THE STONE THAT WAS CUT WITHOUT HANDS
ACCORDING TO THE Bible, sometime around 600 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon had a dream. The problem was, while he thought the dream might be significant, he couldn’t remember either the dream or what it might have meant.
Having many “wise” men in his employ, Nebuchadnezzar
called them together and demanded that they tell him what the dream was that he
had dreamed, and the interpretation of that dream. After all, wasn’t that what he was paying them
to do? Oh, and as a little incentive, if
they couldn’t come up with the dream, the King was going to have them cut in
pieces. No pressure.
The wise men naturally urged the King to reveal the
dream to them and then they would gladly interpret it for him, but that was
useless because the King truly had forgotten it. Anyway, it seemed like a good test for his wise
men. He would be able to see which of
these guys really were wise and which were not.
After their reasoning and pleading failed, the King became furious and
decided to have all of the wise men in the kingdom destroyed!
At this time there were four young Hebrews who were
considered to be among the wise men of Babylon.
Their names were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, though they
were given the Babylonian names of Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego. They had been carried away as
captives into Babylon when Israel was defeated by Nebuchadnezzar’s armies. These young captives were therefore marked to
be slain with the other wise men.
Daniel was able to convince the King that he and his
friends could deliver on the King’s demand if he would give them a little
time. The King agreed and Daniel and his
friends went before the LORD for mercy, true
wisdom, and revelation concerning the King’s dream. God was faithful, as he always is toward
those who earnestly and fervently seek Him, and the LORD revealed to Daniel
both the dream and its meaning.
Daniel extolled God and said, “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever: for wisdom and might are
His…He revealeth the deep and secret things: He knoweth what is in the
darkness, and the light dwelleth with Him” (Daniel 2:20, 22).
Daniel quickly told the captain of the guard to arrange
a meeting with Nebuchadnezzar and that he, Daniel, would reveal the dream to
the King. The captain hastily went
before the King declaring, “I have found a
man of the captives of Judah that will make known unto the King the
interpretation.” (Daniel 2:25).
Isn’t it wonderful how God chooses the weak, lowly, and foolish to
accomplish His will and glorify His name?
Those who man would discount and think unworthy are the very ones who
God chooses to operate through. “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro
throughout the whole earth, to shew Himself strong in the behalf of them whose
heart is perfect toward Him” (2 Chronicles 16:9).
Daniel was very humble about this gift that God had
given him knowing that true wisdom and knowledge can only come from the LORD in
heaven. He told the Nebuchadnezzar, “The secret which the King hath demanded
cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto
the King; but there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known
to the King Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days” (Daniel 2:27,
28); and, “…as for me, this secret is not
revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their
sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou
mightest know the thoughts of thy heart” (Daniel 2:30). In all things we must remember that we have
nothing that we have not received from the hand of God, and it is only ours by
His grace and mercy.
Then Daniel revealed to Nebuchadnezzar the dream that
the King had dreamed. He said, “Thou, O King, sawest, and behold a great
image. This great image, whose
brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was
terrible. This image’s head was of fine
gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his
legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out
without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay,
and brake them to pieces. Then was the
iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together,
and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried
them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and
filled the whole earth.” (Daniel 2:31-35).
Having the benefit of history, we know that the image that
Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream represented four great kingdoms which were the
Babylonian Empire, the Medea-Persian Empire, the Grecian Empire, and the Roman
Empire. Each empire was inferior to the
one that preceded it just as the materials used to represent each empire were
of decreasing value: gold, silver, brass, iron, and finally iron mixed with
clay.
Of the fourth kingdom, Daniel had much to say, “And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as
iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron
that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes,
part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but
there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the
iron mixed with miry clay. And as the
toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be
partly strong, and partly broken. And
whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves
with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is
not mixed with clay” (Daniel 2:40-43).
The Roman Empire was certainly strong as iron. The strength of her legions subdued many
tribes and barbarian nations and expanded their lands further than any previous
empire. Like the iron mixed with clay
however, the people that they conquered did not assimilate into the empire and
this created much unrest. Eventually the
kingdom was divided and ultimately overrun by barbarian armies.
