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The Wall That Wails No More
Here’s the thing: As you are about to hear in this PODCAST, at precisely 6:13 this past Monday morning, I had an epiphany.
Fact is, between last Saturday night and Monday morning, I was stymied by one perplexing question: “Here in 1 Peter 2, why in the world didn’t Peter use the word for stones that is his name? Petros?”
Or to put that another way, “Why did Peter here in 1 Peter 2 use the word for stones, Lithos?
They are, after all, synonyms—Petros and Lithos—at least in English. Both are translated “stone.” So why didn’t Peter refer to himself—and to you and me—as a Petros? Why a Lithos?
Oh, my friends, the answer to that question is breathtakingly beautiful. Beautiful indeed.
As are you!
But first, we begin by looking at 1 Peter 2:5,
And you are living stones [Lithos] that God is building into his spiritual temple.
Again… Why did Peter use the word Lithos instead of his nickname, Petros? And, I do believe that this is an important question, in that words (especially words in Scripture) are important.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (1 Timothy 3:16-17)
For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. (Matthew 5:18)
In other words, our doctrine regarding the inspiration of the Bible extends even to individual words, letters, parts of letters, and even punctuation.
So, consider this… after all the years that Peter spent in ministry, being introduced to Jesus, renamed by Jesus, following Jesus, denying Jesus, being reinstated by Jesus, then proclaiming the truth about Jesus, Peter graduated from merely a Petros to a Lithos. As are you and I, those who give God the steering wheel of our lives.
Throughout history, the Temple in Jerusalem was built for God to reside in, torn down by Israel’s enemies, rebuilt by the faithful, renovated by “Herod the Not-So-Great”, and torn down by the Romans.
Today, one of the more popular sites that still remain on the Temple Mount is known as the Western Wall, or the Wailing Wall, made of incredibly huge stones. So, when Peter referred to us as “living stones”, his point of reference was ginormous and powerful.
When these stones were first quarried, each of these ragged stones were put on a cart and transported to the Temple Mount. There was no design among them… simply huge, rough, rocks [petros].
Then, stone masons hand-carved each individual stone and transformed them into breathtakingly beautiful stones [lithos].
In the exact same way, God hand-carves and transforms each of us to reflect His glory as living stones – Lithos – as part of His spiritual temple!
“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness
and who seek the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were cut
and to the quarry from which you were hewn (Isaiah 51:1)
You were quarried (past tense) from God, and are transformed (present tense) into living stones, who reflect God’s glory!
(This podcast is by Dewey Bertolini. discovered by Christian Podcast Central and our community — copyright is owned by the publisher, not Christian Podcast Central, and audio is streamed directly from their servers.)