1
Peter 2:6
‘For it stands in
scripture: “See, I am laying in
Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in
him will not be put to shame.”’
In the prophet Isaiah, it seems that
the Northern Kingdom, which was taken into permanent captivity by Assyria, to
disappear off the historic scene, is the subject of the prophet’s words. There are talks about covenants with Sheol,
what, in the Old Testament, is the realm of the dead.
Against this captivity, this giving up
of hope, enters the word of the Lord.
This is the cornerstone God is laying in Zion, a structure to stand
against the destruction that the people of Ephraim, the leading tribe of the
Northern Kingdom. The prophet is proclaiming
God’s hope against the condemnation.
So what does that have to do with the
people to whom Peter is writing? Not a
blessed thing, directly. Like many of
the lessons of history, if you apply them too directly, you are going to run
into trouble. Rather, there is a
principle to be drawn here.
The passage in Isaiah proclaims God
standing against a feeling among the people of hopelessness, hopelessness even
unto death. It is centuries later and
the same kind of hopelessness, the apparently eternal dominance of the Romans,
is in place.
But the power of God, his laying a
cornerstone in Zion, that cornerstone finding its fulfillment in the Lord Jesus
Christ, it is the fulfillment of that prophecy in the current age of Peter.
No comments:
Post a Comment