Insights from Isaiah: Part 5

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The Cornerstone

In biblical times, construction engineers used several specialised components and tools. Jesus of Nazareth would have been familiar with these because he was a carpenter by trade, and in those days, a carpenter was a master construction worker and not just someone who made wooden furniture. We, too, need to be at least familiar with key construction elements because they have become incorporated into the scriptures as symbols of truth concerning both Jesus, the church of which he is the head, and our Christian lives.

Isaiah 28:16-19 mentions three of these symbolic construction elements: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed. I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line”’

The Measuring Line was a thin rope giving the workers a true horizontal line on which to build. You see this today when a bricklayer stretches out a measuring line for every row of bricks he needs to lay. This rope can be marked with precise units of measurement so that the wall built can be to the exact length required. The Plumb Line is a thin rope with a weight at one end used to give the construction a true vertical dimension. The Cornerstone is the most important component of all. It is a large rectangular rock cut with great precision and served as the foundational corner of the construction. The first two walls start from the cornerstone and, using the measuring and plumb lines, form the accurate and sound basis for the whole building.

Old Testament Symbolic Applications

In the prophet Isaiah’s time, the cornerstone was a potent symbol for the coming Messiah who would be the foundation of the Kingdom of God. The measuring line and the plumb line were symbols of the divine building standards of the kingdom, justice and righteousness. The cornerstone also came to stand for the Law of God and the Temple of the Lord.

Although not explicitly stated, most scholars accept that King David wrote Psalm 118. Verses 22 and 23 of this Psalm read, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This came from the Lord; it is wonderful in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it’. HCSB Now this adds a significant detail – the cornerstone selected by God was rejected by his entrusted builders, but later became the foundation of the Messianic kingdom. Then, almost exactly 1,000 years later, Jesus Christ, God the Son, stood before the errant builders of the kingdom, the Pharisees, and said: ‘Have you never read in the Scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This came from the Lord and is wonderful in our eyes?‘ (Matthew 21:42). The Pharisees understood full well that Jesus was referring to himself as the chosen cornerstone and themselves as the faithless builders.

A New Understanding of the Symbolism of the Cornerstone

The Lord Jesus Christ, the messianic cornerstone of the Kingdom of God, not only applied the symbolism to himself but gave it a new and significant meaning.

The Apostle Paul understood this when he wrote in Romans 9:31-33; “Israel, pursuing the law for righteousness, has not achieved the law. Why is that? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. As it is written: Look! I am putting a stone in Zion to stumble over, and a rock to trip over, yet the one who believes on Him will not be put to shame.” Here Paul was saying that the Jews tried to find salvation (righteousness) by obeying the law rather than by accepting Jesus as saviour and Lord. He was drawing a contrast between works and faith. To do this he blended Isaiah’s words of Isaiah 28 with what the prophet wrote in verse 14 of chapter 8; ‘For both houses of Israel he (God) will be a stone that causes men to stumble.’

God, himself, is either a cornerstone on which to build or a rock over which people stumble!

The Apostle Peter also made use of Isaiah’s words when he wrote, ‘Coming to Him, a living stone – rejected by men but chosen and valuable to God – you yourselves, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: Look! I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and valuable cornerstone, and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame! So the honour is for you who believe; but for the unbelieving, The stone that the builders rejected – this One has become the cornerstone, and A stone that causes men to stumble, and a rock that trips them up.’ 1 Peter 2:4-8 HCSB

So there you have it! Jesus is the cornerstone of the Kingdom of God’ Not the Law, not good works, but faith in him alone is THE cornerstone on which the eternal kingdom stands.

Building or Stumbling in Modern Days

All major world religions, including Judaism, are based on the foundational concept that right standing with God and humanity is achieved either through meritorious works or adherence to a religious system of law, or both.

True Christianity, on the other hand, is based on the foundational belief that spiritual life and right-living is in and through Jesus Christ. Not law, and not good works, but by faith in Jesus as God incarnate and the only way into the eternal kingdom of God.

Now this is offensive to religions of all kinds. This why Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:23, ‘We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles.’ Jews cannot accept that the promised Kingdom of God is built not on law, ritual, and right living, but on the person of God incarnate himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. The very thought that Jesus is God has always been a blasphemous offence to them, an offence worthy of death … even death on a cross! To the Greeks, it was just a foolish idea that did not conform to their norms of philosophy and humanistic logic.

