"And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder."
I'm just wondering what everyone thinks about this verse. I assume that the stone is Christ, so what is being broken when we "fall" on him, and what is being ground to powder when he "falls" on us?
Referring only to what God's Word says in interpreting what this verse MUST mean to a believer:
KJV--Isaiah 8:14-15---(14)And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. (15) And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.
So if I am interpret Matthew 21:44, I am assured that The Lord is saying, those who do not accept Jesus will be broken, and those who fall under His judgment will be completely pulverized!! In Jesus Name...
42Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?
43Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. 44And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
It may be just a translation thing, it's just strange to me that it talks about taking the kingdom and giving to someone else who will bear fruit, and the word "but" is used. Makes it sound like a pro/con kind of argument. Kind of like the rock/sand parable.
24 �Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.�
Your interpretation makes sense, it just kind of sounds like Jesus is talking about the conversion experience when we "fall" on him and "die to self", we must be broken before made into new creatures, etc. Maybe I'm making it too complicated.
In context (from verse 43), the word "nation" here is from the greek "ethnos" which means gentile. Hebrew for it is "goy".
He is speaking to these chief priests and Pharisees of the people (Jews), no wonder it offended them. To take the kingdom away from them and give it to a Gentile.
So it may be interpreted anyone who rejects Him to be crushed under the stone (Yeshua or Jesus) while those who receives and falls upon him to be broken before him, a people of repentance. But note that he says "whosoever" or "person", or "anyone" etc. depending on what version of scriptures you use, does not pertain to "a people", so it's anyone, Jew or Gentile.
This saying and the parables offended these priests and Pharisees on a personal level, not as a people, but individuals. They saw and understood themselves to be the ones he referred to in the parables and the ones under that stone.
Oh, on a side note... rocks and stones are different. A stone can be picked up and moved or even thrown, while a rock is a huge, unmovable object, a foundation.
I believe what is necessary to understand this section of the Word of GOD Almighty,and all of the word of GOD is to have basic knowledge of how the Word has been written,seeing that the Scriptures were not written to English speaking people.
In the Hebrewd Scriptures there are no punctuation marks,no chapter breaks,and there are no verbs.
In the Greek Scriptures there are no capitol letters,no punctuation,and no chapter breaks,these were added by those translating the Wordof GOD into the English language.
In both the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, one word may haveultiple meanings,the context will determine which definiton is the correct one.
EVERY English TRANASLATION has TRANSLATIONAL ERRORS,meaning that the English translations are not accurate,the HEBREW and GREEK Scriptures should be used to teach,and the people should have been being taught how to translate the Word of GOD from the languages it had been written into.
With that being said.
The verse Scriputre you are looking into needs the context in order to understand what Messiah is saying to the Pharisees,and to the people.
We pick up the context around verse 33,the parable ends around vese 46.
In verse 33 Messiah proclaims a parable about 'A master of a house',no name is mentioned as Messiah wants the people to think about what He is saying.Yeshua tells that the master has planted a vineyard,and placed a fence around the vineyard to seperate,the vineyard,and to protect the vineyard.The master does all the work,then He gave the vineyard to others to take care of,like He had done with Adam in the garden,Adam was to guard the garden,and all that was in the garden.Messiah says the master of the vineyard went away,after giving the vineyard to others to take care of.
Proceeding to verse 40, Messiah asks the Pharisees a question about the Master returning and what He shall do to those which had killed His Son,the heir.
The Pharisees pronounce judgement against the ones which had killed the Son of the Master,just like when Nathan had come to David and told David a story about a man having one ewe lamb,and a stranger.David pronounced judgement,which Nathan said to David that the man David judged was in fact himself. Messiah does the same thing here with the Pharisees,they proclaim judgement upon those which killed the Son of the Master,Yeshua in verses 42-43 tells the Pharisees that the Kingship of GOD will be lifted from them and given to the Gentiles.
In verses 44-45 thee is a difference between falling onto a stone,and having a stone to fall upon a person,
A person falling upon a stone may recieve a small injury,but having a stone fall upon a person will cause even more harm possibly death. Remember in verse 42 Yeshua is not talking about a little stone that one can pick up and throw,because He talk about a the stone which the BUILDERS reject,the stone Yeshua is talking about is the CORNERSTONE,whis is the most important stone when building a structure,for every measurement is taken using the corner stone for reference.If the cornerstone is not in its proper place the structure will not be built straight,or strongly.
When something falls upon a stone,it will break,or maybe only crack,the vessel which maybe repaired and have limited use,but when a stone falls upon something and crushes it,then it is good for nothing. If the crushed object is of clay,or stone,it can be used again by adding other materials to hold the crushed materials together.
