We love rocks. We talk about the rock on a new fiancée’s finger. It’s a symbol of how much she’s adored by her prospective husband. A really great song rocks the house, causing us to put all other thoughts aside and immerse ourselves in the music.
A rock we can hold in our hand is called a stone. In the United Kingdom, weight is measured in stones. We plant peach stones to grow a new tree. We say our plans are set in stone if we don't intend to change them.
What we don’t want to do is throw a stone if we live in a glass house. If we’re in a position of power, we can’t afford to be overly critical of others, because our faults are bound to come out. We’re bound to get “stoned” also.
There’s another meaning of stone. Are we the sinner, stoned by the righteous crowd, or an addict, stoned, and so wrapped up in our drug-fueled haze that we can’t see the reality all around us?
Revelation 2:14 tells us that God has standards he holds us to:
“But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality.”
The Bible is our source of truth. If anyone teaches anything other than the Savior sanctified as our one true path to heaven, he is a stumbling block, and God doesn’t approve.
Numbers 15:32-36 shows us the stone held in God’s hand, ready to crush those who defy his ways:
“While the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation. They put him in custody, because it had not been made clear what should be done to him. And the Lord said to Moses, ‘The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.’ And all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, as the Lord commanded Moses.”
The harshness of the man’s judgment appalls us today. God has, however, given us another way. We read in John 3:16:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
God offers us his Son rather than his grudge stone, so that we might find eternal life in him. Let’s get “stoned” on Jesus so that we become so wrapped up in him that the world around us fades into the background, and our Savior is all we can see.
When we become all about Christ, we will become sturdy rocks of salvation for our King.
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