Things haven’t changed much. In today’s society, where truth is subjective and personal at best, speaking about ‘god’ is marginally acceptable, but speaking of Jesus is seen as judgmental, narrow, and prejudiced. Speaking about religious things is generally regarded as acceptable if boring and irrelevant. Speak about Jesus as the way, the truth, the life and the only way to the Father, however, and you get a very different reaction. Just to strengthen my point, my language checker picked up the following words from the previous paragraph ‘now this is offensive to religions of all kinds’ and tried with bold purple underlines to convince me to change it to ‘Now this isn’t very respectful of religions of all kinds.’ Say no more!

The Depth of the Cornerstone

In ancient times, the cornerstone of a building lay on a flat foundation, but the metaphorical cornerstone contemplated in this article starts under the surface. At its deepest level lies the radical recreative act of the Holy Spirit that Jesus referred to as the New Birth. Without this, ‘salvation’ is nothing more than a religious term for a realignment of certain values.

At the next level of the cornerstone is Jesus-centred biblical interpretation. For Jesus to be the cornerstone of our lives, we need to correctly understand the bible’s revelation of who he is, what he said and did, and what he reveals of the character and nature of the Godhead. Further, we need to interpret all of scripture through the lens of this revelation of Jesus Christ.

Amazingly, so many Jesus-followers do not understand the importance of this foundational level of our Faith.

Almost all accept the inspiration and authority of the bible yet feel free to interpret it any way they like. I have written a lot on this, and HERE is the most complete.

The metaphoric cornerstone breaks the surface where Jesus provides the model for how to live and minister. At a moral and ethical level, the Lord Jesus is our example of right living. However, he also acts as our model of how to minister to others in the power of the Holy Spirit. Sadly, this aspect is often ignored by Christians other than those who self-describe as Pentecostal or Charismatic. I have written much about this, too, and you can find one such article HERE.

The Church Built upon the Rock

A final aspect of Jesus as the cornerstone I would like to touch on is how this relates to the church. Jesus is the cornerstone of eternal life (salvation), of the scriptures, of moral, ethical, and ministry life, and also of the church.

Paul wrote, ‘You are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone. The whole building is being fitted together in Him and is growing into a holy sanctuary in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit.’ ( Eph 2:19-22)

This says it all!

A One-passage Summary

I have already quoted 1 Peter 2:4-8, but I repeat it here as a wonderful summary of what I have been discussing in this article.

Coming to Him, a living stone- rejected by men but chosen and valuable to God – you yourselves, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: Look! I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and valuable cornerstone, and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame! So the honour is for you who believe; but for the unbelieving, The stone that the builders rejected – this One has become the cornerstone, and A stone that causes men to stumble, and a rock that trips them up.’

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Insights from Isaiah: Part 4 TruthTalks

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Continuing on with the “Insights from Isaiah” series, in this TruthTalks audio file Dr Christopher Peppler shares one interesting and often misunderstood passage in Isaiah 6:9-10.

If you have not been following this series, click HERE to go to the first written post or HERE to go to its audio page. All of Chris’s posts can also be found in the AudioVisual section of the website along with some videos and other features so have a look some time.

Just click the play button below to hear part 4 and until next time, remember,

God is good and just, ALL the time.

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Insights from Isaiah: Part 4

Leave a Comment / Blog, Home Bulletin, My Blog / Christopher Peppler

Hello again. This time, I want to share insights into just one passage, as it is a little longer and more complex than usual. However, I think it is important that we understand this passage of Isaiah because it says important things about the nature of God, yet the way it is commonly translated nowadays is confusing.

Isaiah 6:9-10 “Go! Say to these people: Keep listening, but do not understand; keep looking, but do not perceive. Dull the minds of these people; deafen their ears and blind their eyes; otherwise, they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, understand with their minds, turn back, and be healed”.

(From Holman Christian Standard Bible.)

When I first read it, this passage confused me. Isaiah had just said to God that he was available to be sent by him to the nation of Israel to speak as his prophet. God then commissioned him to tell the people that Yahweh would dull their minds so that they would not understand what God was saying to them. Why? Because he did not want them to turn to him and be healed?? Say what now?! This doesn’t sound much like the redemptive God I know. You know, the one the prophet Nehemiah interceded for because he knew that the Almighty was gracious and merciful? (Neh 9:31)

However, all I needed to do to clear my confusion was to see how Jesus understood the divine commission to Isaiah. When the Lord walked among the people of Israel, he used a lot of parables to teach them. On one occasion, when his disciples asked why he spoke to them in stories, Jesus answered: “The reason I use parables in talking to them is because they look, but do not see, and listen, but do not hear or understand. So the prophecy of Isaiah applies to them: “This people will listen and listen, but not understand; they will look and look, but not see, because their minds are dull and they have stopped up their ears and have closed their eyes. Otherwise, their eyes would see, their ears would hear, their minds would understand, and they would turn to me, says God, and I would heal them.” Jesus quoted the passage from Isaiah that puzzled me, but now, thanks to him, I could understand the meaning of what Isaiah recorded. The Prophet was not presenting God’s will for his people, but simply stating their recalcitrant condition.

