I spent all last week moving stones. In the back of our house between the drive way and the house is an area @ 10x20 feet. It was cement that had started to break up so I decided to take it out. I was thinking it was only a thin layer of cement and I started by taking out the pieces which were already broken. This area was higher than the area of the sidewalk and large retaining blocks were at the end. As I progressed I discovered that underneath the cement were huge limestone rocks cut into 1 sq ft blocks and 1x2' blocks by 6" deep. It was one of those things where you start something and you can't stop. All week I dug out and removed 63 of these limestone blocks. After that layer was about 3" of fill sand. What I want is a place to plant some bushes and flowers, so the sand had to go. Then came the process of removing sand and have finally gotten down to the good old dirt. Now I'll have to get fresh fill dirt to bring it back up to the level of the drive way.
My mind always seems to take from something physical and makes a spiritual application out of it. This morning I began to see the fruit of my labor and the spiritual significance of that physical labor became clear.
This, along with reading the Book Job, I can see spiritual significance of stones. From the stones being removed one after another from the religious temple to our heart of stone being removed by God. The cement when it was first poured was clean, smooth, and perfect but after time and things outside of it's control it began to erode and crack. I can see this is the way we are, starting with Adam who was made perfect but after time external influence came in and the perfect became imperfect. First with a small fissure then with a full blown crack. The cracks are sin and unrighteousness in our lives but when they begin they are hardly noticeable. Even as time goes on and the cracks get bigger we still have the rest of the hard cement we rely on to keep us righteous. Cracks keep coming but the cement remains in place and as long as they are in place even though cracked we still consider ourselves innocent and righteous.
God in making our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh begins His work. First He starts removing the small pieces of cracked cement and as he removes more and more of them the less cement of our own righteousness we have. He keeps chipping away at the sin (self-righteousness) in our lives with pounding of the sledge hammer and the digging out of pieces until finally the surface righteousness is removed. The covering we have protected ourselves with is gone and we are vulnerable. But this cement was only the righteousness which was visible to both us and to other people.
God doesn't stop at surface righteousness. He digs deeper and begins to chip away and remove the huge boulders deep within our hearts that we have trusted upon to keep us righteous. These boulders have been hidden deep in our hearts and have not been exposed for years upon years. One by one the stones of our religious temple and perceived innocence are removed. More and more our hardness and protection is stripped away by His competent hands until all the stones are destroyed. Then comes the fill sand. Those itty bitty pieces of stones which remain which we still trust to keep us righteous are scraped away until nothing is left. There is nothing left we can trust to keep us covered in righteousness, we are stripped bare of everything we hoped would make us righteous until there is nothing left but dirt! God completes every job he starts until every stone has been removed, even down to the last tiny bit of sand. (Phil 1:6 KJV) Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
Job and everyone whom God is making into the image of His Son goes through this stripping by God. Everything that happens to us is a constant removing of either protective surface cement, the deep and hidden huge boulders, or small bits of sand until we, like Job, repent in dust and ashes because there is nothing left we can trust to protect our righteousness or, rather, to protect the righteousness we thought we had. The digging process is complete and nothing but dirt is left.
Finally the fresh dirt is exposed which was hidden deep underneath all the protective righteousness of cement, stones and sand. But God doesn't leave us there. He brings in fill dirt! All our righteousness has been stripped away and he brings in the righteousness of Jesus Christ and fills our hearts with flesh and we become the temple of His dwelling being built upon the cornerstone of Christ's righteousness. As with Job, He restores what He has taken away but with someone and something much better. Something we could not provide for ourselves and could not even see because of the barrier of cement, stones, and sand - Jesus Christ.
(Eph 2:19 KJV) Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
(Eph 2:20 KJV) And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
