THE STONE THAT WAS CUT WITHOUT HANDS
Sometime around 600 B.C., according to the Bible account, 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” councilors in his employ,
Nebuchadnezzar called them together and demanded that they tell him what the
dream was that he had dreamed and
interpret the meaning of that dream also.
After all, wasn’t that what he was paying them to do? Oh, and as a little incentive, if they
couldn’t produce the dream and the interpretation, then the King was going to
have them cut in pieces. No
pressure.
The councilors 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 had truly forgotten it. Anyway, this seemed like a good test to see
if his wise men were truly wise, or not.
After their reasoning and pleading failed, the King became furious with
his councilors and decided to have every
wise man in the kingdom destroyed!
At this time there were four young Hebrews who the king
counted among the wise men of Babylon. King
Nebuchadnezzar had carried these boys away as captives into Babylon when the
King’s armies defeated Israel. Their
names were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, but their new masters gave
them the Babylonian names of Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego. The King determined to slay
these boys along with the other wise men.
Daniel asked for an audience with the King and was able
to convince him that he and his friends could deliver on the King’s demand if
he gave 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 gave God all of the glory saying, “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 people 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 [on] 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 Nebuchadnezzar, “The secret which the King hath demanded
cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, show 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). Furthermore, Daniel said to the
king, “…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, no talent nor gift, that we have not received from the hand of God,
and it is only ours by His grace and mercy.
Daniel then 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 threshing floors; 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 [emphasis added].”
(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 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 unrest. Eventually the
kingdom became divided and 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 God
formed it Himself and it was not the
work of a great man or nation of men.
This stone would break every other nation and would, itself, become a
Kingdom that would be established by God, would never be defeated, and would
stand forever. It would be sovereign and
would not give up that sovereignty to any other people or nation for eternity.
The fulfillment of the last part of this dream came
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.” He was the only man conceived
by the Holy Ghost and not by the seed or the 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). God sent
Him 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, spiritual one born in the hearts of men and women who
were hungry for truth and for righteousness.
There are numerous 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 later quoted
these verses referring to Jesus. When
the Jewish patriarch Jacob was near the end of his life, he called his sons together
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 God sent to establish the Kingdom of Heaven,
and the One Who would break and consume all other kingdoms.
We may not always be able to see the advance of the
Kingdom of God on earth – its growth is sometimes slow – but do not doubt its
power to prevail. We have a sure word of
prophecy that tells us God will fulfill these things in His time. The more its enemies persecuted the early
Church, the more it grew and flourished.
Today, there is scarcely a place left in the world that the Gospel has
not been introduced, 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. As lively stones, God has laid us upon the
foundation of this Spiritual House, and has made us a Royal Priesthood to offer
spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
This Stone that God quarried without hands has already
struck at the feet of Nebuchadnezzar’s image and the effect has resounded
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 God told
them 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” (John 1:11, 12). 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 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.
Men
despised Him and the religious elite hated Him and rejected Him 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
busy in our lives and in our churches, but are we really listening to the
Messiah and allowing Him to lead us by His Spirit? We are 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 run their line and set the plumb for each subsequent
block or brick. It would determine if
the whole building was straight and square and structurally secure. Without the headstone, the building would be
weak and untrue. Jesus is our chief
Cornerstone. Everything must be in
alignment with 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.
God
has called us 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 the truth of this He will build His
Church. Who is His Church? His people are His Church. It’s not those who merely attend services or
give their money to support Christian causes who make up His Kingdom. It is those who have been born again by the
Spirit of the Living God, and who choose daily to continue along the path of
righteousness and follow the Lamb wherever He goes. It may surprise you to know that God does not
care about buildings, and temples, and edifices any more than He cares about
earthly kingdoms. 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).
Early
on in history man had the notion that he could build a tower that would reach
up to the heavens, to the very throne of God.
Their tower instead became a monument of their pride and arrogance, and
God destroyed it and confused their tongues by giving them different
languages. They were then unable to
communicate and work together. So were the
people of the earth then scattered across the earth. (Genesis 11:1-9). In much the same way, people build themselves
great temples and buildings today with the intent of reaching to heaven, but
their works and their methods are after the flesh and not after God. In the end, their language becomes confused
and they are unable to work together in unity and peace. This may be why there are so many churches
and so many denominations that can’t seem to fellowship or walk in agreement
with one another. It certainly merits
some consideration.
We
don't want to refuse the Stone which God has set to be the Cornerstone of our
life and labor. We want to hear from Him
every day and allow Him to direct our lives.
We want to measure everything that we do against His perfect and holy
pattern. We want to walk in His
footsteps. If we refuse Him on earth, He
may well refuse us in heaven! We 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 fullness 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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