Even his disciples did not understand the intended meaning of the parable. It is also clear that he was not saying that their lack of understanding was God’s will for them, because he immediately taught them what his parable meant. Because: “Now here is the explanation of the story I told about the farmer sowing grain …” (Matthew 13:18).

Later, as recorded by John (16:29) the disciples confirmed that his parables usually left them scratching their heads because they exclaimed “At last you are speaking plainly and not in parables.”

There are untold numbers of professing Christians today who also do not understand the Isaiah passage, and the reasons for this provide two important lessons for all of us. Here they are:

They lack understanding of the Triune God’s nature and character. If we read Isaiah 6:9-10 as it is translated in the NIV, HCSB, and ESV, which are three of the most widely read versions of the bible, without raising immediate objections, it reveals our concept of the Almighty. If God is good all the time, perfect love and light, then would he really say what these translations say? The option that God had judged his people and was now imposing punishment is just not tenable. In fact, that same prophet, Isaiah, spent the last seventeen chapters of his writings setting out the most wonderful promises of a future hope, God’s love and comfort.

So, foundational to sound biblical interpretation is the truth that the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. (Psalm 100:5) God is GOOD and JUST all the time.

The second lesson for us is that failure to grasp that Jesus is central in everything, even biblical interpretation. In the current case, Jesus quoted the exact passage, and so it’s easy to see how he understood the Isaiah passage. Sure, we could argue that Jesus was quoting from the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint), but that doesn’t make any difference. In Matthew, Jesus frames his response to the disciples in the context of the people of Isaiah’s day not having revelation, whereas they, the disciples, did have revelation. This revelation is, of course, in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Even when we cannot match a passage of scripture to something Jesus addressed directly, we can always deduce it from what he said, did, and revealed about the nature and character of the Godhead. You see, all who are born again of the Spirit of God have been given access to the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven through the written Word of God (the bible) and the living Word of God (Jesus Christ). “As for you, how fortunate you are! Your eyes see and your ears hear. I assure you that many prophets and many of God’s people wanted very much to see what you see, but they could not, and to hear what you hear, but they did not.” Matthew 13:16-17 TEV

Therefore, God is good and Jesus is central; these two foundational facts must inform our understanding of the scriptures.

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Insights from Isaiah: Part 3 TruthTalks

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Imagine God saying to you, “Come let us reason together.” The Lord tells the Israelites that he is prepared to make their ‘bloody’ sins as white as snow… IF they are willing and obedient, he will reward them abundantly, but IF they resist and rebel, then they will be ravaged by war. God was allowing them to decide for themselves, to choose his way by exercising their wills.

God is shown to give choices to people throughout the bible. If he has offered to reason with you, which way have you chosen? To heed and obey or not.

Dr Christopher Peppler takes these passages into the modern context and gives you examples of ways where you maybe accidentally not ‘heeding’.

If you would prefer to read this post, then click HERE. Also please note all the TruthTalks along with some YouTube video’s, sermons, Q and A sessions and more can be found on the AudioVisual page HERE. You can also catch up on Part 1 and 2 from that link.

Until next time

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Insights from Isaiah: Part 3

1 Comment / Blog, Home Bulletin, My Blog / Christopher Peppler

First Insight

Isaiah 1:18-20: “Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the LORD has spoken NIV

This is a well-known text, but I want to highlight something you may not have considered. The statement comes just after a divine castigation of Israel. God tells his people that he is sick of their insincere offerings; “Stop bringing me meaningless offerings!.” He tells them that he cannot bear their evil assemblies and that their festivals have become a burden to him. He even tells them that when they pray he will not listen to them. He concludes by making it very clear what he expects them to do: “Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.”

The Lord then says something that no co-called deity of the ancient world would have said: “Come let us reason together.” He tells them that he is prepared to make their ‘bloody’ sins as white as snow… IF. And this is what I would like to point to in this passage: IF they are willing and obedient, he will reward them abundantly, but IF they resist and rebel, then they will be ravaged by war. God was allowing them to decide for themselves, to choose his way by exercising their wills.

