I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.
The title is from Luke 19:40 and is the LORD speaking in response to the corrupted leaders who controlled God people. They were demanding He rebuke those who were acknowledging Him as the rightful King coming into Jerusalem. “38 Saying, Blessed be the King that comes in the name of the LORD: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.” The religious leaders then made their demand, not addressing Him as King the way the people had, but rather as “master” using the Greek word didaskalos, meaning instructor. They saw Him as just another teacher and were unable to see what the people saw and cried out – quoting from Psalms 118:26.
Psalms 118 gives us the meaning of the LORD’s several following references to the stones, there telling of him as the stone the builders refused, which has become the head (stone) of the corner (the returning to and entering righteous). The idea of the builder also connects these passages with the stone that cries out of the wall, which is written in Habakkuk 2:11. We know this chapter speaks of the covetous builders, who are increasing by what isn’t theirs. These are the same thieves and robbers the LORD kicks out of the temple, which in Habakkuk 2:19 are described as dumb (not able to say anything – of value) stones that were being called to arise and teach their same old corrupted ideas.
The LORD is the same stone (‘eben – building stone) spoken of in Isaiah 28:16, a chapter we know speaks of the His teaching knowledge, precept upon precept, line upon line, building those who received Him as the Source, the Foundation Stone. We are also there told this teaching is the rest and refreshing of God’s people, which those in control refused because they had instead made a covenant with death, and were in agreement with the dead. Verse 11 identifies these builders as those unable to understand the word they are hearing, as the dumb stones spoken of in Habakkuk, only able to speak (and hear) the language (false doctrines) that wasn’t the LORD’s language.
These are the drunkards of Ephraim, intoxicated and stupefied by ignorance, and crowned in their own pride. In Isaiah 28:7, as in Habakkuk 2:5, we are told they are those who transgress with wine, which is from the Hebrew word yayin, the origin of the word mire: the waters (the word of God) they have muddied and removed its clarity. Habakkuk 2:5 also tells us it is the pride (as in Isaiah 28:1 & 3) of these men who have enlarged their desire as Sheol, and made this as death: never satisfied no matter how many it takes. It is saying the end they seek is where all humanity is dead, to thwart God’s plan of rescue and salvation.
The end these men seek is spoken of in Zechariah 9:5 as the expectation of which they shall be ashamed, meaning what they expected ends in disappointment. What disappoints them is as the longshot arrow, and the stone, discussed in several previous posts. We also saw stones spoken of in Zechariah 9:16 as the LORD flock, the stones of His crown and the same Jewels described in Malachi 3:17. In the prior post and many others before it, we saw this stone mentioned in the blessing of Joseph (the father of Ephraim, and as we know, also David) which appears in Genesis 49 when Jacob blesses all His children telling them of what shall befall them in the last days. There it tells of the coming Shepherd, The Stone of Israel, whose arm and bow have been strengthened by God, and who is blessed by the ALMIGHTY with the blessings of heaven (His rightly divided word) and the deep (the things that lie unseen below the surface), which nourish and bring new life.
Genesis 49
22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall [see Psalms 18:29 below]:
23 The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him:
24 But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the Stone of Israel [the Stone now waiting in the sling of God’s people]:)
25 Even by the God of your father, who shall help you; and by the Almighty, who shall bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:
26 The blessings of your father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors [see Hebrews 11:40 and 12:1 & 2] unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown [as Jewels, and as a great cloud of witness] of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.
Hebrews 11
40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
Hebrews 12
1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Malachi 3
3 Your words have been stout against me, says the LORD. Yet you say, What have we spoken so much against you?
14 You have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?
15 And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.
16 Then they that feared the LORD spoke often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.
17 And they shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son that serves him.
18 Then shall you return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serves God and him that serves him not.
Malachi 4
1 For, behold, the day comes, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that comes shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and you shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
Psalms 18
1 I will love you, O LORD, my strength.
2 The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.
3 I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.
4 The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.
5 The sorrows of Sheol compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me.
6 In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.
7 Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth.
8 There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.
9 He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet.
10 And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.
12 At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire.
13 The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire.
14 Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightning, and discomfited them.
15 Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at your rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.
16 He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters.
17 He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me.
18 They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my stay.
19 He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.
20 The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands has he recompensed me.
21 For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God.
22 For all his judgments were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me.
23 I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity.
24 Therefore has the LORD recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.
25 With the merciful you will shew yourself merciful; with an upright man you will shew yourself upright;
26 With the pure you will shew yourself pure; and with the forward [those who twist truth into a lie] you will shew yourself forward [you will send them into strong delusion and insanity].
