Praise the Lord, we can come to Christ as our Stone-Savior to be transformed from clay-men into living stones by this stone-man, so that we may be built up into the church as the building of God!
The good land is a land of stones, iron, mountains, and copper; these are for God’s building and for battle, and the building of God and the battle go together.
This week in our crystallization-study of Deuteronomy we come to the matter of, The Goodness of the Land – its Minerals.
According to Deut. 8, the good land is a land of water brooks, springs, and fountains; there are many waters in the land. This is how we begin our Christian life; when we first believed into the Lord, we drank of Him as the living water.
When we believed into the Lord, we drank of the water than never runs dry, the water that will help us to never thirst again – this is the drinkable Spirit! Then, by our drinking of Him, we began to also feed on Him as something more solid such as the bread, the tree of life, something more substantial.
From drinking we are led to eating, and we enjoyed and experienced Christ as the wheat, the barley, the vine tree, the fig tree, the pomegranates, and the olive tree.
Then we are brought to the animal life in the good land, as seen in the milk and honey, which are a produce of the animal life and the plant life.
Beginning from drinking of Christ, we then eat Christ, and we begin to become more mature; something a little more substantial is being constituted into us, and our experience of Christ is enriched, for we enjoy Him even as milk and honey.
But this is not all; there’s still another category of riches of the land – the minerals, consisting of the stones, the iron, the mountains, and the copper (or bronze).
What do these signify? These materials of the land are not so much for our enjoyment and satisfaction but for meeting God’s need. God brought His people to the good land not just to feed them and to be satisfied with all the produce of the land, but that they would enter to possess the Land and build the temple for God’s expression and the city for the defeat His enemy.
There’s a wonderful progression, therefore, in our experience of Christ, as seen in the items of the good land and their application in our experience.
Are we in the stage of just enjoying Christ as the refreshing water that quenches our thirst, so we drink of Him? Are we only enjoying Him by eating of Him, feeding on Him, and taking Him in? These all are very good, but we need to progress.
As we eat and drink of Christ, there’s some amount of riches of Christ that is being constituted into us, but this is still primarily for us, for our satisfaction and enjoyment; how about God, His kingdom, and His house?
There has to be the experience of Christ as the minerals, the stones, the iron, the copper, the bronze, and the mountains. God’s enemy has to be defeated!
We as God’s people are brought into the good land to possess the land and establish God’s kingdom in the land and defeat God’s enemy in the land.
May the Lord be merciful to us that we would advance in our experience and enjoyment of Christ, so that we may go from just experiencing Him as the waters to experiencing Him as the plants, the vegetables, and also to the animals, and eventually as the minerals; at this stage we are engaged in the work of building and of fighting.
Experiencing Christ as the Minerals of the Good Land for God’s Building and for Battle
The stones, the iron, the mountains, and the copper of the good land mentioned in Deut. 8:7-9 are for the building and for the battle.
We need to enjoy Christ as the rich produce of the land and then continue, progress, to enjoy Him and experience Him as the stones, the mountains, and the copper for the building and for the battle.
The building and the battle always go together; if we want to have the building of God, we must be prepared to fight.
When the Lord Jesus revealed the building for the first time, when He spoke of the church, He also revealed that the gates of Hades will not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18).
Wherever the building of the church is, there will be the gates of Hades trying to knock it down. But praise the Lord, the gates of Hades shall not prevail!
If we are burdened for the building of the church, we should be prepared to be engaging in spiritual battle. We shouldn’t expect a life of ease and comfort if we are genuinely caring for God’s building.
Satan doesn’t care if we merely want to be spiritual, to work for God and do many wonderful things for God – this won’t affect him that much; Satan is afraid of God’s building.
It will be God’s building that eventually will defeat him, so wherever the building is present, Satan is there fighting. So our building the church goes hand in hand with spiritual fighting.
We see this in Neh. 4:17; when he went to rebuild the wall, as they were building, they had a weapon for fighting in one hand and a building tool in the other. As they were building, they were prepared to fight.
Similarly, in Ephesians – a book concerning the church as the building of God, this building is revealed not in the beginning but in the second part, and in Eph. 6 we see the spiritual warfare (see Eph. 2:21-22; 4:16; 6:10-20).
There needs to be some experience of Christ in the first stages so that we may be qualified to fight the spiritual warfare and build up the church.
If there’s no building among the people of God, there’s no way for us to engage in spiritual warfare.
The spiritual warfare cannot be fought by any individual believer alone, for none of us are Satan’s equal. Satan is not afraid of us as individuals, no matter how spiritual we are; Satan is afraid of the building, the Body of Christ, the builded church!
For the building of God there’s the need of our experience of Christ as the minerals, the building materials, and the weapons; these depend upon the stones, the iron, the mountains, and the copper.
We cannot build a city with pieces of bread or with flour; we do enjoy the food for our supply, but we can’t build with them. For building we need strong materials; for the building of God we must experience the strong Christ, the solid Christ.