Since the days of John Calvin, there has been much debate in the church as to whether we have meaningful discretion or whether everything we think and do is divinely predetermined. Yet, right here in the Old Testament is a clear divine call for people to decide for themselves. God himself placed a choice before them and called on them to decide which of the two options they would choose. Of course, we also all know that right at the very dawn of human existence, our creator God placed a free-will choice before Adam in the form of the fruit of a special tree. (Genesis 2:16-17)… And we know how that played out!

Did this all suddenly change when the Lord Jesus incarnated and introduced a New Covenant? Clearly not! Jesus lamented over Jerusalem, “O Jerusalem , Jerusalem , you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.” (Matthew 23:37) He gave the rich young ruler the choice to follow him (Matthew 19:16–22), he gave the woman caught in adultery a choice (John 8:1–11), and he gave the paralysed man at Bethesda a choice (John 5:1–9). Jesus addressed the Jewish leaders with, “These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (John 5:39-40).

Moreover, he didn’t change his mind at the time of the Protestant Reformation when Calvinist pre-determinism became popular?! No amount of clever verse-picking and philosophical argument even comes close to proving that Paul’s teaching overwrote the Lord’s and reversed an eternal key principle.

So then, for me, a key takeaway from this passage is that almighty and all-powerful God is prepared to reason with his people and give us enough decision-making capacity to decide whether or not to heed him and obey. However, there are consequences to the decisions we make, especially if they are wilfully disobedient.

Second Insight

Isaiah 5:20 “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” HCSB

I think the best way to understand the prophet’s use of the word ‘woe’ is as a solemn and heart-breaking warning of impending disaster and even divine judgment. Jesus addressed the Scribes and Pharisees of his day many times with this word. They were doing what the prophet Isaiah warned of; they were calling evil, good and what was good, evil.

In our times, we have religious leaders and preachers who also do this, and so woe to them. We also have politicians who do this on a grand scale. Woe awaits them as surely as night follows day. However, when I read the prophet’s warning to the people of his day, my mind extends beyond the purveyors of lies, misinformation, and ‘darkness’, to those who aid and abet them … and that could be us!

Is it possible that sometimes we pass on their lies and confusion? If we do, then I am sure it is not out of a desire to harm or spread evil, but rather through our woeful lack of fact-checking and critical thinking. A story pops onto our newsfeed, or a friend forwards something on WhatsApp or Facebook, and we just share it without much, if any, thought. We fail to think about the content of the communication, even at a common-sense level, and we seldom, if ever, make a serious attempt to check its source and fact claims. In failing to do this, we are aiding and abetting those who call evil good and good evil. It is not a pleasant thought, but one worth considering seriously. If you would like something to help you think through this modern-day woe, then click on https://truthistheword.com/how-to-evaluate-truth-claims/ or https://truthistheword.com/how-to-fight-fake-news/

Third Insight

Isaiah 2:22 “Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?”

The phrasing here is almost poetical, but the New Living Translation makes the meaning very clear with “Stop putting your trust in mere humans. They are as frail as breath. How can they be of help to anyone?”

We all put trust in people and their work countless times a day. We accept a lift from a friend and tacitly put our full trust in them not to cause us injury or even death. Then there are the people who manufactured our friend’s car … and the mechanic who last serviced the brakes!

However, I don’t think this is the class of trust to which Isaiah refers. The context here is God versus human beings as our primary source of trust.

The question is, do we trust primarily in God or something or someone else? In Old Testament times, pagan people trusted their imaginary regional gods like Moloch, Baal and so on. In many third-world countries, many people trust in their departed ancestors for blessings and benefits. In more Western-oriented cultures, the choice is between God and science, technology, wealth and power. So perhaps for most people reading this post, a paraphrase of what Isaiah wrote could be “Stop trusting in man-made philosophies and human products, which are all as frail as breath. How can they be of help to you?”

The question that occurs to me, though, is, in what ways do I evidence my trust in God rather than myself or others? I can think of many, but here is just one. When confronted with a choice between biblical truth and the opinion of others, which do I choose? Sometimes the teachings of scripture are clear, but often the bible just presents us with principles. “Do not steal” is a command and not just a suggestion (Romans 13:9). However, what about biblical principles such as Proverbs 11:1: “Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord, but an accurate weight is his delight.”? So, overcharging someone because you think they won’t notice is not the same as pickpocketing? Think again. We are all faced with life situations that are not regulated against in scripture, but are covered by biblical principles. To violate a principle is surely akin to disobeying a command. When we are guilty of either, are we not, in effect, failing to trust God and his ways? On the positive side, when we obey a biblical injunction or comply with a scriptural principle, we are displaying our trust in God.

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