27 For you will save the afflicted people; but will bring down high looks.
28 For you will light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.
29 For by you I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall.
30 As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him.
31 For who is God save the LORD? or who is a rock save our God?
32 It is God that girds [prepares] me with strength, and makes my way perfect.
33 He makes my feet like hinds’ feet, and sets me upon my high places.
34 He teaches my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms.
35 You have also given me the shield of your salvation: and your right hand has held me up, and your gentleness has made me great.
36 You have enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip.
37 I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them: neither did I turn again till they were consumed.
38 I have wounded them that they were not able to rise: they are fallen under my feet.
39 For you have girded me with strength unto the battle: you have subdued under me those that rose up against me.
40 You have also given me the necks of mine enemies; that I might destroy them that hate me.
41 They cried, but there was none to save them: even unto the LORD, but he answered them not.
42 Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind: I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets.
43 You have delivered me from the strivings of the people; and you have made me the head of the heathen: a people whom I have not known shall serve me.
44 As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto me.
45 The strangers shall fade away, and be afraid out of their close places.
46 The LORD lives; and blessed be my rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted.
47 It is God that avenges me, and subdues the people under me.
48 He delivers me from mine enemies: yea, you lifts me up above those that rise up against me: you have delivered me from the violent man.
49 Therefore will I give thanks unto you, O LORD, among the heathen, and sing praises unto your name.
50 Great deliverance gives he to his king; and shows mercy to his anointed, to David, and to his seed for evermore.
Read the following seeing their interconnection by the same terms used multiple times in the individual passages and then in like manner in the others.
Luke 19
37 And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen;
38 Saying, Blessed be the King that comes in the name of the LORD: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.
39 And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke your disciples.
40 And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.
41 And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,
42 Saying, If you had known, even you, at least in this your day, the things which belong unto your peace! but now they are hid from your eyes.
43 For the days shall come upon you, that your enemies shall cast a trench about you, and compass you round, and keep you in on every side,
44 And shall lay you even with the ground, and your children within you; and they shall not leave in you one stone upon another; because you knew not the time of your visitation.
45 And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought;
46 Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but you have made it a den of thieves.
47 And he taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him [the church and civil leaders who only care about themselves and keeping their positions of control],
48 And could not find what they might do: for all the people were very attentive to hear him.
Habakkuk 2
1 I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.
2 And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that reads it. [see Hebrews 12:1 above – in the sense of hurrying to get on the course set before us]
3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry [mahahh – it is questioned, and thereby delayed], wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry [‘achar – it will come at the appointed time].
4 Behold, his soul which is lifted up [‘aphal – swelled with pride] is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his [own] faith.
5 Yea also, because he transgresses by wine, he is a proud man, neither keeps at home [there is no rest in his house], who enlarges his desire as Sheol, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathers unto him all nations, and heaps unto him all people [his ways have led to the death of all except the very elect remnant]:
6 Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to him that increases [by] that which is not his! how long? and to him that lades himself with thick clay [‘abtiyt – woe to him who abounds by money others pledge. Do you TV preachers and other thieves hear me yet? Thus says the LORD, “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say, Wherein have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings.”]!
7 Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite you, and awake that shall vex you, and you shall be for booties unto them?
8 Because you have spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil you; because of men’s blood [because of the life you have drained from those you mislead with your own ideas], and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.
9 Woe to him that covets [lusts for money] an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil!
10 You have consulted shame to your house by cutting off many people, and have sinned against your soul [As did Esau, sold your soul for mere morsels].
11 For the stone [‘eben] shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.
12 Woe to him that builds a town with blood [by draining life], and establishes a city by iniquity [‘evel – evil and wickedness – vilifying truth and justice – as in attacking this truth]!
13 Behold, is it not of the LORD of hosts that the people shall labor in the very fire [which are caused by these men’s ways and ideas – “And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of Gehenna.”], and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity [working for what has no real value]?
14 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
15 Woe unto him that gives his neighbor drink, that puts your bottle to him, and makes him drunken also, that you may look on their nakedness!
16 You are filled with shame [an unexpected end] for glory: drink you also, and let your foreskin [your intentions – as what your flesh has lusted for] be uncovered: the cup of the LORD’s right hand shall be turned unto you, and shameful spewing [what comes from your mouth shall be what causes your expected end to not come] shall be on your glory.
17 For the violence of Lebanon shall cover you, and the spoil of beasts, which made them afraid, because of men’s blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.
18 What profits the graven image [the thing these men have made from their imaginations, and worship in the place of God] that the maker thereof has graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusts therein, to make dumb idols [voiceless idols]?
