THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REFUSED
"The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. This is the LORD’S doing; it is marvellous in our eyes." (Psalms 118:22).
"Who hath believed our
report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender
plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He hath no form nor comeliness; and
when we shall see Him, there is
no beauty that we should desire Him. He
is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief:
and we hid as it were our faces
from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not." (Isaiah 53:1-3).
It is incredible to think that the very children of
God, the Israelites, who searched the scriptures continually and who looked for
the signs of the coming of their Messiah, could miss His appearing
altogether. Even when they were told
plainly that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, they not only were blind to
the facts and the prophecies, but they rejected Him completely, and had Him
killed. Truly He came to His own, and
His own received Him not. Israel did the
same thing that they had been doing for centuries: they built their own
kingdom, and rejected God's. This was
the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.
When Jesus appeared, it was not as a great king coming
to drive out the enemies of Israel and establish His throne on earth. It was as a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying
in a manger because there was nowhere else for Him to go. He grew up before God as a tender plant, an
innocent child trying to survive the hardships of the time, and as a root in a
very dry ground, a holy seed in a bed of apostasy. This was the Lord's doing, and it is
marvelous in our eyes.
Scripture tells us that He had no comely form, and
there was no special beauty about Him that would make men desire Him. Despite how artists portray the Lord, He was
a very common man with nothing that would attract people to Him physically, yet
He bore in this humble frame the glory of His Father and the courage of kings. This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous
in our eyes.
He
was despised by men and rejected by the religious elite. He was hated and rejected for His words and
His teachings, and Israel hid their faces from His grief and suffering, not
knowing that He was bearing their griefs and carrying their sorrows. "Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God,
and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities:
the chastisement of our peace was
upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:4, 5).
His
own disciples ran from Him in the end, and let Him face His judgment
alone. This was the Lord's doing, and it
is marvelous in our eyes.
Is it any different today? We fill our lives with programs and agendas,
and miss the very One Who has come to save us.
We labor to build our fortunes
and our kingdoms, and the Kingdom of
God goes neglected. We make ourselves
very busy in our lives and in our churches, but are we really listening to the
Messiah and allowing Him to transform us into His image? We are very good builders. We can build something even if we don't have much
to build with, but we refuse the stone that is meant to be the Headstone and
the chief Cornerstone.
The headstone of the corner of a building is the block
from which the builders would run their line and set the plumb for each
subsequent block or brick. It would
determine if the whole building was straight and square. Without the headstone, the building would be
weak and untrue. Jesus is our
headstone. Everything must be measured
from Him. He is our example, but He also
is our source of power. It would be
convenient to leave Him out of our plans so that we could follow our own
designs; but this is God's building, not ours, and we must follow His
blueprint.
We
have been called to be living, or lively, stones in the temple of our God. He is building His church, and the gates of
hell shall not prevail against it. Jesus
is the Rock, the Headstone, the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Upon this truth He will build His
church. Who is His church? His people are His church. It is not those who merely attend services or
give their money to support Christian causes.
It is those who have been born again by the Spirit of the Living God,
and who choose daily to continue on the path of righteousness and follow the
Lamb whithersoever He goes. It may
surprise you to know that God does not care about buildings, and temples, and
edifices. It is His people who are His
body. It is the humble and contrite soul
whom God will fill with His glory. "Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool: where is the house that ye build unto Me?
and where is the place of My
rest? For all those things hath Mine hand made, and all
those things have been, saith
the LORD: but to this man will
I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite
spirit, and trembleth at My word." (Isaiah 66:1, 2).
I don't want to refuse the Stone which God has
set to be the cornerstone of my life and labor.
I want to hear from Him every day, and allow Him to direct my life. I want to measure everything that I do
against His perfect and holy pattern. If
I refuse Him on earth, He may well refuse me in heaven. I could end up hearing Him say, "I know you not whence
ye are; depart from me."
Jesus is the sum of all things. Paul
tells us, "That
in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all
things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him." (Ephesians 1:10).
Try as man might to leave Him out of the equation, Jesus Christ is still
calling us to holiness and righteousness.
His plan and His purpose have not changed since creation. The Word was in the world giving light and
life then, and it is still in the world today.
This
is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes!
Comments
Post a Comment