Mt.4:3 “And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.” Notice something: He didn’t say, do a magic trick and turn these stones into bread, but he said, “command them.” That’s an implication that an inanimate object, such as a stone, is subject to the word of the Lord. That’s like saying, “Let the earth bring forth,” and then it happens?
Mt.3:9 “And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.” The Lord is not impressed with one’s family tree. He can get others just as good, or better, than we are out of rocks!
Lk.19:40 Jesus said, “If these become silent, the stones will cry out!” People were praising Jesus, and Jesus was saying that it was indeed a day of praise. He must be praised, and He will be praised. Why should we not praise the Lord? Is everyday not a day of praise to us? Just look what the Lord has done! I don’t think stones are going to have praise in our place. He has given us life, the degree of health, prosperity that we have, and our families. He has touched our hearts with His presence and showed us our need for Him, then He has met that need by bringing us to Himself. He has given us eternal salvation. We have His presence now, and we are assured heaven later.
Jesus was entering Jerusalem, on His way to the cross, and the people were lining the street and shouting their praises to Him. Why were they praising? For most of them, it was because they had heard of the mighty works that He had done. They had heard about the blind receiving sight, the deaf being able to hear, the lame beginning to walk, and even the raising of the dead. They had indeed heard of the mighty works that He had been doing. We’ve not only heard, but we’ve had first hand experience. He has touched and changed our life, and we have been invaded with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. In John 14:12, Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” If that means what it says, how can this possibly be? After all, He did some big stuff! I know of no way to explain this verse, other than just what it says.
Everything that Jesus did, and everything in the creation that God has done, for that matter, He has done by His word. He has given us His word, and He has given us the authority to speak it. Our words are very powerful, far more powerful than most people ever realize, but when our words are His words, they bring about results like they did when He spoke them! Now, of course, that has to be qualified. In order for mighty works to come about when we speak His word, we must be in covenant relationship with Him, we must have our heart clear of any known sin, we must be clear of any unforgiveness, we must have a motive that is aimed at honoring God, and we must believe what we say. In Colossians 3:3, we are told that “...our life is hid with Christ in God.” In John 20:21, Jesus said, “...As my Father has sent Me, evenso send I you.” Now, if our life is absorbed in Him, and if we are sent in the same way that Jesus was sent, doesn’t it just stand to reason that we have some authority about us? Philippians 2:12 tells us that the Holy Spirit is at work in us, causing us to want to do, and to be able to do, His good pleasure. According to Hebrews 13:8, His good pleasure is the same now, as it was during His earthly ministry. He hasn’t changed, and He is not going to change. When Jesus went into situations where everybody else seemed to be talking sickness and death, He spoke life, and life happened! God give us some people of God, who will stand on the word of God, and speak life to people who aren’t hearing anything but death. God give us some people who will rise up and praise the Lord on those days when it looks like the sun is never going to shine again. When Paul and Silas did their midnight praise service, the prison doors opened, their chains fell off, and people got saved! Jesus said, “I could get the rocks to cry out in praise.”
The Jews thought that because they were in Abraham’s family tree, that they were automatically in good standing with God. God doesn’t have any grandchildren, only sons and daughters. Do we think because of our church membership, or some other such secondary thing, that we are automatically right with God? Do we think that we have God caught in the fine print of His own contract? To be right with God, we must know Him with the intimacy of personal relationship through faith in Christ. To know Him is to love Him, and to love Him is to obey Him. When we love and obey Him, He fills us with His Spirit, and a Spirit-filled child of God just can’t help praising Him.
He could have done it all with rocks. He could’ve said to the rocks, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.” He could’ve given the rocks dominion over every living thing upon the earth. He could’ve made rocks the highest object of His love, and He could’ve raised them up together with Christ, and made them to sit together with Him in the heavenly places, that in the ages to come He might show forth the riches of His grace in them, but He didn’t. He did all that for people.
Have you ever noticed that all of creation instantly obeys the Lord, except for mankind? He speaks to the wind and waves and received immediate obedience. He speaks to a Balaam’s donkey, and it begins to prophesy. He calls forth a great fish to swallow his backslidden preacher, Jonah, and here it comes to do exactly what He says. Even the demons, when He speaks, they have to immediately obey. But, mankind, He gave a special place in the order of creation. Man has a will, and in spite of all the evidence, he often chooses to continually live in disobedience to His Creator and his only way of salvation.
Revelation 6:16 tells about people, in the day of God’s wrath, who will cry out to the mountains and the rocks to fall on them and hide them from the face of God. God can do a lot of things with rocks, but He will not use them to hide people from His wrath. There will be no hiding from His wrath, for those who do know Him, in the pardon of their sins.
This is a new day, and a new opportunity. This is the day of praise, and now is the time. The Lord is not nearly so interested in how high you jump, as He is how straight you walk. He could get a rock to do it, but He has called you. What will you do?