19 Woe unto him that says to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! [“And they shall not take of you a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but you shall be desolate for ever, says the LORD.” Jeremiah 51:26, speaking of the stones of confusion (Babylon)] Behold [what they have built, and covered in what they have coveted], it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath [life that comes from their mouth] at all in the midst of it.
20 But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.
Isaiah 28
2 Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim [the leaders of God’s people in this generation, in the last days of the age of ignorance and confusion], whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head [the whole head is corrupt, even to the neck] of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!
2 Behold, the LORD has a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.
3 The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet:
4 And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when he that looks upon it sees, while it is yet in his hand he eats it up.
5 In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people,
6 And for a spirit of judgment to him that sits in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.
7 But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
8 For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.
9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
11 For with stammering lips and another tongue [with words they cannot comprehend – only because they aren’t according to the images they have created from their own imaginations] will he speak to this people.
12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith you may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
13 But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus says the LORD God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone [‘eben], a tried stone [‘eben], a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believes shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with Sheol shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goes forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
20 For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.
21 For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim [2 Samuel 5 … the LORD said unto David, Go up: for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines {those wallowing in the mire} into your hand.20 And David came to Baal-perazim, and David smote them there, and said, The LORD has broken forth upon mine enemies before me, as the breach {perazim} of waters. Therefore he called the name of that place Baal-perazim. 21 And there they left their images {the idols of Baal}, and David and his men burned them.], he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon [when “the LORD cast down great stones {‘eben} from heaven upon them unto Azekah {grub – plow under}, and they died: they were more which died with hailstones {God’s judgment} than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword.”], that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
22 Now therefore be you not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the LORD God of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.
23 Give you ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.
24 Does the plowman plow all day to sow? does he open and break the clods of his ground?
25 When he has made plain the face thereof, does he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their place?
26 For his God does instruct him to discretion, and does teach him.
27 For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.
28 Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen.
29 This also comes forth from the LORD of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.
We know Isaiah 29 goes on to tell of Ariel, the city where David dwelt, which, as is the meaning of Ariel, speaks of David’s strength. We are told this city, David’s strength, has been taken and is held by enemies, to which the LORD lays siege to rescue and save those held there without strength. Ariel literally means lion of God, and speaks here in the context of His roar, verse 4 describing when these captors’ and captives’ voice is low out of the dust, to where men return in death, and from where man was and is created. It is leading us to hear His roar and return, when the captives awaken from their deep sleep, themselves roaring as He did.
Isaiah 29
4 And you shall be brought down, and shall speak out of the ground, and your speech shall be low out of the dust, and your voice shall be, as of one that has a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and your speech shall whisper out of the dust.
5 Moreover the multitude of your strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passes away: yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly.
6 You shall be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.
7 And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision.
8 It shall even be as when an hungry man dreams, and, behold, he eats; but he awakes, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreams, and, behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul has appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion.
9 Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry you out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.
10 For the LORD has poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers has he covered.
11 And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray you: and he says, I cannot; for it is sealed:
12 And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray you: and he says, I am not learned.
13 Wherefore the LORD said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
14 Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.
15 Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who sees us? and who knows us?
Hebrews 12
22 But you are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
25 See that you refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:
26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he has promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
29 For our God is a consuming fire.
Hosea 11
9 I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of you: and I will not enter into the city.
10 They shall walk after the LORD: he shall roar like a lion: when he shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west.
11 They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria: [Revelation 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues.] and I will place them in their houses, says the LORD. [1 Kings 22:17 And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd: and the LORD said, These have no master: let them return every man to his house in peace.]
Job 37
1 At this also my heart trembles [reasoning is shaken], and is moved out of his place.
2 Hear attentively the noise of his voice, and the sound that goes out of his mouth.
3 He directs it under the whole heaven, and his lightning unto the ends of the earth.
4 After it a voice roars: he thunders with the voice of his excellency; and he will not stay them when his voice is heard.
5 God thunders marvelously with his voice; great things does he, which we cannot comprehend.
Psalms 118
14 The LORD is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.
15 The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous: the right hand of the LORD does valiantly.
16 The right hand of the LORD is exalted: the right hand of the LORD does valiantly.
17 I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD.
18 The LORD has chastened me sore: but he has not given me over unto death.
19 Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the LORD:
20 This gate of the LORD, into which the righteous shall enter.
21 I will praise you: for you have heard me, and are become my salvation.
22 The stone [‘eben] which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.
23 This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
24 This is the day which the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
25 Save now [Hosanna], I beseech you, O LORD: O LORD, I beseech you, send now prosperity.
26 Blessed be he that comes in the name of the LORD: we have blessed you out of the house of the LORD.
27 God is the LORD, which has shewed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.
28 You are my God, and I will praise you: you are my God, I will exalt you.
29 O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endures for ever.