What is Christ in our experience: is He sweet and tasty or is He also solid? There has to be some in the people of God who experience Him in a more solid way for God’s building. It is good to ask the Lord,
Lord Jesus, advance in us and take us on in our experience of Christ until we enjoy and experience You as the stones, the iron, the copper, and the mountains! May we advance in our daily enjoyment and experience of Christ from merely eating and drinking to experiencing the more solid Christ for God’s building so that we may become building materials for the church and also fight the spiritual warfare! Amen, Lord, may we see that the building and the battle always go together, and may we experience You for God’s building so that we may be prepared to fight for Your interest!
Coming to the Stone-Savior to be Transformed from Clay-men into Living Stones for God’s Building
The good land is a land whose stones are iron (Deut. 8:9); iron is mined from the stones, for iron is in stones.
The matter of the stone is very important in the Bible.
Christ is a stone for God’s building; He is the material for God’s building, and God’s building is entirely of Christ (Acts 4:10-12; 1 Pet. 2:4-5). Hallelujah, there is salvation in no other, for neither is there any name under heaven given among men in which we can be saved!
Even more, Christ as the stone was considered as nothing by the Jewish leaders, the builders, but He has become the head of the corner.
The One in whose name we can be saved is a stone; our Savior is a stone – He is a Stone-Savior. He didn’t save us just to go to heaven or to give us peace and joy; He saved us for His building! He is the stone rejected by the builders, and in His name we are saved!
Christ is the real stone for God’s building – He is the building element, the material for God’s building, and the whole building consists of stones – all of which is Christ!
Not only Christ is the living stone – we also are living stones! Peter was so impressed when the Lord Jesus changed his name from Simon to Peter (a stone), that he later to referred to this in his epistle, saying that we are living stones.
In the Bible stone is a major item (see Gen. 28:18; Zech. 3:9; 1 Pet. 2:4-5).
God created a man of clay; hence, the first man was a clay-man (Gen. 2:7). We all are men of clay put together from the dust of the ground; this is our constituent, and we are clay-men. In Christ, God Himself came to be a man, and this man was a stone-man (see Acts 4:10-12).
Jesus Christ is a stone-man, our stone-Savior. He is not weak but strong; He didn’t just come to help us get out of some problems or to help us get rid of sins – He came with a definite purpose as the Stone-Savior to make us living stones and build us up as the church, His building.
Then, at the end of the Bible we see a stone-city, the New Jerusalem (see Rev. 21:10-11, 18-20); the city of New Jerusalem is built with precious stones.
The Bible begins with a clay-man, continues with a stone-man, and consummates in a stone-city; this is God’s economy! This is so wonderful!
The Bible is all about the clay-men becoming stone-men – as we come to the Stone-Savior to become living stones – and consummating in a stone-city!
In this process there’s the need of transformation for the clay to become stones. We all as men of clay need to be transformed from clay to stone and be built up together.
Christ as a stone for God’s building is the One in whom we’re saved; He is the Stone-Savior – solid, strong, and reliable.
Our Savior is not only loving and gracious; He is a Stone-Savior, strong and solid and reliable. May we know Him not only as a loving Savior, a Savior that gives us peace and joy, but also as the stone-Savior, so strong and reliable that nothing can defeat or deter Him!
Both Christ and His believers are stones for God’s building (Matt. 21:42; John 1:42; 1 Pet. 2:4-5).
In Christ and through Christ we believers in Christ are becoming living stones to be built up as a spiritual house. Hallelujah, we are not just redeemed sinners but living stones, just as Christ is a living stone!
And daily we are undergoing the process of transformation so that Christ, the living stone, may be constituted into us to make us living stones for God’s house (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18).
Lord Jesus, we come to You, the living stone, so that we may be transformed from being clay-men into living stones constituting the stone-house of God and consummating in the stone-city, the New Jerusalem! Amen, Lord, may we experience You as our Stone-Savior, the One who is solid, strong, and reliable, the One who makes us living stones. Transform us more today, Lord, and make us more into stones that are built up as Your spiritual house! May we remain in the process of transformation so that Christ, the living stone, may be constituted into us to make us living stones for God’s house!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. James Lee for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1961-1962, vol. 4, “The All-inclusive Christ,” ch. 7, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Deuteronomy, week 4, The Goodness of the Land – Its Minerals.
- Hymns on this topic:
– In spirit while gazing on Thee, / As a glass reflecting Thy glory, / Like to Thyself transformed I’ll be, / That Thou might be expressed thru me. (Hymns #501)
– Living Stone of life art Thou, Lord, / Precious, chosen thus to be; / Living stones Thou too hast made us, / One in character with Thee. / Built together as a temple / That our God may dwell therein, / Thus we are a holy priesthood, / Offering sacrifice to Him. (Hymns #834)
– Living stones, we’re built together / And a house for God must be, / As the holy priesthood serving, / In a blessed harmony. (Hymns #913)
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