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C ONSIDER w it h ME the falling stone of Daniel 2:34 and 35 which as it fell smote the image on its feet and broke it in pieces. There are five things to be con sidered. The mountain out of which the stone was cut. The stone cut out of the mountains. The stone cut out of the mountain without hands. The falling stone. The stone becoming a great mountain and filling the earth. The mountain out of which the stone was cut. Strangely enough, expositors and commentators have ignored this mountain, or passed lightly over the mention of it; and yet, it is in itself a key factor among the symbols. In the thirtieth Psalm and seventh verse, David says: “ Lord, by Thy favour Thou hast made my mountain to stand strong.” By “mountain” David means his throne and kingdom, the throne and kingdom of Israel. The mountain out of which the stone was cut is the nation and kingdom of Israel, but especially that side of the kingdom which is Judah. In saying the stone was cut out of the mountain Daniel is saying it was taken out of Israel, out of Judah. The stone cut out of the mountain. The stone is our Lord Jesus Christ. Standing before the Jewish San hedrin and answering concerning the healing of the lame man, as recorded in the book of Acts, fourth chap ter, tenth and eleventh verses, the Apostle Peter says: “ Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand before you whole. ‘‘This is' the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.” In his first epistle Peter says of our Lord Jesus Christ that He is: “ A living stone, disallowed of men, but chosen of God and precious.” He quotes the Word of God in the twenty-eighth chapter of the prophet Isaiah: “ Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, pre cious; and he that believeth on Him [the stone] shall not be confounded.” To those who are unbelievers the apostle says our Lord Jesus Christ is: “ A stone of stumbling and a rock of offence.” In His discourse re corded in the twenty-first chapter of Matthew, our Lord Himself affirms that He is the stone and in warning and far-reaching words says: “Whosoever shall fall
on this stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.” Beyond all question, then, our Lord Jesus Christ is the stone cut out of the mountain. The stone cut out of the mountain without hands. As “hands” stand for the use of means which are na tural, “without” hands signifies means that are not natural, means that are beyond the natural. It is the in spired way of saying “ supematuratty.” As the moun tain is Israel, and the stone is our Lord Jesus Christ then our Lord Jesus Christ was supernaturally brought out of Israel. To be brought out or cut out of Israel signifies to originate in Israel. To originate in and out of Israel is to be born in and of Israel. The statement that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands is the symbolic way of saying the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ as an Israelite, as a Jew, was super natural. It is the symbolic way of saying our Lord Jesus Christ should not have a natural father, that God should be His Father, and therefore as He would be directly begotten of God, His mother, in the nature of the case should be virgin. It is the prophecy that our Lord Jesus Christ should be virgin-born, Son of God and God the Son. Thus way back in that far dream of that Babylon ian king, God the Almighty stamped in the midst of the symbols, in the story of the image, the foredetermined and amazing fact of the virgin birth. The falling of the stone. The stone should fall upon the falling of the stone the symbol of His first coming, of the stone is the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Is the falling of the stone the symbol of His first Coming, as it is so taught by some? To answer that question I will ask another: When our Lord Jesus Christ came the first time did He fall upon the Roman Empire, overthrow it and break it in pieces? Nay! on the contrary, the Roman government at the instigation of the Jewish Sanhedrin fell on Him and nailed Him to a cross. He was so despised and rejected of men, His own nation so refused to own or accept Him as King, that God the Father took Him to His own right hand in Heaven where for two thousand years He has been seated as an exile from His own land and throne. If the falling of the stone does not represent the
THE KING 'S BUSINESS
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