[His disciples said] “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
—Luke 19:38-40
So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
—1 Peter 2:1, 4-5
The Lord can replace dead stone with living flesh, as in the prophecy through Ezekiel that the Lord would heal the stubborn hearts of His people. Or Paul's letter to the Corinthian disciples, describing them as “a letter from Christ”, written with the Spirit on tablets of hearts instead of stone.
The Lord can also replace unstable sand with durable stone.
The Psalms use the poetic image of the Lord as “my Rock" to indicate strength, permanence, and refuge. Jesus warned His disciples not to make shifting sands the foundation of their lives, but to build on the reliable rock of His truth.
In the scene we call the Triumphal Entry, Luke records the assembled disciples rejoicing in praise. When the Pharisees called out for silence, Jesus replied that the stones would respond. Some commentators have seen this as a subtle reference to Habakkuk, who wrote of stones crying out from the wall of a house built with “evil gain”. And a bit further on, Habakkuk wrote of the arrival of the Holy One, whose praise filled the earth.
Habakkuk knew that he was living in precarious and troubled times, but expressed a faith that could still rejoice in the Lord. The assembled multitude at the Triumphal Entry didn't know of the trouble that was building all around them, but they were about to be replaced by a murderous mob calling for the death of Jesus. His closest followers would run away. Peter would betray Him.
But the Lord, who turned sea and river to dry land, who turned water to wine, and who turned a grave into victory, turned Peter's impulsive sand into restored rock.
That same transformed Peter later wrote instructions for the Lord's people to “put away” all the unreliable aspects of worldly character, and allow the Lord to build His people, His transformed “living stones” into His “spiritual house”.
Like Stones
Let heaven and earth praise him,
the seas and everything that moves in them.
—Psalm 69:34
[His disciples said] “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
—Luke 19:38-40
So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
—1 Peter 2:1, 4-5
The Lord can replace dead stone with living flesh, as in the prophecy through Ezekiel that the Lord would heal the stubborn hearts of His people. Or Paul's letter to the Corinthian disciples, describing them as “a letter from Christ”, written with the Spirit on tablets of hearts instead of stone.
The Lord can also replace unstable sand with durable stone.
The Psalms use the poetic image of the Lord as “my Rock" to indicate strength, permanence, and refuge. Jesus warned His disciples not to make shifting sands the foundation of their lives, but to build on the reliable rock of His truth.
In the scene we call the Triumphal Entry, Luke records the assembled disciples rejoicing in praise. When the Pharisees called out for silence, Jesus replied that the stones would respond. Some commentators have seen this as a subtle reference to Habakkuk, who wrote of stones crying out from the wall of a house built with “evil gain”. And a bit further on, Habakkuk wrote of the arrival of the Holy One, whose praise filled the earth.
Habakkuk knew that he was living in precarious and troubled times, but expressed a faith that could still rejoice in the Lord. The assembled multitude at the Triumphal Entry didn't know of the trouble that was building all around them, but they were about to be replaced by a murderous mob calling for the death of Jesus. His closest followers would run away. Peter would betray Him.
But the Lord, who turned sea and river to dry land, who turned water to wine, and who turned a grave into victory, turned Peter's impulsive sand into restored rock.
That same transformed Peter later wrote instructions for the Lord's people to “put away” all the unreliable aspects of worldly character, and allow the Lord to build His people, His transformed “living stones” into His “spiritual house”.
May His living stones still praise Him!