There are a
number of places in the Bible, mostly in the Old Testament, where someone
used a stone as a reminder of an important event. Important events included
acknowledging God’s help and reaching agreement with another party in a
dispute. Perhaps there are other cases, but here are those that I found, all
quoted from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain.
Genesis 28:10 Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. 11 He came to a
certain place, and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. He took one
of the stones of the place, and put it under his head, and lay down in that
place to sleep. 12 He dreamed. Behold, a stairway set upon the earth, and its
top reached to heaven. Behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on
it. 13 Behold, Yahweh stood above it, and said, “I am Yahweh, the God of
Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. I will give the land whereon you lie
to you and to your offspring. 14 Your offspring will be as the dust of the
earth, and you will spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the
north, and to the south. In you and in your offspring will all the families of
the earth be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you, and will keep you, wherever you
go, and will bring you again into this land. For I will not leave you, until I
have done that which I have spoken of to you.”
16 Jacob
awakened out of his sleep, and he said, “Surely Yahweh is in this place, and I
didn’t know it.” 17 He was afraid, and said, “How dreadful is this place! This
is none other than God’s house, and this is the gate of heaven.”
18 Jacob
rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his
head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil on its top. 19 He called the
name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first. 20
Jacob vowed a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this
way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and clothing to put on, 21 so
that I come again to my father’s house in peace, and Yahweh will be my God, 22
then this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, will be God’s house. Of all
that you will give me I will surely give a tenth to you.”
Genesis
31:45 Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. 46 Jacob said to his
relatives, “Gather stones.” They took stones, and made a heap. They ate there
by the heap. 47 Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha,* but Jacob called it Galeed.*
48 Laban said, “This heap is witness between me and you today.” Therefore it
was named Galeed 49 and Mizpah, for he said, “Yahweh watch between me and you,
when we are absent one from another. 50 If you afflict my daughters, or if you
take wives in addition to my daughters, no man is with us; behold, God is
witness between me and you.” 51 Laban said to Jacob, “See this heap, and see
the pillar, which I have set between me and you. 52 May this heap be a witness,
and the pillar be a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and
that you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, for harm. 53 The
God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between
us.” Then Jacob swore by the fear of his father, Isaac. *The two names both
mean "witness heap," in Aramaic and Hebrew, respectively.
Exodus 24: 3
Moses came and told the people all Yahweh’s words, and all the ordinances; and
all the people answered with one voice, and said, “All the words which Yahweh
has spoken will we do.”
4 Moses
wrote all Yahweh’s words, and rose up early in the morning, and built an altar
under the mountain, and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. (The
Bible doesn't explicitly say that the altar was made of stone, but almost all
the altars in the Old Testament used such materials. This was after Moses
received the Ten Commandments, which, according to scripture, were graved on
two stone tablets by God. In a sense, those tablets -- both versions -- Moses
broke the first ones in anger, were also memorial stones, of an agreement
between God and the Israelites.)
Deuteronomy
16:22 warns against setting up a stone for the wrong purposes, presumably to
commemorate an agreement that God could not honor, or to use in the worship of
another god: “Neither shall you set yourself up a sacred stone which Yahweh
your God hates.”
Deuteronomy
27:1 Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, “Keep all the
commandment which I command you today. 2 It shall be on the day when you shall
pass over the Jordan to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, that you
shall set yourself up great stones, and coat them with plaster. 3 You shall
write on them all the words of this law, when you have passed over; that you
may go in to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, a land flowing with milk
and honey, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised you. 4 It shall be,
when you have crossed over the Jordan, that you shall set up these stones,
which I command you today, on Mount Ebal, and you shall coat them with plaster.
5 There you shall build an altar to Yahweh your God, an altar of stones. You
shall not use any iron tool on them. 6 You shall build Yahweh your God’s altar
of uncut stones. You shall offer burnt offerings on it to Yahweh your God. 7
You shall sacrifice peace offerings, and shall eat there. You shall rejoice
before Yahweh your God. 8 You shall write on the stones all the words of this
law very plainly.”
Joshua 24:21
The people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve Yahweh.” 22 Joshua said to
the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen Yahweh
yourselves, to serve him.”
They said,
“We are witnesses.”
23 “Now
therefore put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart
to Yahweh, the God of Israel.”
24 The
people said to Joshua, “We will serve Yahweh our God, and we will listen to his
voice.”
25 So Joshua
made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an
ordinance in Shechem. 26 Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of
God; and he took a great stone, and set it up there under the oak that was by
the sanctuary of Yahweh. 27 Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone
shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all Yahweh’s words which he
spoke to us. It shall be therefore a witness against you, lest you deny your
God.”
1 Samuel 7:
10 As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines came near to
battle against Israel; but Yahweh thundered with a great thunder on that day on
the Philistines, and confused them; and they were struck down before Israel. 11
The men of Israel went out of Mizpah, and pursued the Philistines, and struck
them, until they came under Beth Kar.
12 Then
Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name
Ebenezer,* saying, “Yahweh helped us until now.” *Ebenezer meant "stone of
help." There was no Bible character named Ebenezer, by the way.
2 Samuel 18:
18 Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself the pillar
which is in the king’s valley, for he said, “I have no son to keep my name in
memory.” He called the pillar after his own name. It is called Absalom’s
monument, to this day. (This use of a stone was probably not pleasing to God,
but an expression of pride by Absalom.)
1 Kings 18:30
Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me!”; and all the people came near
to him. He repaired Yahweh’s altar that had been thrown down. 31 Elijah took
twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to
whom Yahweh’s word came, saying, “Israel shall be your name.” 32a With the
stones he built an altar in Yahweh’s name.