Of the stone that was cut without hands, Daniel says
this, “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a Kingdom,
which shall never be destroyed: and the Kingdom shall not be left to
other people, but it shall break in
pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was
cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron,
the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to
the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the
interpretation thereof sure” (Daniel 2:44, 45). The fact that the stone was “cut out without hands” indicates that
it was formed by God Himself and was not the work of some great man or nation
of men. This stone would break every
other nation and establish a Kingdom that would be established by God, would
never be destroyed, and would stand forever.
It would be sovereign and would not give up that sovereignty to any
other people or nation.
The fulfillment of the last part of this dream came to
pass when Jesus Christ was born in the city of Bethlehem in the land of Judea,
which was part of the Roman Empire at the time.
Jesus was the Stone “cut out
without hands” in that He was
conceived by the Holy Ghost and not by the seed or will of man. Mary, His mother, was never with a man before
she became pregnant with Jesus, for she was a virgin.
When Jesus grew up, He proclaimed one clear message to
the Jews: “Repent: for the Kingdom of Heaven
is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). He was
sent to challenge the kingdoms of man and usher in the Kingdom of God on
earth. This would not be a visible kingdom at first, but an invisible one born in the hearts of men and women who were hungry
for truth and for righteousness.
There are several references in the Old and New
Testaments of Jesus being the Stone. The
psalmist prophesied of Jesus, referring to Him as the Stone, when he wrote, “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.” (Psalm
118:22-24). The Apostle Peter quoted
these verses referring to Jesus. When
the Jewish patriarch Jacob was near the end of his life he gathered together
his sons and imparted blessings upon each of them. Upon his son Joseph, Jacob spoke this prophetic
word: “But his bow abode in strength, and
the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob;
(from thence is the Shepherd,
the Stone of Israel)…”
(Genesis 49:24). Of course this was speaking
of Jesus, the Messiah, the Great Shepherd, and the Stone of Israel. He was the One Who scripture anticipated, and
the prophets foresaw: the One Who was sent to establish the Kingdom of Heaven,
and the One Who would ultimately break and consume all other kingdoms.
We may not always be able to see the advance of the
Kingdom of God on earth – it is sometimes very slow – but do not doubt its
power to prevail. We have a sure word of
prophecy that these things will be fully realized in God’s time. The more the early Church was persecuted, the
more it grew and flourished. Today there
is scarcely a place left in the world that the Gospel has not been preached,
and millions of souls have embraced Christ as their Lord and Savior. The precious Stone that the builders tried so
hard to reject and destroy has become the chief Cornerstone of the Kingdom that
God is building, and not man. He has
become King of kings, Lord of lords, and Potentate of the Kingdom that God has
formed. We, as lively stones, have been
built upon the foundation of this Spiritual House, and have been made a Royal
Priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through our
Lord Jesus Christ.
This Stone that was cut without hands has already
struck at the feet of Nebuchadnezzar’s image and the effect has been felt
throughout the world as the kingdoms of man rise and fall. The empires that the King of Babylon saw in
his dream were the greatest kingdoms of all time, but one by one they all
toppled and failed. Daniel’s
interpretation has proven accurate to the letter – and will continue to be so
till the end of the age. God’s Kingdom
will prevail, and Jesus, the Messiah, will reign forever and ever! Amen!
"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. But 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. But 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
likely a very common man with unremarkable features, 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
grief and carrying their sorrow. "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 chief
Cornerstone. 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 on earth. 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. I want to walk in His footsteps. 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.
Christ, through His Holy Spirit working in the hearts and lives of those
who belong to Him, is building His Temple, His Church, His Body, His House, and
His Kingdom! This is the Lord's doing, and it
is marvelous in our eyes!
"Now
therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the
saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone; in Whom all the building fitly
framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in Whom ye also are
builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." (Ephesians 2:19-22).
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