] Therefore, I tell you that the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to the kind of people that will produce its fruit!”
Quick Summary
- YHVH can make sons from these stones (the Word/commandments). He has done it before and will do it again
- May we be like Ephraim and Manasseh!
- Only one Cornerstone and it is the Gate of heaven and the House of YHVH
- We can accept or reject the Cornerstone
- We are being built into a Holy temple for YHVH!