2 Chronicles
33:1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned
fifty-five years in Jerusalem. 2 He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight,
after the abominations of the nations whom Yahweh cast out before the children
of Israel. 3 For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had
broken down; and he raised up altars for the Baals, made Asheroth, and
worshiped all the army of the sky, and served them. 4 He built altars in
Yahweh’s house, of which Yahweh said, “My name shall be in Jerusalem forever.”
5 He built altars for all the army of the sky in the two courts of Yahweh’s
house. 6 He also made his children to pass through the fire in the valley of
the son of Hinnom. He practiced sorcery, divination, and witchcraft, and dealt
with those who had familiar spirits, and with wizards. He did much evil in
Yahweh’s sight, to provoke him to anger. 7 He set the engraved image of the
idol, which he had made, in God’s house, of which God said to David and to
Solomon his son, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of
all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever. 8 I will not any more
remove the foot of Israel from off the land which I have appointed for your
fathers, if only they will observe to do all that I have commanded them, even
all the law, the statutes, and the ordinances given by Moses.” 9 Manasseh
seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that they did more evil than
did the nations whom Yahweh destroyed before the children of Israel.
10 Yahweh
spoke to Manasseh, and to his people; but they didn’t listen. 11 Therefore
Yahweh brought on them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who
took Manasseh in chains, bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.
12 When he
was in distress, he begged Yahweh his God, and humbled himself greatly before
the God of his fathers. 13 He prayed to him; and he was entreated by him, and
heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom.
Then Manasseh knew that Yahweh was God.
14 Now after
this, he built an outer wall to David’s city, on the west side of Gihon, in the
valley, even to the entrance at the fish gate. He encircled Ophel with it, and
raised it up to a very great height; and he put valiant captains in all the
fortified cities of Judah. 15 He took away the foreign gods, and the idol out
of Yahweh’s house, and all the altars that he had built in the mountain of Yahweh’s
house, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city. 16 He built up Yahweh’s
altar, and offered sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving on it, and
commanded Judah to serve Yahweh, the God of Israel. 17 Nevertheless the people
sacrificed still in the high places, but only to Yahweh their God. (One of the
most remarkable stories in the Old Testament, in which Manasseh used altars,
probably made of stone, to worship idols in the very house of God, and then
sincerely repented, and discarded all of these, and “built up Yahweh’s altar.”
Yahweh’s altar in the tabernacle was not made of stone (see here.) The altar in the temple
constructed by Solomon was most likely made of bronze (see here.)
Psalm 118:22
The stone which the builders rejected
has become
the cornerstone. (This seems to be prophetic. See the 2 passages quoted below.)
Mark 12:10
Haven’t you even read this Scripture:
‘The stone
which the builders rejected,
the same was
made the head of the corner.
11 This was from the Lord,
it is
marvelous in our eyes’?”
Ephesians
2:18 For through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So
then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens
with the saints, and of the household of God, 20 being built on the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone;
21 in whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the
Lord; 22 in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the
Spirit.
Jeremiah
43:8 Then Yahweh’s word came to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying, 9 “Take great
stones in your hand, and hide them in mortar in the brick work, which is at the
entry of Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah; 10 and
tell them, Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Behold, I will send and
take Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne on
these stones that I have hidden; and he will spread his royal pavilion over
them. 11 He will come, and will strike the land of Egypt; such as are for death
will be put to death, and such as are for captivity to captivity, and such as
are for the sword to the sword.
We now come
to the New Testament, but see also the quotations related to Psalm 118, above.
Matthew 16:
15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
16 Simon
Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus
answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not
revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 I also tell you that
you are Peter,* and on this rock† I will build my assembly, and the gates of
Hades will not prevail against it. (*A text note says "Peter’s name, Petros in Greek, is the word for a
specific rock or stone. †A text note says "Greek, petra, a rock mass or bedrock." As I understand it, Jesus was
mostly, or entirely, saying that His church was to be built on the figurative
rock, or truth, that Christ is "the Son of the living God.")
Romans 9:30
What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn’t follow after righteousness,
attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith; 31 but
Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn’t arrive at the law of
righteousness. 32 Why? Because they didn’t seek it by faith, but as it were by
works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling stone; 33 even as it is
written,
“Behold, I
lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense;
and no one
who believes in him will be disappointed.” Paul was quoting Isaiah 8:14 and Isaiah
28:16 “Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, ‘Behold, I lay in Zion for a
foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation.
He who believes shall not act hastily. . . .’”
1 Peter also
quotes Isaiah: 1 Peter 2:1 Putting away therefore all wickedness, all deceit,
hypocrisies, envies, and all evil speaking, 2 as newborn babies, long for the
pure milk of the Word, that with it you may grow, 3 if indeed you have tasted
that the Lord is gracious: 4 coming to him, a living stone, rejected indeed by
men, but chosen by God, precious. 5 You also, as living stones, are built up as
a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices,
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 Because it is contained in Scripture,
“Behold, I
lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, chosen, and precious:
He who
believes in him will not be disappointed.”
We don’t use stones in this way much, or any, anymore. We sign court documents, or take pictures, or post on Facebook. But what if we did use stones as witnesses? What events, what decisions, might we have marked? As an exercise, I’m planning to look at my own life, and make a list of important events and decisions that have shaped it. It will be personal -- I’m not going to post it. Perhaps you should do the same. Thanks for reading!
