THE REJECTED STONE

And Israel's Daughters Wept Around by Rose Datoc Dall

Psalm 118:21,22: I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation. The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.

“There is none other nation on earth that would crucify their God….For should the mighty miracles be wrought among other nations they would repent and know that he be their God. But because of priestcrafts and iniquities they stiffened their necks against him and crucified Him.” ( 2 Nephi 10:3-5)

The rejection of Jesus as the Messiah came from the Jewish Council of Sanhedrin who levelled three accusations against the Saviour that led to His death:

1.      THEY CLAIMED THAT HE WAS A SINNER because He wouldn’t conform to the rabbinical laws and traditions of the elders and the convoluted law of Moses (Mark 7:1-9)

2.      THEY SAID HE WAS THE INCARNATION OF SATAN and that He performed His miracles by the power of Beelzebub (Matt 12:24-27)

3.      THEY SAID HE WAS GUILTY OF BLASPHEMY in claiming equality with God, that He said He was the Son of God and that He WAS God (John 8)

-          Bruce R. McConkie, Mortal Messiah 2, p 394-8

This is what blows my mind: the mortal life of Jesus was prophesied in such detail that it is hard to believe the Jews were so blinded that they ‘looked beyond the mark’ (Jacob 4:14) awaiting another Messiah. The mark that they looked beyond was the Saviour Jesus Christ. Among many here are some details of His mortal life contained in ancient prophecies: he would be born in Bethlehem; He would be preceded by a forerunner; His ministry would begin in Galilee; He would teach in parables; He would perform miracles; His message would be rejected; He would enter Jerusalem in triumph on the back of an ass; He would be sold for thirty pieces of silver; smitten, spat upon and rejected. And the details of His crucifixion in ancient prophecies are staggering:

-          Psalm 22:1,7-8,16-18: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”; “they pierced my hands and my feet”, and “They parted my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture”

-          Psalm 69:21: “in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”

-          Zechariah 12:10: “they shall look upon me whom they have pierced”

-          Isaiah 53:3-12: “wounded for our transgressions”, “with his stripes we are healed” and “he was numbered with the transgressors”.

All this foreknowledge could not have been given to the children of men unless it had come from God who knows all things from beginning to the end and who had revealed it to the  prophets throughout the ages by the power of the Holy Ghost.

And so Judah, the law giving branch of the House of Israel (Genesis 49:10), “despised the words of plainness” and “sought for things that they could not understand”, looked past the direct path which Christ was giving them missing what mattered the most and crucified their King (Jacob 4:14), not knowing that they sacrificed the ultimate sacrificial lamb of God that would save their souls.  

It is significant to note that the Messianic Psalm 118 begins with four verses emphasising that the Lord’s mercy ‘endureth forever’. Psalm 136 carries that theme of mercy in all 26 verses. The Lion of Judah, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, is “the stone which was set at naught of builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:10-12; Matthew 21:42; Ephesians 2:19-20; Jacob 4:15-16).

This rejected stone which the builders refused has indeed become the head stone of the corner through His mercy which will in the end “redeem Israel from all his iniquities” for He hath “chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure (Psalm 129:7,8; 15:4).

- CATHRYNE ALLEN